Two scientists who authored the Science paper "Mountaintop Mining Consequences", Dr. Dennis Lemly and Dr. Orie Loucks, testified before the Senate and House Environment committees on Tuesday. It was amazing.

They were graciously introduced by Kathy Mattea who is from coal mining country in WV. Senate testimony can be found here. You may need to click on "video" and "March 9" and the "presentation on mountaintop removal" is the last one for the day.

http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/videowrapper/default.aspx?CommID=63

If you don't have any luck start here:
http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/committees/env-tourism.html

Their testimony is summarized here:
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ahershkowitz/

In the testimony video you can see Dr. Lemly show water quality analyses downstream of the Zeb Mine with selenium levels high enough to kill fish and completely inhibit reproduction. Further, there are 3 samples from GROUNDWATER (people drink that stuff!) at similar levels. It was noted that 100 residents and an elementary school are found nearby. Dr. Loucks discussed alternative land uses, such as forestry, that become permanently excluded once MTR occurs.

In the Senate, Sen. Jackson is the sponsor and he asked some excellent questions. In the House, Rep. Dunn and McDonald are sponsors and Rep. McDonald asked a number of great questions. Rep. Bell asked antagonistic questions and after not rattling the speakers, promptly left the room before the presentations were complete. Rep. Hawk asked a number of pointed questions. Rep. Kernell of Memphis was only concerned about Memphis, but he did ask if dead fish had been found in TN. When he was told "no" because there is no monitoring, he asked again (and again). I guess if you don't find dead fish they don't exist? In a private earlier meeting with Rep. Tidwell (Subcommittee head) the need for monitoring seemed to resonate with him.

Both bills in House and Senate were unofficially deferred and are on the calendar for March 16. It is particularly important to contact Senate (and also House) environment committee members, while cc-ing Lt. Gov. Ramsey. This is it!

Contact info has already been shown at KV and also at LEAF: http://www.tnleaf.org/

Bills are the democratic versions: SB1398/HB0455