1: What is mountaintop removal?
The process involves using explosives to remove up to 1,000 vertical feet of rock to reach the coal seams. The resulting debris is often scraped into the adjacent valleys in what is called a valley fill. Methods of surface coal mining that removes a mountaintop or ridgeline, whether or not the mined area will be returned to its approximate original contour.
2: How does each of the following affect the environment:
Clearing-Topsoil and vegetation must be rmoved. Trees are burned or illegally dumped into valley fills
Blasting-Removal of 600 feet or more of elevation
Digging-Coal and debris removed using draglines, earth-moving machines.
Dumping Waste- Debris is dumped into nearby valleys. Polluted 2,000 miles of headwater streams
Processing-Creates coal slurry, sludge, coal dust and clay containing toxic chemicals.
Reclamation-May take hundred years for a forest to re-establish itself on the mine site.
3: Where is mountaintop removal happening?
Mountaintop removal takes place primarily in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and East Tennessee.
4: What can be done to stop mountaintop removal?
State groups like the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch, the West
Virginia Highland Conservancy and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth are making strides in
reigning in the excesses of mountaintop removal. The groups work with the Appalachian Center for the
Economy and the Environment, Earthjustice, Appalachian Voices and others in an ever-growing
alliance of groups dedicated to ending the national disgrace that is mountaintop removal coal mClean Water Protection Act would provide long-term fix that would be difficult for any presidential administration to change
5: What agencies are involved in regulating mountaintop removal?
The permitting of mountaintop removal mining takes place in a complex regulatory framework that spans federal, state and local government agencies and differs by state.Agencies involved in regulation mountaintop removal are the President's Council on Environmental Quality, EPA, U.S Army Corps of Engineers.
6: What is one reason why we don’t need to use this type of process?
Mountaintop removal mining provides less than 4.5 percent of our electricity.
7: Summarize the economic impacts of mountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal lowers the coal companies' overhead cost. It causes less jobs for coal mining, but has increased coal production dramatically. Not only does it reduce underground mining jobs, but it creates barriers to economic development and diversification making areas less attractive for other industries. Places that have coal mining show high rates of economic distress in proportion to the amount of mining that occurs there. Whether or not mountaintop removal mining is ended, the number of coal mining jobs will continue to decrease.
8: Summarize the ecological impacts of mountaintop removal
Ecological impacts of mountaintop removal include the pollution of nearly 2,000 miles of headwater streams. It shows significant increases in conductivity and hardness as well as sulfate concentrations. It has been estimated that mountaintop removal would be responsible for 1.2 million acres of forest elimination. When topsoil is removed, the land is incapable of restoring native hardwood forest habitat. Fish species are also threatened by mountaintop removal. Mountaintop removal is eradication forests integral to fish survival.
9: How does mountaintop removal affect the local community?
It causes increased mortality due to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. It contaminates drinking water and also causes flyrock,which is when communities are blanketed in dust and rocks of all sizes. Mountaintop removal causes powerful flash floods. Without trees, rainfall quickly becomes dangerous.
The process involves using explosives to remove up to 1,000 vertical feet of rock to reach the coal seams. The resulting debris is often scraped into the adjacent valleys in what is called a valley fill. Methods of surface coal mining that removes a mountaintop or ridgeline, whether or not the mined area will be returned to its approximate original contour.
2: How does each of the following affect the environment:
Clearing-Topsoil and vegetation must be rmoved. Trees are burned or illegally dumped into valley fills
Blasting-Removal of 600 feet or more of elevation
Digging-Coal and debris removed using draglines, earth-moving machines.
Dumping Waste- Debris is dumped into nearby valleys. Polluted 2,000 miles of headwater streams
Processing-Creates coal slurry, sludge, coal dust and clay containing toxic chemicals.
Reclamation-May take hundred years for a forest to re-establish itself on the mine site.
3: Where is mountaintop removal happening?
Mountaintop removal takes place primarily in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and East Tennessee.
4: What can be done to stop mountaintop removal?
State groups like the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch, the West
Virginia Highland Conservancy and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth are making strides in
reigning in the excesses of mountaintop removal. The groups work with the Appalachian Center for the
Economy and the Environment, Earthjustice, Appalachian Voices and others in an ever-growing
alliance of groups dedicated to ending the national disgrace that is mountaintop removal coal mClean Water Protection Act would provide long-term fix that would be difficult for any presidential administration to change
5: What agencies are involved in regulating mountaintop removal?
The permitting of mountaintop removal mining takes place in a complex regulatory framework that spans federal, state and local government agencies and differs by state.Agencies involved in regulation mountaintop removal are the President's Council on Environmental Quality, EPA, U.S Army Corps of Engineers.
6: What is one reason why we don’t need to use this type of process?
Mountaintop removal mining provides less than 4.5 percent of our electricity.
7: Summarize the economic impacts of mountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal lowers the coal companies' overhead cost. It causes less jobs for coal mining, but has increased coal production dramatically. Not only does it reduce underground mining jobs, but it creates barriers to economic development and diversification making areas less attractive for other industries. Places that have coal mining show high rates of economic distress in proportion to the amount of mining that occurs there. Whether or not mountaintop removal mining is ended, the number of coal mining jobs will continue to decrease.
8: Summarize the ecological impacts of mountaintop removal
Ecological impacts of mountaintop removal include the pollution of nearly 2,000 miles of headwater streams. It shows significant increases in conductivity and hardness as well as sulfate concentrations. It has been estimated that mountaintop removal would be responsible for 1.2 million acres of forest elimination. When topsoil is removed, the land is incapable of restoring native hardwood forest habitat. Fish species are also threatened by mountaintop removal. Mountaintop removal is eradication forests integral to fish survival.
9: How does mountaintop removal affect the local community?
It causes increased mortality due to diabetes, heart disease and cancer. It contaminates drinking water and also causes flyrock,which is when communities are blanketed in dust and rocks of all sizes. Mountaintop removal causes powerful flash floods. Without trees, rainfall quickly becomes dangerous.