Mountaintop removal flies under U.S. radar
12/11/2009- Observer-Reporter
Everyone who has lived in Southwestern Pennsylvania for the past 10 years is familiar with the term “longwall mining.” For the benefit of those readers who are new to the area, we provide this explanation: Unlike traditional deep coal mining, where pillars are left to prevent collapse, longwall mining removes all the coal, and subsidence occurs quickly. This has made coal mining more profitable, but the effect on the ground above – on buildings, roads, streams and water supplies – has created much turmoil and many headlines.
But because longwall mining is confined to this particular area of the country, the rest of the nation is not much aware of it. Those outsiders who are told horror stories about its effects are apt not to believe that such things can happen legally.
And so is the situation in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, where the most practical method of getting at some coal deposits is a process called mountaintop removal, which makes longwall mining look benign by comparison.
Because this process is confined to just one area, it has flown under the radar of most of the nation. The coal is reached by removing all trees and then blasting off the top of the mountain and pushing earth with heavy machinery into the valleys, often burying the streams that run through them. Unlike underground mining, the effects on landscape and environment are more radical and permanent.
Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques.
Coal companies in Appalachia are increasingly using this method because it allows for almost complete recovery of coal seams while reducing the number of workers required to a fraction of what conventional methods require. Read Entire Article.