Page 661 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

(a) Mountaintop mining in eastern Kentucky (b) Train hauls coal past homes in West Virginia

(c) Flood damage below a West Virginia mine site (d) People protesting mountaintop mining

Figure 23.10 Mountaintop mining has social and environmental impacts. In the Appalachians, moun-
taintop mining for coal (a) takes place on massive scales. Communities near these sites (b) experience
environmental impacts such as flash floods below mining sites (c). Mountaintop mining provides employment
opportunities, but some residents, such as these in Frankfort, Kentucky (d), oppose the process because of its
environmental costs.

easily accessible coal, in level areas near the surface, has already (Figure 23.10c). Coal dust causes respiratory ailments, and con-
been mined. Thus, the mining industry says mountaintop removal taminated water unleashes a variety of health problems. Some
is necessary if we are to obtain coal from the Appalachian region landowners are pressured to sell their land to coal companies,
in order to provide the electricity we all use. The practice grew in and people lose the forests and landscapes they have lived with
the 1990s when the Clinton administration opposed strengthen- since childhood. Opposition by some local residents ( Figure
ing regulations on valley filling, and the G.W. Bush administra- 23.10d) to mining operations is often the result.
tion then loosened regulations to allow coal companies to dump Although the people of Appalachia have long relied on
waste rock directly into valleys and streams. the coal industry for employment, mountaintop removal is
Scientists are finding that dumping tons of debris into highly mechanized, so fewer workers are needed for mining.
valleys degrades or destroys immense areas of habitat, clogs As a result, employment has declined in recent years even
streams and rivers, and pollutes waterways with acid drain- as coal extraction has risen. In all these ways, the people of
age. With slopes deforested and valleys filled with debris, ero- Appalachia—already among the poorest in the United States—
sion intensifies, mudslides become frequent, and flash floods suffer substantial external costs (pp. 164, 183) from mining.
ravage the lower valleys (see The Science behind The STory, Meanwhile, the rest of us benefit from the electricity that we
pp. 662–663). produce with their coal.
People living in communities near mining sites experience Critics of mountaintop removal mining argue that valley
social and health impacts (Figure 23.10b). Blasts from mines filling violates the Clean Water Act because runoff flowing
crack house foundations and wells, loose rock tumbles down through waste rocks in valleys often contains high levels of
into yards and homes, overloaded coal trucks speed down salts and toxic metals that degrade water quality and impact
660 once-peaceful rural roads, and floods tear through properties aquatic organisms. While hundreds of permits for mountaintop

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