- Larry Schraut, farmer, explaining his concerns about a new underground mine during our recent coal tour.
This winter’s frigid weather may have kept people indoors, but it didn’t stop citizen groups across Illinois fighting coal pollution from working hard to protect their water, land and communities.
Stand Up To Coal, Vermilion County
www.standuptocoal.org
On March 8th, 2011, farmers and rural residents from the voluntary association Stand Up To Coal took their effort to preserve clean water and prime farmland from a proposed coal mine to the Vermilion County Board.
Supporters from the area where Sunrise Coal, LLC is buying up coal leases boarded a charter bus to attend the meeting. Speakers Kevin Block and Charles Goodall detailed existing damage in other Illinois communities caused by coal mining, toxic coal slurry and coal ash waste disposal, and called on the Board to take strong action to halt threats from new coal mining to the county’s economic and natural resources.
Prairie Rivers Network helped Stand Up to Coal members “think outside the box” when approaching the Vermilion County Board, in order to counter Board member arguments that their hands are tied because Vermilion County has no zoning regulations.
“Even without zoning regulations, the Vermilion County Board has opportunities to protect the resources of the county,” explains Water Resources Scientist Traci Barkley. “Illinois law authorizes county boards to support county water commissions, control and regulate refuse and waste, prevent water pollution and take groundwater protection measures to protect a public drinking water supply. Further, they can declare their intention to protect the county’s land, water and community health by adopting a resolution while barring subsidies to the coal industry.”
Prairie Rivers Network also helped Stand Up To Coal members reach out to the press, ensuring that the Board meeting was covered by the local media, and shared information on possible negative impacts of coal mining on water and land.
Unfortunately, the Board has failed to take any action so far, but Stand Up to Coal members are committed to continue working with them and with municipal governments to protect clean water and community health in Vermilion County.
Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues, Fulton County
www.savecantonlake.com
As they await word from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Mines and Minerals on their request for an administrative review of the North Canton Mine Permit, members of Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues (CACEI) have been busy building public understanding of and support for their group’s mission to protect Canton Lake from strip mining impacts.
An administrative review hearing is the first step in a legal challenge to North Canton Mine’s permit to operate. The mine would discharge polluted waste water into Copperas Creek just over a mile upstream of Canton Lake, which is a drinking water source for 20,000 people. Meanwhile, CACEI is remaining active to keep the movement strong while they await the next major strategic move.
In February, CACEI hosted a presentation from award-winning author Jeff Biggers (Reckoning at Eagle Creek, The United States of Appalachia). The event drew nearly 60 local residents and stimulated a lively discussion afterwards about the need to move beyond coal while ensuring that employment opportunities from clean energy alternatives like wind, solar and efficiency reach rural Illinois communities.
This March, Prairie Rivers Network and Illinois Sierra Club’s Dr. Cindy Skrukrud trained CACEI’s team of volunteers to test the waters of Copperas Creek upstream and downstream of the proposed mine and Canton Lake itself. Volunteers completed a successful initial monitoring trip and reported abundant wildlife in Copperas Creek, including mink, mollusks, crayfish and schools of juvenile fish.
Finally, Prairie Rivers Network is helping CACEI members keep a watchful eye on the upcoming water pollution permit hearing for the Industry Mine in neighboring McDonough County. On April 12, Illinois EPA held a hearing on that mine’s water pollution permit renewal – this is the same mine that has over 300 Clean Water Act violations stretching back to 2004. CACEI members are especially concerned because the proposed North Canton Mine was designed by the same engineer who designed the Industry Mine.
Citizens Against Longwall Mining, Montgomery County
www.citizensagainstlongwallmining.org
In central Illinois, Citizens Against Longwall Mining (CALM) was hard at work, along with Prairie Rivers Network and other Heartland Coalfield Alliance members, making preparations for their Central Illinois Coalfields Tour on March 26th. CALM members and concerned local residents were on hand to explain the history and impacts of existing coal mining in Macoupin and Montgomery Counties. Tour participants viewed Deer Run Mine’s massive coal processing plant and its coal storage piles from the new Hillsboro Area Hospital, located just 600 feet away. CALM members showed participants the area near Hillsboro slated to be undermined by the Deer Run longwall machine, including numerous places where houses have been torn down in anticipation of mine-induced subsidence. Attendees also saw miles of headwater streams and thousands of acres of farmland that CALM members believe will be irreparably damaged by mining operations.
CALM is also making preparations to turn out citizens for Illinois EPA’s upcoming public hearing on April 27th for the Shay I Mine’s water pollution permit, a mine with a documented history of surface and groundwater pollution from decades of slurry disposal. Shay I has recently been purchased by a subsidiary of the Cline Group, an Appalachian mining company that is shifting its activities to Illinois. The mine operators are ramping up production, raising concerns about additional coal waste disposal.
Prairie Rivers Network is helping CALM members prepare their messages for Illinois EPA at the hearing: existing coal pollution at the mine must be cleaned up and advanced treatment put in place to ensure that continued operations protect clean water.
