A leading biology researcher warned a state Senate panel Tuesday that mountaintop mining of coal in Tennessee has already released dangerous amounts of the toxic selenium into streams.
The chemical can cause deformities and ultimately death of fish and wildlife, he said.
“These are just like ticking time bombs waiting to explode,” Dr. Dennis Lemly, a research professor of biology at Wake Forest University, told Senate Environment Committee members. “Four (Tennessee sites) have pretty much exploded. The question is how many more will be allowed to.”
Dr. Lemly and Dr. Orie L. Loucks, a retired ecology professor at Miami University, were part of a team of 12 biologists, ecologists and engineers who provided the first comprehensive analysis of damage done by mountaintop removal mining. The analysis was published in the journal Science.
Pollution at a mine site on Zeb Mountain in Campbell County is “substantial and it’s not going to stop,” Dr. Lemly said. Concentrations of selenium in ponds and streams “are well above levels that would cause reproductive failure in fish,” he said.
Tennessee Mining Association President Chuck Laine, who was at an industry conference, later questioned the scientists’ charges.
“Show me the dead fish,” Mr. Laine said. “I haven’t seen any. I was up there a month ago.”
The scientists’ testimony came with regard to legislation seeking to ban most types of mountain mining in Tennessee. Senate Environment Committee members took no action on the bill.