Dead and deformed fish in surrounding streams are a consequence of selenium pollution from mountaintop coal mining, which is causing permanent damage to the environment and poses serious health risks, says Dennis Lemly, a professor of biology.

Selenium pollution affects fish first, so they are the best barometer for understanding the threat to ecosystems downstream from mountaintop removal mining operations, says Lemly, who advocates a ban on the process. His research found toxic levels of selenium in 73 of 78 stream samples.

Lemly was part of a team of 12 ecologists and engineers who provided the first comprehensive analysis of damage done by mountaintop removal mining. In Washington, he and his colleagues will also share their research with representatives of the EPA and the President’s Council on Environmental Quality.

High levels of selenium threaten fish survival; contaminated fish that do survive and reproduce have offspring with serious birth defects, such as crooked spines and deformed heads. They cannot survive and reproduction will fail, Lemly says. He warns the fish population could be wiped out – and that’s not all.

“I specialize in fish, but that is only one part of the overall picture,” Lemly says, “Public health is also an issue with mountaintop removal mining.”

The threat is expanding as this destructive process expands, Lemly says – and mountaintop removal mining has doubled in the past eight years. Once an ecosystem is polluted, the environmental damage is permanent.

– Suzanne Bopp

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1. Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining, Scientists Say
2. Hundreds Protest Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
3. Mountaintop Removal Protests at EPA Offices in D.C. and Several States

The report, “Coal’s Assault on Human Health,” looks at the impact of coal pollution on the major organ systems of the human body and also considers coal’s contribution to global warming and the health implications of that (including declining food production, water shortages, heat stroke).

Pollutants from coal combustion – nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter – affect all major body organ systems and contribute to heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory diseases, the report found.

Combustion exacts the greatest tolls, but the report finds health impacts at every stage in the coal life cycle. Coal mining leads U.S. industries in fatal injuries and is associated with chronic health problems among miners. Communities near coal mines may be adversely affected by blasting, washing, leakage from slurry ponds, the collapse of abandoned mines and damage to streams and waterways . Slurry injected underground can release arsenic, barium, lead and manganese into nearby wells, contaminating local drinking water supplies; toxic residues have migrated into water supplies at dozens of coal ash dump sites.

“These stark conclusions leave no room for doubt or delay,” said Kristen Welker-Hood, SCD MSN RN, PSR’s director of environment and health programs. “The time has come for our nation to establish a health-driven energy policy that replaces our dependence on coal with clean, safe alternatives. Business as usual is extracting a deadly price on our health. Coal is no longer an option.”

– Suzanne Bopp

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1. Report Examines Hidden Costs of Energy
2. Environmental Groups File Federal Lawsuit Over Alaskan Coal Pile
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Those are some of the findings of the National Academies’ congressionally mandated study called Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use.

The report assesses what economists call external effects caused by various energy sources over their entire life cycle: not only the pollution generated when gasoline is used to run a car but the pollution created by extracting and refining oil and transporting fuel to gas stations. These effects are not reflected in energy prices, so consumers may not realize the full impact of their choices.

The study looked at, and gave a conservative estimates to key externalities from electricity and transportation: They estimated those came to $120 billion in the U.S. in 2005, a number that reflects primarily health damages from air pollution. The figure does not include damages from climate change, harm to ecosystems, effects of some air pollutants such as mercury and risks to national security (which the report considers but does not monetize).

Key findings include:

-       A few coal-fired plants — 10 percent of the total number — accounted for 43 percent of the damages.

-       Burning natural gas generated far less damage than coal, both overall and per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated.

-       A sample of 498 natural gas fueled plants, which accounted for 71 percent of gas-generated electricity, produced $740 million in total nonclimate damages in 2005, an average of 0.16 cents per kwh.

-       Life-cycle CO2 emissions from nuclear, wind, biomass and solar power appear to be negligible when compared with fossil fuels.

-       Transportation, which today relies almost exclusively on oil, accounts for nearly 30 percent of U.S. energy demand.

-       In 2005 motor vehicles produced $56 billion in health and other nonclimate-related damages.

-       Damages per vehicle mile traveled were remarkably similar among various combinations of fuels and technologies — the range was 1.2 cents to about 1.7 cents per mile traveled.

-       Nonclimate-related damages for corn grain ethanol were similar to or slightly worse than gasoline, because of the energy needed to produce the corn and convert it to fuel.

-        Ethanol made from herbaceous plants or corn stover (not yet commercially available) had lower damages than most other options.

- Suzanne Bopp

Related posts:

1. Report: Coal Pollution Damages Human Health at Every Stage of Coal Life Cycle
2. Florida Coal Plant Gets Cancelled
3. Eleven North Carolina Coal Plants to Close