Tensions shroud Kentucky hearing on mountaintop mining

Dori Hjalmarson | Lexington Herald-Leader

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- Crowds are expected and tensions are high in the Eastern Kentucky coal field surrounding a public hearing on changes to a 1982 federal regulation allowing streams to be filled with dirt and rock leftover from mountaintop mining.

"Although its scale and efficiency has enabled the mining of once-inaccessible coal seams, this mining practice often stresses the natural environment and impacts the health and welfare of surrounding human communities," says a June 11 memorandum of understanding between the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Corps of Engineers will be hearing public comments at 7 p.m. at the 7,000-seat Eastern Kentucky Expo Center about its proposal to eliminate the use of the Nationwide Permit for coal mining in six Appalachian states: Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Read the complete story at kentucky.com

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