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Editorial: Beheading mountains The Gainesville Sun, January 25, 2008 "Advocates of 'clean coal' technology, including Capitol Hill lawmakers and several presidential candidates, should take note of a record fine imposed last week against the nation's fourth-largest coal producer. Massey Energy Co. agreed to pay a $20 million penalty to settle a lawsuit filed in May by the Environmental Protection Agency. As part of the deal, the company also will spend $10 million on cleanup efforts and pollution-control measures. The EPA charged that the company violated its water pollution permits in Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia more than 4,500 times over a seven-year period. EPA investigators said the company spilled up to 10 times the allowable limits of heavy metals, acid mine drainage and sediment into streams in the three states. Environmentalists and residents of coal-mining communities have long complained about the devastation caused by mountaintop removal, the method of strip-mining employed by Massey and many other coal companies in the region. The drive for cleaner air and greater energy independence shouldn't come at the expense of America's rivers and streams." http://www.gainesvillesun.com/article/20080125/OPINION01/801250305/-1/opinion01 -- ********************************************************************** Dr. Ann C. Wilkie Tel: (352)392-8699 Soil and Water Science Department Fax: (352)392-7008 University of Florida-IFAS P.O. Box 110960 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Gainesville, FL 32611-0960 ______________________________________________________________________ Campus location: Environmental Microbiology Laboratory (Bldg. 246). http://campusmap.ufl.edu/ ______________________________________________________________________ BioEnergy and Sustainable Technology Society http://grove.ufl.edu/~bests/ **********************************************************************