Mountain Top Removal
Coal Mining (MTR) is a relatively new type of mining where the top of a
mountain is removed in order to get to the coal. Most of this type of
mining takes place in the Southern and Central Appalachian Mountains.
The process is devastating to the local ecosystem, burying and
contaminating streams, and destroying wildlife habitat. It devastates
human
communities by contaminating drinking water, causing severe flooding,
damaging property, and even taking lives. Mining companies are required
to reclaim the land, but usually a few species of grass replace a once
diverse forest. Many of the mines encompass multiple peaks and
thousands of acres in between.
The process begins by clear cutting the forest that lives on the
surface of the mountain. The topsoil is reserved for reclamation. The
rock and subsoil that lie beneath the topsoil (overburden) are removed
using explosives
and then pushed into a nearby hollow or valley creating a pile below
called a valley fill. These waste piles are sometimes more than a mile
long and hundreds of feet deep and have buried more than 700 miles of
headwater streams across central Appalachia. After the overburden is
removed, the coal is exposed. A dragline excavator removes the coal and
it is transported to an on-site processing plant where it is washed.
Because coal usually exists in multiple seams separated by rock, miners
can repeat the blasting process to mine over a dozen seams on a single
mountain, lowering the mountain's height each time. Coal processing
creates a waste called slurry, which is stored nearby in open pools
restrained by earthen dams. Upon completion of coal removal from a
mountain, the mining operator replaces soil on the stripped site and
seeds it for revegetation. However, at this point, the mountain could
have lost 500 to 1000 feet from its peak. The Empire State Building is
1250 feet, the St. Louis Arch is 630 feet.
mountain top removal mining
Why should we be concerned?
MTR is an issue of social
and environmental justice. MTR devastates communities, and the
environment. It also negatively affects certain sectors of the economy,
namely tourism. It is worrisome that there is so much injustice in this
world, let us not forget what God commands, let us remember and
celebrate justice. Let us work to create justice. Unless we utilize 100% clean energy, we are
part of the cause. You and I are driving MTR everyday with our need for
coal-fired electricity. But just as we are part of the problem, we can
be part of the solution.
Impacts of MTR
According
to the Environmental Protection Agency, MTR began on a small scale in
West Virginia in the late 1960s. Beginning in the 1990s it became the
dominant coal-mining technique for several reasons: Americans' demand
for electricity has jumped 70 percent in the past 20 years; the demand
for clean-burning, low-sulfur coal by utilities shot up after Congress
passed the 1990 Clean Air Act; and the development of massive
dragline equipment has made it possible to shear off mountaintops to
get at multiple seams of coal.
A growing number in central Appalachia despise it. A poll commissioned by a West Virginia environmental group this year found that opponents of the practice outnumber supporters by 2 to 1. From a Washington Post interview:
The impact of mountaintop removal on nearby communities is devastating. According to Orion Magazine, the dynamite blasts needed to splinter rock strata are ten times more powerful than the one that destroyed the Murrow Building in Okalahoma City. In Kentucky, 80 percent of the harvested coal is sold and shipped to twenty-two other states. Coal companies have offered to buy and demolish houses near the mines. But residents who refuse to sell pay the highest price for the rest of the country's cheap energy— constant blasting rattles nerves and sometimes cracks foundations on homes, flooding, bronchial problems related to breathing coal dust, and roads that have been torn up and turned deadly by speeding coal trucks, and even death. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others. In addition, for many residents, these mountains are part of their heritage and seeing them destroyed is like blowing up part of their past. As more land has been given over to mining, resistance has spread.
The impacts to the natural environment are also devastating. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over 700 miles of healthy streams have been completely buried by mountaintop removal and thousands more have been damaged. Guidelines allow ditches dug by coal companies to serve as substitutes for streams that were buried by debris. In addition, streams often become polluted with high levels of silt and toxic chemicals, including selenium, a mineral that is toxic to fish in high doses. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that as many as 244 species, including several that are endangered, were being affected by the loss of forest and aquatic habitats. Damage to the waterways also affects the tourism sector of West Virginia's economy.
A Washington Post article reveals that the new mines also require far fewer workers, sometimes only a few dozen per mine. Still, those jobs are high paying and highly coveted, and the mines themselves continue to generate billions of dollars for local economies. For those reasons, many state politicians and even labor unions embrace the technique. However according to Orion magazine, the median household income in mining communities is $18,665 and the poverty rate in central and southern Appalachia stands at 30 percent. Maps generated by the Appalachian Regional Commission show that the poorest counties are those that have seen the most intense mountaintop removal.
A growing number in central Appalachia despise it. A poll commissioned by a West Virginia environmental group this year found that opponents of the practice outnumber supporters by 2 to 1. From a Washington Post interview:
“For years, Maria
Gunnoe, 36, a waitress and
single mother, watched nervously as coal companies hacked their way
north along a ridge of mountains near the town of Bob White, W.Va.
Then, three years ago, the first mining crews arrived on what she calls
‘my mountain,’ a rocky ridge called Island Creek
Mountain directly above her house, her family's home for three
generations. ‘I sit here in the evening and listen to the
equipment ripping and tearing at the mountain,’ Gunnoe, a
coal miner's daughter, said as she sat on her porch on a late spring
afternoon. ‘It's the same as if they were ripping and tearing
at the siding of my house.’
She has seen flooding wash away a third of her front yard and destroy
the only bridge that connects her property to a public highway. Her car
has been vandalized and her children have been bullied because of her
outspoken opposition to the mine, she said. Her nerves are raw from the
near-constant blasting, which continues even on holidays. ‘It
sends the kids screaming, running through the house. The dogs hit the
dirt,’ she said.
Far worse, she said, is the emotional toll. A peak that served as the
natural backdrop for her entire life, the lives of her parents, her
grandparents and her two young children is vanishing before her eyes.
The family has received offers from coal companies to sell the small
wood-frame cottage her father built. Gunnoe says she will never sell,
but she wonders how long her family can hold on.
‘The true cost of coal is here,’ she said quietly,
staring off into the crisp mountain air, at her mountain. ‘We
pay for it with our lives and our future. And also our past."
The impact of mountaintop removal on nearby communities is devastating. According to Orion Magazine, the dynamite blasts needed to splinter rock strata are ten times more powerful than the one that destroyed the Murrow Building in Okalahoma City. In Kentucky, 80 percent of the harvested coal is sold and shipped to twenty-two other states. Coal companies have offered to buy and demolish houses near the mines. But residents who refuse to sell pay the highest price for the rest of the country's cheap energy— constant blasting rattles nerves and sometimes cracks foundations on homes, flooding, bronchial problems related to breathing coal dust, and roads that have been torn up and turned deadly by speeding coal trucks, and even death. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others. In addition, for many residents, these mountains are part of their heritage and seeing them destroyed is like blowing up part of their past. As more land has been given over to mining, resistance has spread.
The impacts to the natural environment are also devastating. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that over 700 miles of healthy streams have been completely buried by mountaintop removal and thousands more have been damaged. Guidelines allow ditches dug by coal companies to serve as substitutes for streams that were buried by debris. In addition, streams often become polluted with high levels of silt and toxic chemicals, including selenium, a mineral that is toxic to fish in high doses. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that as many as 244 species, including several that are endangered, were being affected by the loss of forest and aquatic habitats. Damage to the waterways also affects the tourism sector of West Virginia's economy.
A Washington Post article reveals that the new mines also require far fewer workers, sometimes only a few dozen per mine. Still, those jobs are high paying and highly coveted, and the mines themselves continue to generate billions of dollars for local economies. For those reasons, many state politicians and even labor unions embrace the technique. However according to Orion magazine, the median household income in mining communities is $18,665 and the poverty rate in central and southern Appalachia stands at 30 percent. Maps generated by the Appalachian Regional Commission show that the poorest counties are those that have seen the most intense mountaintop removal.
Sources
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal
www.epa.gov/maia/html/issue-valley.html
www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/166/
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6462-2004Aug16.html
www.epa.gov/maia/html/issue-valley.html
www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/166/
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6462-2004Aug16.html
