From the Oakridger
Posted Apr. 27, 2016 at 11:18 AM
To the Editor:
I live in Anderson County and recreate in many areas in East Tennessee that are impacted by mining, including Watts Bar Lake, various areas of the Clinch River, Melton Lake, and the Obed River Basin, just to name a few.
As many are aware, there is a great deal of mining in the Central Appalachian region. In Tennessee in particular, there have been tens of thousands of acres striped bare for coal. This mining is not without consequence — conspicuously, the availability of electricity; and perhaps less conspicuously, the harm of local land, watersheds, and ecosystems. I fear we may have forgotten the coal ash spill in Kingston in 2008 and all of the damage it caused, which is only one example of a post-mining incident as a result of insufficient regulations.