How much land in Appalachia is involved in mountaintop removal mining?

How much land in Appalachia is involved in mountaintop removal mining?

Roughly 45% of central Appalachian coal is from strip mining, and almost 100% of that is mountaintop removal.

Can you mine in the Appalachian Mountains?

Surface coal mining methods in the steep terrain of the central Appalachian coalfields include mountaintop removal, contour, area and highwall mining. Coal mining operations are found in Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama and Tennessee.

What is the major negative impact of mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachian highlands?

Water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that mountaintop removal “valley fills” are responsible for burying more than 2,000 miles of vital Appalachian headwater streams, and poisoning many more.

Why is mountaintop mining bad?

The air and water pollution caused by this mining practice, which involves deforesting and tearing off mountaintops to get at the coal, is leading to increases in cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, pulmonary disease, and birth defects, his research shows.

What are 2 toxic chemicals that come from mountaintop removal?

Toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, selenium, and arsenic leach into local water supplies, poisoning drinking water. This destructive practice, known as mountaintop-removal mining, sends carcinogenic toxins like silica into the air, affecting communities for miles around.

Is mountaintop mining legal?

Mountaintop mining is regulated under several laws, including the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). Viewed broadly, the Administration’s combined actions on mountaintop mining displease both industry and environmental advocates.

Does mountaintop mining still exist?

MTR in the United States is most often associated with the extraction of coal in the Appalachian Mountains. More than 500 mountains in the US have been destroyed by this process, resulting in the burial of 3,200 km (2,000 mi) of streams. Mountaintop removal has been practiced since the 1960s.

Why is mountaintop removal controversial?

The most controversial mines are known as mountaintop removal mines because coal companies literally remove the tops of mountains with dynamite and earth-moving machines, called draglines, in order to reach coal seams. The scale of these mines is matched by the social and environmental problems they create.

Is mountaintop removal banned?

The Obama administration, after studying the issue for eight years and receiving 94,000 public comments, adopted the Stream Protection Rule on December 20, 2016. The rule disappointed environmental activists because it did not ban mountaintop removal.

Is mountaintop removal mining still happening?

Since the 1970s, the coal industry has blown up more than 500 of the oldest, most biologically rich mountains in America and destroyed more than 2,000 miles of headwater streams. Despite an ongoing citizen movement to end the destruction, and despite the decline in coal, it’s still happening.

How have humans impacted the Appalachian Mountains?

Mountaintop removal mining, a particularly destructive form of surface mining which involves literally blasting away the tops of mountains to get at the coal reserves below, has become the dominant land-use issue in central Appalachia, impacting vast areas of West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky.

What is mountaintop removal coal mining?

Mountaintop removal coal mining, often described as “strip mining on steroids,” is an extremely destructive form of mining that is devastating Appalachia. In the past few decades, over 2,000 miles of streams and headwaters that provide drinking water for millions of Americans have been permanently buried and destroyed.

What is surface coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains?

Surface coal mining in the steep terrain of the central Appalachian coalfields includes: auger mining. Operations are concentrated in: scattered areas of eastern Tennessee. Surface coal mining involves: removing parts or all of mountaintops to expose buried seams of coal, and

What areas of West Virginia are affected by mountaintop removal?

Large areas of West Virginia have been affected by mountaintop removal mining (light red), and additional areas have been permitted but not yet mined (blue). The outlined area contains some of the state’s largest mines, including the Hobet-21 Mine and the Kayford Mine, each of which is more than 10,000 acres.

How many miles of streams are affected by mountaintop removal mining?

More than 1,200 miles of streams had been degraded by mountaintop removal mining. At least 724 miles of streams were completely buried by valley fills between 1985 and 2001. Permits issued since then will affect thousands of additional acres and hundreds of miles of streams.