[act-ma] Take Action: Tell the President - Mountaintop removal mining is destroying Appalachia

[Greg Fuller]

*Tell the President: Mountaintop removal mining is destroying Appalachia!*
  [image: Click here to visit the Stop Mountaintop Removal
homepage]<http://www.stopmountaintopremoval.org/>

Tell the President: Mountaintop removal mining is destroying
Appalachia!<http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/MTR_Obama_Alert_Mar_2009/ii5nes6207n7t7dk?>
    [image: Take action today! Photo of mountaintop removal aftermath. Photo
courtesy of Mark
Schmerling.]<http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/MTR_Obama_Alert_Mar_2009/ii5nes6207n7t7dk?>
 Save Appalachia. Stop mountaintop
removal.<http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/MTR_Obama_Alert_Mar_2009/ii5nes6207n7t7dk?>

Dear Friend,

They blew the top off West Virginia's Cherry Pond Mountain a few weeks ago,
and pushed it into streambeds to get the coal. Appalling? Yes. But hundreds
of thousands of acres of mountains and forests and more than 2,000 miles of
streams have already been destroyed by this vicious form of strip mining.

What makes Cherry Pond different is the timing.

Cherry Pond is just the most recent victim of mountaintop removal mining. A
panel of federal judges *may turn dynamiters loose across Appalachia*. On
February 13, they ruled against our coalition and said: *The Clean Water
Act—as written—won't protect streams in this ancient mountain range*.

About 100 mountaintop removal mining permits were on hold pending this case.
The ruling potentially opens the floodgates for more destruction in
Appalachia. These permits will destroy 432 valleys and 213 miles of streams
in Kentucky and West Virginia alone. *We need your help to change the rules
and silence the explosions*.

Tell President Obama to prevent this irreversible destruction and work
quickly to undo changes in Clean Water Act rules that allow industries to
bury streams and other waters under their wastes by calling it "fill"
material.

Mountaintop removal mining *destroys entire forests* and *threatens nearby
communities* with floods and poisoned drinking water. It's been described by
locals as "*strip mining on steroids*." *No one should ever again have to
hear the sound of a mountain torn apart by mountaintop removal mining, with
coal companies bent on quick profit whatever the cost.*

Thirty-six years ago, a coal slurry impoundment dam in Logan County, West
Virginia burst, sending 132 million gallons of black water into Buffalo
Creek Hollow, killing 125 people, injuring 1,121 and leaving over 4,000
people homeless. The tragedy made abundantly clear the dangers of allowing
coal companies to sacrifice Appalachian headwater streams as garbage dumps
for their industrial waste.

But the court says current law does not stop them. So, please, join with us.
Ask President Obama to undo rule changes to the Clean Water Act and end the
Bush administration's attack on our mountain
communities.<http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/MTR_Obama_Alert_Mar_2009?rk=GdM_wDnqc1_yW>Act
quickly—because once the mountaintops and headwater streams are gone,
they're gone for good.

Sincerely,

Greg Fuller

Your friends at Stop Mountaintop Removal
www.stopmountaintopremoval.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://act-ma.org/pipermail/act-ma_act-ma.org/attachments/20090305/10dc01ab/attachment.html>