MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINING→ By: Amber Mitchell

WHAT IS MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINING? (MTR)

This is a form of surface mining where the top of a mountain, hill, or ridge is blasted away with explosives to access coal.

In just months, MTR can undo what geological processes took millions of years to build.

It changes the landscape permanently.

MTR is harmful to humans as well as the environment.

The mining sites range from Ohio to Virginia. It occurs most commonly in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, the top two coal-producing states in Appalachia.

STEP ONE: CLEARING

Each step of MTR is harmful to the environment.

Clearing is where the entire mountain is deforested.

The resulting lumber is either sold or burned.

MTR has destroyed part of the most biodiverse forests in North America.

An estimated 800,000 acres of mountain forest have been leveled by these operations.

STEP TWO: BLASTING

Once the area is cleared of trees, the miners use explosives to blast away the rock and subsoil.

This is the most harmful step.

The explosions expel dust and rock into the atmosphere, which can settle onto nearby private property and cause disturbances.

Dust from the explosions may contain sulfur compounds, which is corrosive and poses a risk to human health.

According to a study in 2011, "the odds for reporting cancer were twice as high in the mountaintop mining environment compared to the non mining environment.”

MTR is a huge risk factor for lung cancer.

Adult hospitalization for chronic pulmonary disorders and hypertension are also elevated as a result of county-level MTR.

Counties located near mountaintop mining areas had higher rates of birth defects for the circulatory/respiratory system, the musculoskeletal system, the central nervous system, and the gastrointestinal system.

These defect rates were more pronounced in the most recent period studied, suggesting the health effects of mountaintop mining-related air and water contamination may be cumulative.

STEP THREE: DIGGING

After the mountaintop has been exploded, the debris must be moved.

Coal and debris are removed using giant machines called draglines, which stand 22 stories high.

Draglines can cost up to $100 million, but are favored by coal companies because they displace the need for hundreds of miners.

Appalachian coalfields have plummeted in recent decades because of the switch to machines—“taking the miner out of mining,” as local residents say.

STEP FOUR: DUMPING WASTE

Excess rock and soil loaded with toxic mining byproducts are deposited in neighboring valleys, these are called “holler fills” or “valley fills.”

Valley fills are responsible for burying more than 2,000 miles of vital Appalachian headwater streams, and poisoning many more.

As a result, water downstream of mountaintop removal mines has higher levels of sulfate and selenium and increased electrical conductivity. These changes in water quality can directly kill aquatic species, or disrupt their life cycles so severely that their populations dwindle.

WASTE FROM MTR:

STEP FIVE: RECLAMATION

Grass seed is spread in a mixture of seed, fertilizer, and mulch made from recycled newspaper. The land will then be further reclaimed by adding trees if the pre-approved post-mining land use is forest land or wildlife habitat.

Topsoil is supposed to be removed and set aside for later reclamation. However, coal companies are often granted waivers and instead reclaim the mountain with "topsoil substitute.”

Over time plants will grow back but they won’t be as strong as before. Trees often struggle to grow under these conditions.

CONCLUSIONThese operations are a health hazard to nearby human communities, they

destroy animal habitats, and they destroy mountains which are priceless and nonrenewable.

All of this for the sake of mining coal; Is it worth it?

In recent years mountaintop removal mining has been declined thanks to the opposition against it, but it’s still an issue.