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A look at a potentially explosive divide over Appalachian gas pipeline and coal ash contamination concerns
Amid energy policy debates, a battle over a natural gas pipeline in Appalachia
When developers first approached West Virginia farmer Maury Johnson in 2015 seeking to bury part of a 303-mile-long natural gas pipeline on his property, Johnson was not eager to comply. But with eminent domain laws giving Johnson few options to oppose the move, developers began construction a few hundred feet from his house in 2018.
It didn’t take long for Johnson to determine that the project was going to be a problem. Developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project did not appear to be taking into consideration the nature of the area terrain, blasting the fragile landscape without regard for the underground caves, sinkholes, and natural springs that characterize the region.
Johnson is among a contingent of critics who have come to view the MVP as a dire threat to the health of their Appalachian communities. They have a range of fears, including the potential contamination of air, water and soil with toxic chemicals used in the project.
One particular concern is the fact that some scientists see the pipeline as uniquely dangerous: Because it snakes through highly unstable soils in landslide-prone mountain terrain, the pipeline could break and potentially explode, the critics warn.
Among those championing the pipeline is US Sen. Joe Manchin, who has proposed legislation that supports completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. With Republicans taking control of the US House of Representatives in the new year, some observers say the pipeline could be aided by an energy and environment package the House hopes to pass as early as January 2023.
(Read the rest of the story at The New Lede.)
“Flagrant environmental injustice”- groups petition EPA over coal ash pollution
Seven years after US regulators set what were supposed to be strict rules for the disposal of coal ash – a toxic mix of metals such as arsenic and lead generated by coal-burning power plants – the vast majority of coal power plants are continuing to allow coal ash contamination of groundwater at levels considered unsafe, according to environmental advocacy groups.
Roughly half a billion tons of coal ash at 300 sites across around the United States are exempt from “life-saving health protections,” according to a petition several advocacy groups planned to deliver Thursday to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The petition calls on the agency to update regulations to include the complete closure and cleanup of legacy coal ash landfills and to take “aggressive enforcement against violators.” The petition specifically cites coal ash waste impacting communities in Indiana and Illinois. In addition to the organizations that signed on, the petition received nearly 2,000 citizen signatures.
“We want communities to know exactly what’s happening at their power plant. Much of it is very concerning and very damning,” said Lisa Evans, an attorney at Earthjustice, one of the lead groups petitioning the EPA.
About 200 coal ash waste sites identified in a report issued last month by Earthjustice and Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) are “dangerously close to groundwater,” and 70% of those sites are located in communities whose populations are either majority low-income, and/or non-white, making the cleanup of coal ash waste an environmental justice issue, Evans said.
(Read the rest of the story at The New Lede.)
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