Feature

Mountaintop Removal Mining is Destroying Appalachia

Mountaintop removal mining is devastating Appalachia.

Photo: Mark Schmerling

From a point high above the Appalachian mountains, the cranes look like tiny Tonka Trucks sprinkled on a barren landscape. But these so-called "draglines" are the size of city blocks, towering more than 20 stories... and they are voracious.

In a single scoop they move 100 tons of earth -- enough to fill 65 pickup trucks.

They work around the clock, gutting some of the world's oldest mountains to get at thin seams of coal buried deep below. Blown up rubble and rocks are shoved into creeks and streams, choking them with the pulverized habitat of many creatures -- including people.

Welcome to mountaintop removal -- a mining practice that always begins the same way: clear cutting mountain forests and placing tons of high explosives to disintegrate mountaintops. So far, coal companies have already flattened an area the size of Delaware across Appalachia, burying 2,000 miles of streams in the process.

These coal companies may boast of their contributions to local economies, yet mountaintop removal requires fewer employees than traditional mining, consumes much greater resources, and leaves behind a destructive wake of deadened land and poisoned waters. There is no justification to continue to depend upon out-dated industrial practices or tainted coal when President Obama and Congress have already begun to update our economy and to create new green jobs and opportunities in the Appalachian region.

This permanent destruction is an abuse of U.S. waters, an insult to the families forced to live with bone-shaking explosions and poisoned water wells, and a disrespect for the land and culture of this region. Coal companies and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have essentially written off Appalachia.

Earthjustice fought mountaintop removal in court, certain that the Clean Water Act could be relied on to stop the blatant destruction of waterways that feed drinking water supplies for millions of Americans. We advocate on behalf of coalfield residents tired of seeing the destruction firsthand. But the Bush administration tampered with Clean Water Act rules, making changes that would allow this rock and debris to be called "fill" and authorizing companies to dump this mining waste directly into streams, burying them forever.

On February 13, a panel of federal judges issued a decision that is wrong on the law and the science and told Earthjustice and our clients -- and the mountains and people and wildlife of Appalachia -- that mountaintop removal could continue. One judge on the panel expressed his dissent and disagreement with this destructive decision, emphasizing the serious risk to Appalachia posed by the panel's decision. This risk is indeed tremendous and imminent. In overturning an earlier court victory for Earthjustice, the ruling potentially opens the floodgates for even more destruction. Pending mining permits in Kentucky and West Virginia alone will create 432 valley fills, permanently bury 213 miles of streams and flatten nearly 60,000 acres.

But this is just a temporary setback, said Earthjustice attorney Steve Roady.

"This fight is not over until mountaintop removal mining is over. We will continue to litigate, and in addition, the new administration must take immediate steps to curb the terrible practice of mountaintop removal mining and undo the mistakes of the past."

One of the immediate ways to restrict the destruction brought by mountaintop removal is to undo changes made to the Clean Water Act regulations and restore this law's original potency as a protector of all our nation's waterways. We can all agree that it should never again be lawful in America to dump waste into our waters. To that end, Earthjustice launched a public support campaign in March 2009; more than 23,000 individuals sent messages to President Obama, uring him to restore the Clean Water Act.