By Jim Efstathiou Jr.
April 23 -- A U.S. crackdown on mountaintop mining in Appalachia may force coal producers to rely increasingly on underground sites such as the Massey Energy Co. mine where 29 workers were killed this month in West Virginia.
Four days before the April 5 accident, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued water-pollution guidelines making it difficult for operators to secure permits for new above-ground mining in the region. Explosions used in surface mining produce millions of tons of crushed shale and sandstone that is dumped into nearby valleys and streams.
The government’s effort to protect water quality will curb the growth of mountaintop mining, with the unintended consequence that more workers will be sent into tunnels where the risks of death and injury are greater, according to Bob Ferriter, senior mine-safety professional at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.
“In my experience with EPA, they are so fixated on water quality, air quality, that sort of thing, I don’t think they look at worker safety at all,” Ferriter said in an interview. “I doubt that’s even been a consideration.”
The EPA decision affects above-ground mining in West Virginia, Kentucky and six other states in the eastern U.S. The agency declined to comment specifically on a possible increase in underground mining and the safety implications of its ruling.
“Decisions about future coal production and mining practices are based on a variety of factors, including coal prices, mining costs, the nature of reserves, and type of coal,” Enesta Jones, an EPA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
Sierra Club’s Stance
The Sierra Club has campaigned to end mountaintop mining, which the San Francisco-based environmental group calls the most environmentally damaging way to extract the fuel. The EPA’s water-pollution guidelines mean mountaintop removal is coming to an end in Appalachia, said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.
“Switching from one type of mining to the other isn’t really the problem” that puts miners at risk, Brune said in an April 15 interview. “The lack of effective oversight is the problem.”
President Barack Obama, who plans to attend an April 25 memorial for the West Virginia victims, criticized Massey and ordered a review of industry safety violations in the wake of the explosion at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal. It was the worst U.S. coal-mine disaster in 40 years.
Massey defended its safety standards in a statement on April 15 that said Obama “has been misinformed” about the company’s record and about the industry. Investigators from the Mine Safety and Health Administration are still trying to determine the cause of the blast.
Deaths More Likely
Deaths in coal mining occurred at almost six times the rate for all private industry in 2007, the most recent year for which complete information is available, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Within the mining industry, deaths are more than twice as likely when coal is produced by tunneling compared with surface mining, in which mountaintops are often blasted away to expose the fuel, according to the bureau. Of 28 fatalities at U.S. coal mines in 2007, 20 were at underground sites.
“Underground is more dangerous for the workers,” Michael Hendryx, an associate professor of community medicine at West Virginia University in Morgantown who studies the health of rural populations like mining communities, said in an interview. “If there’s a bigger shift to underground, it’s going to become more important to enforce worker-safety regulations.”
‘Hyper-Regulatory Environment’
Donald Blankenship, chief executive officer of Richmond, Virginia-based Massey, cited the prospect of government restrictions on mountaintop removal when his company said in March it would buy Cumberland Resources Corp. for $960 million in cash and stock. The deal will increase Massey’s production from underground mines, Blankenship said on a March 17 conference call with analysts.
“The acquisition will also reduce our exposure to surface mining,” Blankenship, 60, said. “This focus on underground production can be a key advantage in the current hyper- regulatory environment.”
Before acquiring Cumberland, just over half of Massey’s production came from surface mines, up from 34 percent in 2000, according to company filings. Nationally, more than 800,000 tons of coal was produced at surface mines in 2008, more than double the total from tunneling, according to the Energy Department.
“There’s no question that the government’s policy against surface mining, which is aimed at protecting aquatic life, is going to force companies to mine coal underground, which is more costly and more difficult,” said Jeremy Sussman, an analyst at Brean Murray Carret & Co. in New York.
Patriot Coal’s Hedge
After Patriot Coal Corp. completed the purchase of closely held Magnum Coal Co. in 2008 for about $559 million in stock, Chief Executive Officer Richard Whiting said Magnum’s underground reserves would help serve as a hedge “if we have difficulty on the surface side.”
“To the extent that companies may be finding it harder to get surface-mining permits in Appalachia, some are relying more upon underground assets,” said Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based National Mining Association. “Certainly the underground environment poses additional challenges. There has to be extra attention paid to safety.”
Rainwater flowing through the debris from mountaintop mining carries dissolved metals into waters below, a potentially harmful mix for humans and wildlife, the EPA says. The agency’s April 1 announcement aims to reduce debris that may pollute mountain waters.
Arch Coal’s Permit
The month before the EPA’s ruling, the agency proposed to veto Arch Coal Inc.’s permit to dump mining debris at a site in Logan County, West Virginia. The operation, originally issued a permit in 2007, would bury more than 7 miles of streams and threaten 2,278 acres of forests, the EPA said.
The EPA recently approved permits for several surface- mining projects in Appalachia and expects to continue to do so where such projects are consistent with clean-water regulations, Jones, the spokeswoman, said.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aHpno8vj87IY&pid=20601087
April 23 -- A U.S. crackdown on mountaintop mining in Appalachia may force coal producers to rely increasingly on underground sites such as the Massey Energy Co. mine where 29 workers were killed this month in West Virginia.
Four days before the April 5 accident, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued water-pollution guidelines making it difficult for operators to secure permits for new above-ground mining in the region. Explosions used in surface mining produce millions of tons of crushed shale and sandstone that is dumped into nearby valleys and streams.
The government’s effort to protect water quality will curb the growth of mountaintop mining, with the unintended consequence that more workers will be sent into tunnels where the risks of death and injury are greater, according to Bob Ferriter, senior mine-safety professional at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.
“In my experience with EPA, they are so fixated on water quality, air quality, that sort of thing, I don’t think they look at worker safety at all,” Ferriter said in an interview. “I doubt that’s even been a consideration.”
The EPA decision affects above-ground mining in West Virginia, Kentucky and six other states in the eastern U.S. The agency declined to comment specifically on a possible increase in underground mining and the safety implications of its ruling.
“Decisions about future coal production and mining practices are based on a variety of factors, including coal prices, mining costs, the nature of reserves, and type of coal,” Enesta Jones, an EPA spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.
Sierra Club’s Stance
The Sierra Club has campaigned to end mountaintop mining, which the San Francisco-based environmental group calls the most environmentally damaging way to extract the fuel. The EPA’s water-pollution guidelines mean mountaintop removal is coming to an end in Appalachia, said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.
“Switching from one type of mining to the other isn’t really the problem” that puts miners at risk, Brune said in an April 15 interview. “The lack of effective oversight is the problem.”
President Barack Obama, who plans to attend an April 25 memorial for the West Virginia victims, criticized Massey and ordered a review of industry safety violations in the wake of the explosion at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal. It was the worst U.S. coal-mine disaster in 40 years.
Massey defended its safety standards in a statement on April 15 that said Obama “has been misinformed” about the company’s record and about the industry. Investigators from the Mine Safety and Health Administration are still trying to determine the cause of the blast.
Deaths More Likely
Deaths in coal mining occurred at almost six times the rate for all private industry in 2007, the most recent year for which complete information is available, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Within the mining industry, deaths are more than twice as likely when coal is produced by tunneling compared with surface mining, in which mountaintops are often blasted away to expose the fuel, according to the bureau. Of 28 fatalities at U.S. coal mines in 2007, 20 were at underground sites.
“Underground is more dangerous for the workers,” Michael Hendryx, an associate professor of community medicine at West Virginia University in Morgantown who studies the health of rural populations like mining communities, said in an interview. “If there’s a bigger shift to underground, it’s going to become more important to enforce worker-safety regulations.”
‘Hyper-Regulatory Environment’
Donald Blankenship, chief executive officer of Richmond, Virginia-based Massey, cited the prospect of government restrictions on mountaintop removal when his company said in March it would buy Cumberland Resources Corp. for $960 million in cash and stock. The deal will increase Massey’s production from underground mines, Blankenship said on a March 17 conference call with analysts.
“The acquisition will also reduce our exposure to surface mining,” Blankenship, 60, said. “This focus on underground production can be a key advantage in the current hyper- regulatory environment.”
Before acquiring Cumberland, just over half of Massey’s production came from surface mines, up from 34 percent in 2000, according to company filings. Nationally, more than 800,000 tons of coal was produced at surface mines in 2008, more than double the total from tunneling, according to the Energy Department.
“There’s no question that the government’s policy against surface mining, which is aimed at protecting aquatic life, is going to force companies to mine coal underground, which is more costly and more difficult,” said Jeremy Sussman, an analyst at Brean Murray Carret & Co. in New York.
Patriot Coal’s Hedge
After Patriot Coal Corp. completed the purchase of closely held Magnum Coal Co. in 2008 for about $559 million in stock, Chief Executive Officer Richard Whiting said Magnum’s underground reserves would help serve as a hedge “if we have difficulty on the surface side.”
“To the extent that companies may be finding it harder to get surface-mining permits in Appalachia, some are relying more upon underground assets,” said Carol Raulston, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based National Mining Association. “Certainly the underground environment poses additional challenges. There has to be extra attention paid to safety.”
Rainwater flowing through the debris from mountaintop mining carries dissolved metals into waters below, a potentially harmful mix for humans and wildlife, the EPA says. The agency’s April 1 announcement aims to reduce debris that may pollute mountain waters.
Arch Coal’s Permit
The month before the EPA’s ruling, the agency proposed to veto Arch Coal Inc.’s permit to dump mining debris at a site in Logan County, West Virginia. The operation, originally issued a permit in 2007, would bury more than 7 miles of streams and threaten 2,278 acres of forests, the EPA said.
The EPA recently approved permits for several surface- mining projects in Appalachia and expects to continue to do so where such projects are consistent with clean-water regulations, Jones, the spokeswoman, said.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=aHpno8vj87IY&pid=20601087
Comments
Post a Comment