Guest columnist
As UNC's use of coal on campus at its cogeneration facility has come under increased scrutiny, recent findings now show that UNC's coal is sourced at coal mines that are destroying the mountains and jeopardizing the health of the people of Appalachian Virginia, including one mine in particular that uses mountaintop removal mining methods.
Mountaintop removal mining is just what it sounds like -- it consists of blowing off the top 500 to 800 feet of mountains with explosives to gain access to coal seams, and then dumping the waste from these blasts into valleys.
This practice has damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020. The mining poisons drinking water, lays waste to wildlife habitat and greatly increases the risk of flooding.
UNC has made an outward effort to avoid purchasing coal extracted using mountaintop removal methods. In his Op-Ed in The Herald-Sun (Sept. 26, "Why UNC Has (cling,clang, sss) steam heat"), Chancellor Holden Thorp wrote that the "coal that we purchase is not mined from mountaintops, according to our suppliers. (Most of the coal is deep mined, but a small portion is from surface mines.)"
But the trail of public records seems to indicate otherwise. As journalist Joe Schwartz of The Independent Weekly (Feb. 17, "Fact-checking UNC's coal claims") discovered, UNC purchased more than 106,000 tons of coal between 2007 and 2009 at a price of $8.4 million from the Red River Coal Company's Red River mine near Norton, Va.
The Red River Coal Company states that they employ "contour" and "ridge top" mining methods at the Red River Mine.
This is a clear example of coal companies playing semantics. Satellite images of the Red River Mine offer a disturbing picture of mountains that have been leveled to moonscapes. How could this not be mountaintop removal?
The heartbreaking images of forested ridges demolished into desert plains represent what Austin Hall of Appalachian Voices referred to as "beyond a shadow of a doubt, mountaintop removal mining."
Other methods of mining coal have their environmental and social impacts as well. Hills Fuel Company, another company that UNC purchases its coal from, operates an underground mine near the town of Appalachia, Va., using deep mining. This coal is loaded onto trucks at the Crossbrook loading point that then drive along the Roda Road.
A thorough study done by N.C. State professor Viney P. Aneja has shown that coal dust containing dangerous toxic chemicals like arsenic, mercury and lead flies off of these trucks along Roda Road, producing dust levels more than three times higher than federal air quality standards.
The bottom line is that the coal business is dirty business. The coal industry has long enjoyed remarkable financial profits at the expense of the people, mountains and rivers of Appalachia.
UNC is a leading public university that has set a higher standard for environmental stewardship and concern for public welfare than this. Now that the light has been shed on UNC's link to destructive mining practices, Carolina has a responsibility to disassociate itself from these dirty coal companies.
Furthermore, a move to stop burning coal would also benefit the campus and the community of Chapel Hill. From start to finish, coal is too dirty for a university of UNC's caliber. Better to leave the mountains intact and the coal in the ground, where dangerous heavy metals belong -- not in the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Students, faculty, and community members are calling on the university to stop externalizing the environmental and public health costs of coal use onto local residents of Chapel Hill and the communities of central Appalachia.
Carolina must now live up to the excellent standards it has already set for itself by recognizing that the desire for cheap energy cannot outweigh the environmental and social injustices that UNC is linked to because of the impacts of coal mining.
Stewart Boss is coordinator for the Coal-Free UNC Campaign and a member of the UNC Chapel Hill Class of 2013.
