This July 4th holiday, let's spend a few minutes reflecting on a hard fought battle that many SOCM members have courageously led for more than a decade. Last week, we announced that our lawsuit regarding Zeb Mountain has finally been settled! Together with the Sierra Club and the Tennessee Clean Water Network (TCWN), we reached an agreement with National Coal LLC that will end National Coal's involvement in the mountaintop removal business in Tennessee. As of June 2013, National Coal must phase out all current strip mining operations in Tennessee and no new surface mining permits can be pursued in our state by National Coal!
Congratulations to all of our members and partners and allies who have worked tirelessly throughout the past decade to protect the people, community, and wildlife that surrounds Zeb Mountain!
Read the press release here.
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SOCM members have been fighting mountaintop removal coal mining at Zeb Mountain for over a decade.
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In 2002, Robert Clear Coal Corporation (RCCC) applied for a permit to open a 2,000+ acre mine on Zeb Mountain's three peaks. Just a year after mining began, the Zeb permit was transferred to National Coal. Fearing that such a large mountaintop mining operation in this steep and complex mountain environment would threaten water quality and other community resources, SOCM members in the Elk Valley community of Campbell County decided to organize opposition to the permit.
In 2003, the violations began stacking up against operations at Zeb and these violations continued. On April 10, 2006, the federal Office of Surface Mining issued a "pattern of violations" notice to National Coal for 7 hydrologic balance regulation violations in the preceding 12 months. In August 2006, after National Coal mined through two headwater streams without a permit, TDEC issued a Stop Work Order that mandated restoration of streams.
Following the violations, SOCM and other groups worked to oppose the permit renewal at Zeb in 2008. Campbell/Anderson Chapter members jumped into action by submitting written comments and requesting a public hearing to share the variety of "ills" caused by the mining in the previous years. That same year, we took our battle to the courts, filing our first lawsuit against National Coal for discharging toxic selenium from the site without a permit. Since then, we've filed subsequent lawsuits regarding Zeb Mountain for permit violations and continued to work in the community around the mountain to educate and organize the residents.
For over a decade, resilient SOCM members have fought the destruction to Zeb Mountain and the streams and community that surrounds it ... And it finally paid off!
The fight against MTR on Zeb Mountain brought E3 Committee Chair and former staffer Ann League to SOCM. Because of what happened on Zeb, Ann now does environmental justice work for a living. Below is a story shared by Ann in light of this victory!
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Ann (middle) and SOCM members lobbying against MTR in Washington, DC, last year.
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In 1999, my spouse equivalent, Jeff, and I bought 25 acres in the beautiful Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee. We loved exploring the trails and back roads in the Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area next to our property. In 2000, we started building our dream house on the property and spending even more time exploring the areas around our new mountain home. One day while in the back woods near our house we came across two truckloads of men looking over a wooded section of mountain. I could tell they were not out recreating so I asked them what they were doing. They replied that they were checking out an area that was in danger of being strip mined by mountaintop removal. The people in those trucks were SOCM members Charles Blankenship, Marv Ellis and others from the Campbell/Anderson Chapter. That permit application was for the second largest surface mining permit in the state, Zeb Mountain in Campbell County.
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Per the settlement, National Coal will cease operation at three sites - Zeb Mountain, Mine 14, and Jordan Ridge (pictured) refuse disposal area.
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Jeff and I were devastated. This was very close to our property and would be most of the view from our deck and would endanger countless streams and seeps in the watershed. I knew nothing about mountaintop removal coal mining. I reached out to the group the men in the trucks were with, a local citizens group called SOCM. I started learning all I could about surface mining and water quality. Three months after the mining started on Zeb Mountain our well water turned orange. We couldn't drink it or use it for much of anything. We had to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking, but we were forced to use the polluted well water to bathe and do laundry. All of our white and light colored clothing turned orange with a permanent stain. As the mining on Zeb Mountain progressed we noticed the local streams start to change for the worse. Streams that before the mining were good and viable with healthy aquatic life, minnows and bug larvae, were now slowly dying. The streams were being choked by sediment and poisoned by toxic run off from the mine.
Jeff and I had to make a hard decision. We decided to leave our mountain home. We fought hard to try and protect our land and water, but we could not afford the cost of bad water and lowered property values. We moved from our beautiful mountain home but my heart is still there in the beautiful Cumberland Mountains.
Ann continues her work to end mountaintop removal and protect our communities from devastating extraction methods through many avenues, one of which is as the Chair of SOCM's E3 Committee. To join the fight and work alongside Ann and other members to end this devastating practice, consider attending the next E3 Committee meeting to be held in Crossville on July 20th. Contact organizer Parker Laubach (parker@socm.org; 865-249-7488) for more information.
To support our members in their fight to end mountaintop removal and protect their communities,
click here to make a tax-deductible donation.
