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Erin Savage

While Erin prefers to be on rivers rather than at a desk, as our Central Appalachian Program Manager she devotes a lot of time delving through data to make it meaningful to others who care about the health of our waterways.

Realities on the Ground in the West Virginia Water Crisis

Wednesday, January 29th, 2014 | Posted by Erin Savage | 4 Comments

I checked Facebook early on the morning of January 9th, cursing my mild addiction to social media, and was suddenly glad that I had. I saw a news report of a chemical spill in Charleston, W.Va., which I quickly emailed to the rest of the staff at Appalachian Voices. I then packed a bag anticipating the potential to be gone for several days. I knew as little about what I might be doing through my work with Appalachian Water Watch as I did about what exactly had happened in Charleston. [ Read More ]

Changing Tides of Collaboration in Central Appalachia

Tuesday, December 24th, 2013 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments

For more than 15 years, Appalachian Voices has worked to protect the air, land and water of Central Appalachia. We do this work because the protection of the place we live is integral to the health, happiness and prosperity of our communities. We do this work for the benefit of all people in Central Appalachia. Despite this, we often feel bogged down in contentious rhetoric that pits “treehuggers” against “friends of coal.” We often must spend all our time dealing with problems -- water pollution, dust problems and violations of existing laws -- when we’d much rather focus on collaboration and finding solutions.

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Mapping Forest Change in Mountaintop Removal

Wednesday, November 20th, 2013 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments

Researchers at the University of Maryland have just released the first high-resolution map of global forest change in the 21st century. University of Maryland Professor of Geographical Sciences Matthew Hansen and his team published “High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change” in the scientific journal Science last week. The project uses Landsat data, satellite imagery collected by the United States Geological Survey. A Google Earth Engine team created the map through high performance processing of geospatial data, to complete a time-series analysis of over 650,000 images to characterize forest extent and change between 2000 and 2012.

The online map provides imagery in a series of colors to document forest loss and gain. The accompanying article covers some expected and well known trends – deforestation of portions of the tropics from timber harvest and clearing for agriculture, as well as forest change in boreal forests from forest fire. Overall, the world lost 2.3 million square kilometers of forest between 2000 and 2012, but gained 800,000 square kilometers elsewhere, for a net loss of 1.5 million square kilometers.

The researchers noted one prominent trend in the United States: the disturbance rate of forests in the Southeast was 4 times that of the South American rainforest. In this case “disturbance rate” includes both the loss and regrowth of forest. Several factors may contribute to this high rate of change. In several Southeastern states, pine plantations are grown and harvested on relatively short cycles – more like other crops than natural forest. Another reason for the high rate of change may be mountaintop removal coal mining.
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EPA Helps Kentucky Roll Back Water Quality Protections

Friday, November 15th, 2013 | Posted by Erin Savage | 3 Comments

Above are blue gills that were collected below the site of TVA’s 2008 Kingston Coal Ash spill. They all have “pop-eye”, a deformity caused by selenium pollution where their eyes bulge out of their heads. These fish had selenium levels of 2.5-6.5ppm, well below Kentucky’s newly accepted standard of 8.6 ppm for fish tissue.

Just today, after several months of delays, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced its decisions on the Kentucky Department of Water’s (DOW) amendments to the Kentucky Water Quality Regulations. Unfortunately, the EPA has approved substantive changes to the selenium freshwater chronic standard that will not adequately protect aquatic life and will be difficult, if not impossible to enforce at mountaintop removal coal mining sites throughout eastern Kentucky.

In theory, states review their water quality standards every three years in an effort to make sure these standards are up-to-date with current science and are protective of aquatic life. In some cases, however, the review becomes an opportunity for special interests to influence state agencies. This year, under pressure from the coal industry, the Kentucky DOW proposed to weaken selenium standards. Standards are used to set permit limits for industries that may discharge pollutants into public waterways. Though some mines in Kentucky are known to discharge selenium into streams, the Kentucky general permit for valley fills does not currently include selenium permit limits.

Selenium is a naturally occurring element that can be released into streams through mountaintop removal coal mining. Once in the water, selenium bioaccumulates in fish and other aquatic life, increasing in concentration up the food chain. Selenium is toxic to aquatic life at very low levels. For these reasons, Appalachian Voices and our allies have been working to challenge Kentucky’s proposed selenium standards.

Kentucky DOW proposed to raise the acute selenium standard from 20 ug/L in the water column to 258 ug/L in the water column. They also proposed changing the chronic standard of 5 ug/L to a more complicated system where a level of 5 ug/L in the water column would not be enforceable, but instead would trigger the need to sample fish tissue. The new chronic standard would be 8.6 ug/g in fish tissue, or 19.2 ug/g in egg/ovary tissue. The 5 ug/L water concentration would only be an enforceable limit if no fish were available for sampling.
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Concerns Grow Over the EPA’s Stance on Selenium Pollution

Thursday, July 25th, 2013 | Posted by Erin Savage | 3 Comments

In February, we wrote about the new selenium water quality standards being proposed by the Kentucky Division of Water and urged concerned citizens to express their concern to the state. Now, Kentucky has gone ahead with its proposal, submitting the new standards to the EPA for review. While the EPA may deny Kentucky’s proposed standards, concerns are growing that the EPA, influenced by states beholden to their mining industries, may release its own inadequate standard. That is why we are urging people to tell EPA to stop Kentucky, and to require strong, enforceable standards in every state.

Selenium is of particular concern in Kentucky and other Central Appalachian states because it is often released into streams through mountaintop removal coal mining and is toxic to aquatic life at very low levels. Even though many high-selenium coal seams are mined in Kentucky, companies typically claim there will be no selenium discharge when first applying for a permit, so that the pollutant is not included on the permit. Selenium has rarely been included on mining permits in Central Appalachia, effectively allowing companies to avoid monitoring or treating it, unless citizens force them to with lawsuits. A recent victory in a lawsuits over illegal selenium discharges from a Virginia surface mining operation indicates that selenium pollution is a widespread problem at mountaintop removal mines across Central Appalachia.

Kentucky has faced increased pressure from citizens and the EPA to include selenium standards on pollution discharge permits, so that water quality is adequately protected. Unfortunately for the coal companies, selenium is expensive to treat and difficult to keep out of streams impacted by surface mining in high-selenium coal seams. Adding selenium to permits would mean that many coal companies have to start paying for a much larger portion of the damage they create. It appears that the state is helping coal companies find a way to avoid responsibility for selenium discharges. By increasing the legal limit of selenium allowed in streams and including fish tissue-based standards that are difficult, if not impossible to enforce, the state will allow many companies to continue to skirt their responsibility to the land and the people of Kentucky.
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The Appalachian Citizens Enforcement Project

Thursday, May 16th, 2013 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments

Visit www.ace-project.org to learn more about the Appalachian Citizens Enforcement Project and how you can help protect clean water rights.

The Appalachian Citizens Enforcement Project (ACE Project) is a new citizen water monitoring program being launched by The Alliance for Appalachia this summer. Appalachian Voices’ own Appalachian Water Watch team has been working with several Alliance partner organizations over the last two years to recruit and train volunteers to monitor and report water quality data in their area. Now our program is joining this greater water monitoring effort through partnerships in the ACE Project.

In 2011, Appalachian Water Watch launched community-based water testing in eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia. Through partnerships with Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, we recruited over 50 water monitoring volunteers. Now, the ACE Project will expand water monitoring even farther, into Tennessee and West Virginia. Coal River Mountain Watch and United Mountain Defense have already submitted additional data from West Virginia and Tennessee, more than doubling the amount of data collected.
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Taking Another Coal Company to Court Over Clean Water Act Violations

Thursday, August 2nd, 2012 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments

Local creeks can receive pollution from underground seeps and old sediment ponds long after mining activity has ended. This creek is orange due in part to drainage from several sediment ponds.

On Monday, Appalachian Voices, Sierra Club, and Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, represented by Appalachian Mountain Advocates, filed a lawsuit against Penn Virginia Resource Partners for violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Unlike other CWA cases filed by Appalachian Voices and its partners, this case addresses water pollution that still exists on former surface mine sites, rather than on active sites. Penn Virginia is an oil and gas company which operates in multiple states across the country. The company owns over 5,500 acres of land in Wise County, Virginia, where the CWA violations in this case are located. In addition to drilling for natural gas, Penn Virginia leases its land to coal mine operators.

This case is an important step toward addressing water pollution that exists after mines are closed down. Too often, abandoned mine land and even reclaimed land that has been released from financial bond continues to release pollutants into the watersheds in which they are located. These sites are often even less well monitored than active surface mines, if they are monitored at all. We believe companies should be responsible for the environmental degradation their resource extraction continues to cause even when production has ended.

To learn more about this case, see the press release.

To learn more about Appalachian Voices’ other Clean Water Act cases, visit our Appalachian Water Watch legal page.

Court Update on Frasure Creek and ICG Clean Water Act Cases

Monday, July 16th, 2012 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments

A status conference was held today regarding the Clean Water Act enforcement lawsuits against Kentucky coal mining companies, Frasure Creek and International Coal Group (ICG). The conference was ordered by Judge Phillip Shepherd, of the Franklin Circuit Court in Kentucky, to update the court on progress made toward settlement in both cases.

Appalachian Voices, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Waterkeeper Alliance, Kentucky Riverkeeper, and four individuals originally gave notice of intent to sue both companies in 2010 and 2011 for more than 24,000 violations of the Clean Water Act. In response, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet filed its own enforcement against the companies and negotiated a settlement to resolve the violations in December of 2010. Appalachian Voices and its partners intervened in the state enforcement to challenge the settlement, which, among other deficiencies, inadequately fined the companies less than 1% of allowable fines under the law. In April of this year, the Kentucky Supreme Court set legal precedent by affirming the rights of Appalachian Voices and our partners to intervene in the state’s enforcement.

The last hearing in these cases in the Franklin Circuit Court, held in September 2011, allowed parties to present evidence on whether the state’s proposed settlement was “fair, adequate, reasonable, and in the public interest.” After that hearing, Judge Shepherd ordered the parties back to mediation. Settlement talks with both companies have been ongoing since January of this year.

In preparation for today’s conference, Judge Shepherd ordered Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, Bruce Scott, to submit an affidavit detailing the status of the department’s budget and staffing. Further summary of responses by the Cabinet and Bruce Scott can be found here and here.

After hearing from the parties today, Judge Shepherd indicated that he is prepared to make a ruling on the original state settlements with the companies, but will give the parties 60 days to complete negotiation of a new settlement.

Appalachian Voices and its partners continue to work diligently to reach settlements that will be in the best interest of the people and waterways of Eastern Kentucky.

Front Row Seats at the Political Theater in Abingdon, VA

Wednesday, June 6th, 2012 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments

Last Saturday, June 2nd, FACES of Coal and Americans for Prosperity held the “Rally for Appalachian Coal Jobs” in Abingdon, VA. The flier for the rally touts the usual “War on Coal” rhetoric: “Appalachian Coal Jobs have been under regulatory assault from the bureaucrats in Washington D.C. It’s time we stand up and defend them!”

The event, held at the Washington County Fairgrounds, was open to the public and claimed to be “family friendly,” so we at Appalachian Voices thought we should attend. (more…)

Grow Clean Water

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Erin Savage | 1 Comment

By Jillian Kenny
Appalachian Water Watch intern, Spring 2013

I had the amazing opportunity to be on a team of students at Appalachian State University that has been working over the past school year to create a miniature wetland to install in the local salon Haircut 101. Bobbie Jo Swinson, the project’s student leader, received a $15,000 grant for the project last year from an EPA P3 Phase I grant. The purpose of EPA’s P3 — People, Prosperity, and the Planet — is to inspire students to design sustainable solutions for world issues and bring their ideas into the marketplace.

Our project, Grow Clean Water, was inspired by Bobbie Jo’s work as a hair stylist and her experience watching chemicals from hair treatments lost down the drain. Students from appropriate technology, biology, chemistry, interior design, and sustainable development worked to design the biological graywater system to treat the hair salon water using aquatic plants before being recycled through the salon’s toilets for flushing. Graywater is the water from sources such as baths, sinks, and laundry machines; it is not to be confused with blackwater, which contains fecal matter. Aside from removing contaminants, we also wanted the system to function as living art that would educate the community about recycling graywater. (more…)

Kentucky Surface Water: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 | Posted by Erin Savage | 1 Comment

Depending on what you have heard about eastern Kentucky, or your own experiences there, you may have different impressions of Appalachian streams around the area. Some may envision picturesque creeks running through green valleys, while others may think of bright orange “streams” running over rip-rock.

Unfortunately, bright orange streams are commonplace in eastern Kentucky. The color is indicative of acid mine drainage, which is characterized by the oxidation of sulfide metals — in Appalachia, the compound is usually iron (II) disulfide, also known as pyrite. Fortunately not all streams in eastern Kentucky are contaminated from coal mining; however, if we do not address the main source of surface water contamination in the area — coal mining — in a few years, there may not be clean streams to protect. We must find better ways to address existing acid mine drainage and other water contamination in the area.

Photo credit: KFTC

Last week, I traveled around eastern Kentucky to meet with some of the volunteers for Appalachian Water Watch, a program created in the spring of 2011 to train and equip coal-impacted citizens to test surface water throughout their community. Through surface water testing around coal mines, citizens become better informed about threats to their water and their health, and are empowered to address water pollution issues.

My first stop was in Benham, Ky., to meet with several members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth who live in the area. Many of them were born in the area, and several have worked as coal miners. They have all worked for many years to protect their communities against threats related to surface mining. While there has been some historical underground mining around Benham and Lynch, the immediate area is currently free of surface mines.

The result of this somewhat unique circumstance in eastern Kentucky is that rivers around Benham and Lynch have unusually high water quality, allowing the two towns to use the local rivers for municipal water. The city of Lynch receives its water from a reservoir supplied by Gap Branch and Looney Creek watersheds, which requires minimal treatment costs. The city of Benham receives its water from Kellioka coal seam to the south of Looney Creek. This source provides economic opportunities through the proposal of a water bottling operation. The water sources for both cities are all located immediately downstream of two proposed surface mines on Looney Ridge, making city-wide water contamination from future mining activities a very real threat. (more…)

Kentuckians and Friends Show State Officials Their Love for Mountains on Valetine’s Day

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 | Posted by Erin Savage | No Comments

Despite cool, rainy weather in Frankfort, KY, more than 1,200 individuals showed up on the steps of the Kentucky state capitol building for I Love Mountains Day. This annual event is held by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth so that KFTC members and other advocates can come together to show their support for protecting eastern Kentucky’s mountains and communities. Eric Chance and I were lucky to be part of a great event with a diverse and enthusiastic crowd.

We were initially met with the sight of several pro-coal billboard trucks circling the capitol building, but they did not appear to stay throughout the entire rally. The mood was immediately lifted upon reaching the steps of the capitol, where 2/3 Goat, a New York band that has become a regular part of many similar gatherings, began to play.

Speakers included Steve Boyce, Ada Smith, Teri Blanton, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Cody Montgomery, Randy Wilson and Stanley Sturgill. Each spoke to his or her own experience with mountaintop removal and other forms of destructive energy extraction. Senator Kathy Stein also made a brief appearance to voice her support for our continued work and the progress she believes we are making. Speakers voiced their support for their fellow community members who work as miners, but stressed that after over 100 years of providing coal for the state and the country, Kentucky needs to diversify its economy and energy resources. It is time to show the people of eastern Kentucky the respect they deserve, by providing for healthy communities, a healthy environment, energy efficiency, and economic opportunity.

Melina Laboucan-Massimo, from Alberta, Canada, spoke about the impact of tarsands oil extraction on her local community. The problems, including poisoned water and high occurrences of rare cancers, were eerily similar to the problems seen in coal-impacted communities throughout Appalachia. As more studies have been completed, it is clear that these health problems are not just anecdotal, but are verifiable trends that reflect the injustices done to people living near mountaintop removal sites.

Despite the harsh realities many in eastern Kentucky still face, all of the speakers were upbeat and extremely motivating. The crowd seemed equally hopeful. The rally concluded with a march to Governor Beshear’s mansion, where 1,200 pinwheels were left, each on symbolizing 50 people living with cancer caused by strip mining in their community (Source: Journal of Community Health, July 2011). Eric and I left the rally with new motivation for the work we will do this week in Kentucky, as well as the hopefully not-so-long road ahead.

For more information and photographs, check out KFTC’s coverage of the event or click here to see more of our pictures.

Faces of Coal Hates Mountains

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