America's Most Endangered Mountains - Ison Rock Ridge, VA

Comment: Coal and Energy Commission approves blowing up Virginia Mountains (the oldest mt in the world) for cheap coal to ship to China, also this same commission formed this group: "Coal and Energy Commission Uranium Mining Subcommittee" to blow up Virginia Hills for uranium mining! People of Piedmont, uranium mining is worse because it is radioactive but also u mining will destroy our small communities just like Mt. Top Removal, we need to stop blowing up our mountains and do not blow up our hills for uranium in the name of Corporate Greed!

America's Most Endangered Mountains - Ison Rock Ridge, VA

Pledge to Help End Mountaintop Removal. Visit:
http://www.ilovemountains.org/

- - - COMMUNITY STORY - - -

Just like the region that bears its name, the town of Appalachia, Virginia, is being threatened by new permits for mountaintop removal mining.

Appalachia and nearby Andover are small communities in southwest Virginia. At one time these towns were nestled in the low-lying mountains of the region, but in the last decade or so mountaintop removal has destroyed areas all around them.

Now they only have one mountain left.

Ison Rock Ridge comes off of Black Mountain on the Virginia / Kentucky border and runs southeast toward the town of Appalachia. Its preservation is essential to the quality of life for the people in the community. Without it, residents lose an important ecosystem, and fear the destruction of their homes from landslides, as well as the contamination of their water from valley fill sediment. They also worry about disturbance from blasting and the resultant dust that often accompanys mountaintop removal mine sites.

Though the federal permit for mining on the ridge was sent back to the Army Corps of Engineers by the Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to consider the cumulative environmental impact of many mountaintop removal mines in a concentrated area, residents fear that the mine may be allowed with only minor changes on the state level.

According to the local environmental group Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS), the Ison Rock Ridge mine would destroy three miles of streams and fill nine valleys with more than 11 million cubic yards of rock and dirt.

To support Pete and his community contact:
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
(276) 565-1083 • http://www.samsva.org/
SAMS is committed to stopping the destruction of communities by surface coal mining and to help rebuild sustainable communities.