A victory in court for the Earth v. Big Coal
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Posted on June 14, 2007
Filed Under Justice, Ecological hope, Environmental disasters
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
It feels good to offer a bit of news filled with ecological hope. Today, a federal judge ruled “that the practice of using settling ponds to remove sediment from streams at mountaintop removal coal mines violates the Clean Water Act.” (AP).
You can read about this legal victory at the website for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in West Virginia, one of the plaintiffs in the suit. Earlier this year, the judge, Robert C. Chambers, ruled that the US Army Corps of Engineers violated federal law by allowing four mountaintopping coal mine operations without determining their environmental impact.
Little by little, as more people find out about what is happening in the Applachian Mountains, victories like this can be won. Raising consciousness is urgent if we are going to stop this practice, which has already destroyed so much of the beauty of the Applachians
Very happy to report this good news today. 
Let’s remind ourselves that our demand for electricity fuels this industry. It is up to us and our policy-makers to reinvent the way we get energy to support our lives. We have to wean ourselves from destructive fossil fuels. It will be hard, but we can do it.
Technorati Tags: mountaintopping, coal mining, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, settling ponds
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