By including environmental justice -- a top priority for EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson -- as a factor, activists hope to highlight the practice’s negative impact on poor people. That could boost public opposition to the practice and aid their fight to block mining permits. That could also help overcome industry's claim that environmentalists are only interested in protecting aquatic life at the expense of shutting down the mining industry, sources say.

Nevertheless, the National Mining Association (NMA) in a statement condemns the petition and says that mining acts as an "economic engine" to the benefit of the poor communities at issue.

The Sierra Club and other activist groups filed an Oct. 5 petition with EPA, claiming the environmental effects of mountaintop mining are disproportionately impacting the rural poor in Appalachia. They want EPA to incorporate environmental justice considerations into its review of Clean Water Act (CWA) mountaintop mining permits, including performing research on the practices' impacts on human health and the environment.

EPA has preliminarily found that all 79 mountaintop mine permits that agency officials have been reviewing may violate the CWA, announcing that heightened scrutiny and stronger control and mitigation provisions will likely be necessary before the permits can move forward (Superfund Report, Sept. 21). Environmentalists are now pushing to have equity be an additional factor for the agency to weigh before making a final determination.

"We urge EPA to address its responsibility to protect the low income communities of Appalachia and to use its authorities now because, after decades of economic exploitation by out-of-state corporate interests, our communities remain low-income with high poverty levels and are rapidly losing natural resources," the petition says.

The group asks EPA to define the Appalachian Mountain region of southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia, eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee as an environmental justice community due to their vulnerability to the ongoing risks from mountaintop mining.

In mountaintop mining, operators blast the tops off of mountains with heavy explosives to get at coal seams underneath. The practice has prompted broad concern from activists and others because the waste rock is then "discharged" in valley fills using CWA section 404 permits, obliterating streams and harming water quality. Communities surrounding valley fills have also faced property damage due to the practice.

The petition says that EPA must address the Appalachian states an "an environmental justice area of concern" in the ongoing permit reviews, as required by Executive Order 12898. That order generally requires agencies to consider environmental justice issues in their decision-making processes.

Environmentalists claim that to date EPA has not followed the order in addressing the impacts of mountaintop mining on environmental justice communities. They want the agency to: create an environmental justice plan for the region to address the practice's impacts on poor, rural communities; incorporate environmental justice considerations into the agency's ongoing CWA review of the 79 mountaintop mining permits; establish greater opportunities for public involvement regarding mountaintop mining; and take several other steps.

(SUPERFUND REPORT - 10/19/09)