美国国家公共电台 NPR--Coal producers legally must restore damaged land, but some are dodging obligations

Coal producers legally must restore damaged land, but some are dodging¹ obligations

Transcript²

A Bloomberg News/NPR investigation³ found large U.S. coal companies used bankruptcy⁴ and asset transfers to move old mines to shaky new owners, putting at risk federally mandated⁵ land reclamation⁶.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Over the last decade, the coal industry collapsed⁷, leaving the largest producers bankrupt. This, however, turned out to be an opportunity. Coal companies are legally mandated to restore the torn-up land and polluted creeks⁸ left behind when mining is done. But the biggest companies shifted the cleanup to others. An investigation by Bloomberg News and NPR shows that many old coal mines have new owners that are not completing the work, so the pollution and damage that used to be the industry's problem may become the public's. Joining us now are Josh Saul and Zach Mider of Bloomberg and NPR's Dave Mistich.

We'll start with you, Josh. This reporting shows that as coal operators went bankrupt, many of them were able to get out of their environmental cleanup responsibilities. Walk us through how this works.

JOSH SAUL: The law is very clear. It says that coal companies have to reclaim⁹ the land, meaning they have to return it to its original shape, its contours, and they have to plant vegetation, like trees and grasses. They have to also stop any flooding when they finish mining. But what we found is that coal companies have gotten really good at using a specific tactic¹⁰ to avoid paying for cleaning up their own messes. What the big publicly traded, billion-dollar coal companies do is they transfer the old, idle coal mines to smaller, private, financially weaker companies. And if those new owners go broke, then nobody is left to do the cleanup work.

MARTINEZ: Wow. So, Dave, you and Josh traveled to the heart of Appalachian coal country. Tell us what you saw there.

DAVE MISTICH, BYLINE¹¹: That's right. So we traveled to southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, and people there told us about red mine water flooding their homes. We met Gary VanNatter in Mingo County, W.Va, as he was packing his truck up out of his driveway so he could take some wood back to the store that got damaged by some flooding.

GARY VANNATTER: It's coming down like a raging river. I've never seen it that bad. It's just getting progressively worse in the past couple of years.

MISTICH: VanNatter told us these floods are becoming more frequent. And it's done a lot of damage to his property.

VANNATTER: Sinking the foundation - it's - the whole back of the house has dropped on that side. This two-car garage, this two-story has sunk.

MISTICH: And the effects go beyond just that. People's drinking water and septic tanks get knocked out and ruined. There's so much selenium and acid runoff in streams that it kills or deforms¹² fish and other wildlife. Lots of people talk about how they used to gather firewood or ginseng in an area that now looks like a moonscape, or they used to swim or fish in a river that they're now scared to touch the water. One older man I talked to - mine runoff weakened to the floor of his home. And one day he walked into his dining room and fell right through it into the mine water below. He got stuck in his own floor.

MARTINEZ: Wow. That's amazing. Zach Mider of Bloomberg News spent a lot of time looking into this. Zach, can you give us an example of a coal company that's gotten out of these responsibilities?

ZACH MIDER: Sure. When the downturn in the industry hit about a decade ago, this company called Alpha had more of these old, idle mines than anybody. But now they've been able to get rid of most of them. They handed the biggest chunk¹³ - that's about 230 mining permits - to a much smaller company called Lexington Coal. Now, Alpha says it's a responsible coal company that complies with all the rules. And they said state regulators signed off on the deal. Alpha handed over a lot of cash to Lexington, too, so that it could clean everything up.

MARTINEZ: Josh, what does this mean for Alpha? And has the smaller company, Lexington, made good on the responsibilities that it's taken on?

SAUL: What it meant was that Alpha could wash its hands of the responsibility to clean up the land no matter what happened later. The two companies talked about a five-year plan to accelerate reclamation. Well, it's been five years. Lexington hasn't cleaned up many of these mines, and it's unclear if they even have the money to do it. Meanwhile, they're racking up more environmental violations¹⁴ this year than almost any other company in the country. But the deal's worked out great for Alpha. The price of coal has skyrocketed, and the company's stock is up more than 700%.

MARTINEZ: Wow. So, Dave, you actually got the chance to fly over some of these former alpha mines in West Virginia. What did you take away from that?

MISTICH: Really just how pervasive¹⁵ surface mining is in these areas and how many people live next to it - you know, you can't really get a sense of that from the ground, given the topography. And that's even, you know, looking at maps or by using a drone. When you're just a few thousand feet up in the air, you can see it in every direction. It all looks very, very similar, just flat, barren land that used to be a mountain.

And you can tell they're getting some coal out of some of these mines. But some of the mines owned by Lexington have been idle for years. Reclamation should have taken place or should be happening now. And it's just not happening. And, you know, like Josh said, that'd be returning the land to its original contour or planting something like trees or grass.

MARTINEZ: Zach, I guess I can see why the big coal producers, like Alpha, might want to get rid of all of their old, used-up mines, so they don't have to clean them up. But what about the other side of these deals? I mean, who would take on all those responsibilities?

MIDER: Yeah. So there's a guy named Tom Clarke, and he wasn't a coal miner at all. He called himself an environmentalist. And when all these big coal companies started going under, Clarke showed up to take their mines off their hands. He had this wacky plan. He was going to save the coal industry and save the planet at the same time. He was going to mine coal and then plant trees to offset¹⁶ their carbon emissions¹⁷. And so for a while, he's kind of a hero in West Virginia.

MARTINEZ: Oh. Well, how did that work out?

MIDER: It was a disaster. Clarke ran out of money. He racked up 160 environmental violations. Eventually, a court had to take over his operation. But looking at it from another perspective, that of the big mining companies whose mines he took over, it was kind of a success. One West Virginia official estimated that cleaning up just Clarke's mines could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. That's money that the companies that developed those mines will never have to pay.

MARTINEZ: That's Zach Mider and Josh Saul of Bloomberg News and NPR's Dave Mistich. My thanks to all three of you.

MISTICH: You're welcome.

MIDER: Thanks a lot.

SAUL: Thank you.

1 dodging   

n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避

参考例句：

• He ran across the road, dodging the traffic. 他躲开来往的车辆跑过马路。
• I crossed the highway, dodging the traffic. 我避开车流穿过了公路。 来自辞典例句

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

5 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

6 reclamation   

n.开垦；改造；（废料等的）回收

参考例句：

• We should encourage reclamation and recycling.我们应当鼓励废物的回收和利用。
• The area is needed for a land reclamation project.一个土地开垦项目要在这一地区进行。

7 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

8 creeks   

n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪

参考例句：

• The prospect lies between two creeks. 矿区位于两条溪流之间。 来自辞典例句
• There was the excitement of fishing in country creeks with my grandpa on cloudy days. 有在阴雨天和姥爷一起到乡村河湾钓鱼的喜悦。 来自辞典例句

9 reclaim   

v.要求归还，收回；开垦

参考例句：

• I have tried to reclaim my money without success.我没能把钱取回来。
• You must present this ticket when you reclaim your luggage.当你要取回行李时，必须出示这张票子。

10 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

11 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

12 deforms   

使变形，使残废，丑化( deform的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Bad rheumatoid arthritis deforms limbs. 严重的类风湿性关节炎会造成四肢变形。
• The specimen deforms under a tensile stress applied parallel to the fibres. 试样在平行于纤维的张应力作用下发生变形。

13 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

14 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

15 pervasive   

adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的

参考例句：

• It is the most pervasive compound on earth.它是地球上最普遍的化合物。
• The adverse health effects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure.汽车尾气对人类健康所构成的有害影响是普遍的，并且难以估算。

16 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

17 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。