What Is It?

Multiple thin layers of low-sulfur coal underlie the mountains of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, and are occasionally found in southwestern Virginia and Tennessee. To extract this coal in the cheapest way possible, companies first raze the forests and scrap away the topsoil, usually saving neither for future use (although required to do so by law).  Next they blast up to 800 feet off the tops of mountains with explosives up to 100 times as strong as the ones that tore open the Oklahoma City federal building. Giant machines then scoop out the layers of coal. In most cases, millions of tons of “overburden” – the former mountaintops – are pushed into the narrow adjacent valleys, thereby creating “valley fills” that permanently destroy the streams below.

What Are The Impacts?

ON PEOPLE:  The heavy use of explosives causes extensive damage to the homes and water wells of nearby residents. Thousands of families have had their wells contaminated or dewatered as a result of blasting, usually with no alternative water system to serve them. Thousands more have experienced cracked foundations, the separation of joints in their houses and similar structural damage as a result of the daily shaking from blasting.

 Blasting also sometimes sends “flyrock” off the permitted mining area into residential areas and onto public roads, creating dangerous conditions. One family used to receive a phone call warning them they had 10 minutes to get out of their house before the coal company set off their daily blast.

The destabilization of the earth has caused numerous mud slides that have damaged homes and property. The deforestation of the mountainsides and the channeling of rainwater into drainage ditches has increased the frequency and severity of flooding.

 As with other forms of mining, mountaintop removal contributes to dust, mud and noise problems in residential areas. Coal truck traffic makes roads more dangerous, lowers the quality of life for roadside residents and places the burden of frequent road repair on taxpayers.

There are also personal and cultural impacts as communities are displaced, people are forced away from family homesteads, cemeteries are made inaccessible, health is adversely affected, feelings of powerless persist and living in fear becomes a way of life.

ON THE EARTH:  Mountaintop removal destroys mountains and generates huge amounts of waste, much of it ending up in valley fills, although this is largely illegal under the federal Clean Water Act. An Environmental Impact Statement released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in May 2003 documented the following environmental impacts between 1985 and 2001:

• 724 miles of streams across the Central Appalachian region were buried by valley fills between 1985 and 2001 (many more miles have been buried since and even more permitted but not yet buried); however, this figure does not count many headwaters streams that are not detailed on maps. More than 430 miles of streams have been buried under millions of tons of waste in Kentucky.

• another 1,200 miles of streams have already been impacted by valley fills;

• selenium was found only in those coalfield streams below valley fills (selenium is a metalloid that, according to the EPA, “can be highly toxic to aquatic life even at relatively low concentrations”);

• aquatic life forms downstream of valley fills are being harmed or killed;

• without additional restrictions, a total of 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests will be eliminated by 2012 by large-scale mining operations (this is an area that would encompass Floyd, Knott, Leslie, Letcher, Perry and most of Harlan counties in eastern Kentucky);

• without new environmental restrictions, mountaintop removal mining will destroy an additional 600 square miles of land and 1,000 miles of streams in the next decade.

• there is “no evidence that native hardwood forests . . . will eventually re-colonize large mountaintop mine sites using current reclamation methods.” [federal EIS]

• large-scale surface coal mining “will result in the conversion of large portions of one of the most heavily forested areas of the country, also considered one of the most biologically diverse, to grassland habitat.” [federal EIS]

  
  

ON THE ECONOMY:  Mountaintop removal contributes significantly to the loss of mining jobs. Substantially fewer miners are needed for this method of mining than the more traditional underground methods.

• strip mines produced an average of 32% more coal per worker than did underground mines for the period 1995-99

• over the past 23 years, coal employment has declined by rapidly. In 1979, there were 35,902 mining jobs in eastern Kentucky; by 2003 there were 13,036 such jobs in eastern Kentucky, a 60% decline.

Why Do It?

Higher profits. Greed is the motivating factor behind mountaintop removal and the creation of valley fills. Fewer miners are needed, capitalization costs are less, government agencies will grant reclamation waivers without hesitation, and the coal company will be long gone when coalfield communities work to recover from this abuse. 

The coal industry argues that much of the coal extracted by mountaintop removal is not easily recoverable by other mining methods. But vast coal reserves (some estimate 200 years worth) recoverable by the others methods still exist.  It is not necessary to use mountaintop removal to mine enough coal to meet the nation's demand.  And it is not necessary to dump mining wastes into streams. A federal government study estimated that it could cost as little as $1 per ton more to transport and place the overburden back on top of the mountain (which is actually what is required by law, in most cases) rather than pushing it in the valley.

Others advocate for mountaintop removal in order to “create” developable land (although the Kentucky Coal Association claims its members do not leave any mountains “flattened”). However, less than 2% of mountaintop removal sites have been used for post-mining economic development in accordance with the law. Extensive costs related to stabilizing the land (an extra $40 million for a federal prison in Martin County, Kentucky) and problems with sinking after buildings are constructed makes using valley fills for large-scale development a questionable practice.

How Do I Help?

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth has worked with coalfield residents and communities since 1981 to protect their land, water and communities from the impacts of uncontrolled mining.  KFTC emphasizes leadership development to empower individuals and groups to affect change — including getting coal companies to obey the law and state and federal agencies to enforce the law.  KFTC members use direct action, negotiation, litigation, public pressure, legislative advocacy and moral persuasion to win policies and practices that show respect for the earth and its people.  We even won a statewide ballot campaign to allow coalfields residents to stop the strip mining of their land with their permission.

KFTC relies on the generosity of individuals and institutional funders to enable its work to happen.  Your support would be most graciously appreciated.  Click here to become a member or donate.



Sources:  Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Office of Surface Mining, U.S. Energy Information Agency