Rights Group Slams US For Scrapping Mountaintop Mining Regulations, Study On Health Risks

A prominent human rights watchdog slammed on Monday the US authorities for jeopardizing citizens' health by scrapping legislation designed to protect waterways from debris coming from the mountaintop removal mining (MTR) and withdrawing funding from a study addressing environmental and health risks posed by the MTR.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2018) A prominent human rights watchdog slammed on Monday the US authorities for jeopardizing citizens' health by scrapping legislation designed to protect waterways from debris coming from the mountaintop removal mining (MTR) and withdrawing funding from a study addressing environmental and health risks posed by the MTR.

Back in 2017, US Congress voted to reverse environmental regulations designed under the Obama administration to prevent mining companies from dumping their rubble coming from the MTR close to nearby waterways and thus polluting water. That same year, the US authorities decided to defund the US National academy of Science's study on possible health risks for people residing close to surface mining sites in the US central Appalachia region.

"The Trump administration and United States Congress have endangered public health by ending measures, including defunding a scientific study, that address the human and environmental risks of mountaintop removal, a form of surface coal mining prevalent in central Appalachia," Human Rights Watch said in a report.

According to business and human rights researcher at HRW Sarah Saadoun, the Trump administration tried to justify their actions by arguing that the regulations and the study would reduce the number of jobs in the industry.

"What they actually did is recklessly endanger the health of people in some of the poorest and unhealthiest communities in America," Saadoun added, as quoted on the watchdog's website.

Companies practicing the MTR use explosives to remove hundreds of feet of a mountaintop and reach coal seams lying deep below. Blasts leave huge amounts of rubble, which is dumped into nearby valleys, forming the so-called valley fills and contaminating adjacent waterways.