W.Va. mining fight tests EPA’s regulatory resolve

On Inauguration Day, the EPA began a crackdown on "peak coal gunung''tambang. 175 Institute has researched the proposed mine, where the top will blow off and the valleys filled with rubble. It has been signed by at only 48.

EPA officials say they simply follow the law. That, they said, means to keep pollutants out of the watershed.

But for many people in Appalachia, ordered out of Washington has appeared contradictory and mysterious. Environment was not happy because they fear losing federal officials the courage to take a strong coal industry. And the coal industry was not happy because he thinks the administration on the verge of surrender to the green crowd.

EPA found himself in the midst of the fiercest in America today, facing early test of determination and political skill. Particular institution appear to bear the burden of implementing many of Obama's historic environment agenda.

The latest sign that the fear came recently in an auditorium at the University of Charleston. A dispute between coal company and environmental chief executive Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who attracted more than 1,000 people divided between the two sides, has a tight security.

"EPA today, who would not give permission for any for any reason... They will be that people their jobs and the cost of homeland security weaken,''said Don Blankenship, chairman and chief executive of Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy , a major player in the mountaintop mining. In the audience, cheering coal miners.

Mountaintop mining, also known as "mountaintop removal,''is an exclusive Appalachian practice has gained momentum in the last 20 years. To get the coal seams are too thin or too close to the surface accessible to tunneling, miners use explosives and machine - large machine to remove the top of the coal.

In most cases, the law requires companies to rebuild the mountain to its original form. But the ruins are usually left in the valleys near. There, the scientists said, the rain water seeping in over the rocks which had been far below the ground. Which can release trace amount of salt and toxic metals.

EPA officials said they are not out to rule out completely the mountaintop mining - recently they have agreed to permit the West Virginia mine after a change in the company promised to reduce its impact on the flow by nearly 50 percent. But for many environmental and coal industry leaders, the EPA action was uncertain. to complate visite : www.boston.com