Posted by
The Very Sane Woman Who Points Out the Obvious on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 8:12:51 PM
Plain and simple, mountaintop removal coal mining is just that, the removal of mountains to get at the coal underneath them. When the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 was passed, which sanctions this mining practice, it was assumed that mountaintop removal would be rare and provide areas of usable flatland in the economically depressed Appalachians.
Instead, mountaintop removal has become the greatest form of ecoterrorism in the world. Over 400 mountains in Kentucky and West Virginia have been flattened. The hospitals, businesses, and communities that were supposed to have been built have not materialized, and the economic development promised for these states has not occurred.
The rock and debris removed from the mountains is dumped into nearby valleys and streams, enlarging the area of devastation and ruining woodland and polluting streams. Over thousands of years the Appalachians have developed the ability to receive large amounts of rainfall and snowmelt. This extreme form of surface mining severely disrupts this highly developed hydrological cycle. The result is flooding that ruins communities. More than 75% of the streams in West Virginia are polluted. Surface mining is implicated in the pollution of all of these waters.
West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the Union, and moutaintop removal exacerbates its poverty. A typical shaft mine might employ scores of miners. It only takes nine men operating huge draglines and other earth moving equipment to flatten and mine a mountain.
The environment is damaged and people are hurting. Clearly, this is the worst form of ecoterroism threatening our country today.