This pathfinder focuses on the history of strip mining in Appalachia including grass roots resistance, cultural and environmental impact, and to a lesser extent, coal industry …

Coal mining in Appalachia may bring to mind the archetypal soot-covered miner working deep underground. But in the last 30 years, a big percentage of coal mining has been done under the sun.

In the Appalachian mountains of the eastern United States, coal-mining families who have lived there for generations are now being driven out of their homes by the latest mining practice.

Below the densely forested slopes of the Appalachian Mountains in southern West ia is a layer cake of thin coal seams. To uncover this coal profitably, mining companies engineer large—sometimes very large—surface mines. This time-series of images of a surface mine in Boone County, West ia, illustrates why this controversial mining …

It found that a total of 1,400 square miles of Appalachia within the Ohio River basin has been scarred by strip mining, with the tops and sides of mountains …

Mountaintop removal coal mining — one of the most notoriously destructive forms of mining — has torn through over 500 mountains across Appalachia, even as coal's dominance over American energy supplies has faded in recent years.. Mountaintop removal is a form of strip mining. Instead of tunneling into the earth following coal seams, …

Chris Irwin at United Mountain Defense just delivered one of the most awesome point-by-point refutation of every coal industry talking point ever. Stat-by-stat, and state-by-state, Chris refutes Congressman Duncan's (R TN-1) silly hogwash about "jobs and economics and helping poor people" as the reason for continuing mountaintop …

His people had settled the Clintwood and George's Fork area, along the Appalachian edge of southern ia, in the early 17th century. ... Strip-mining, however, pushed this bait-and-switch to ...

In fact, the West ia Department of Environmental Protection celebrated Earth Day by rubber-stamping a new strip-mining permit for an out-of-state coal company, slated to destroy 1,085 acres ...

According to a compilation of individual states' data, it has been estimated that over 8.4 billion acres of land nationwide have been disturbed by strip mining practices, including at least 1.2 million by mountaintop removal mining in Central Appalachia.

Strip mining for coal in Central Appalachia is an environmentally violent process typically involving the clearcutting of forests and then the blasting of the tops or sides of mountains to get at ...

What Studies Warn About Strip Mining and Flood Risk. Across Appalachian coal country, mining companies, flood victims, environmental advocates and academic researchers have debated the extent to which strip mining contributes to flooding, sometimes in court. Flooding damage can come in different forms—collapsed …

This report on the effects of strip and surface mining on the fish and wildlife resources in eight Appalachian States is based in part on observation made during a tour of strip and surface mined area by the authors, as members of a team of specialist from six Federal agencies. Surface mining has caused extensive damage to fish and wildlife habitats …

Surface mining destroys those ancient interrelationships and disrupts them for many miles around. Keith Eshleman, a scientist at the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Studies Appalachian Laboratory, runs an ongoing study on the impact of strip mine sites on the mountains of western Maryland.

Strip mining across the mountaintops of Appalachia is scarring as much as three times more land to get a ton of coal than just …

Studies suggest that strip mining affects the local mountain hydrology in many places. But there's relatively little research on the exact effects of mountaintop mining on Appalachian flooding ...

Mountaintop removal is a type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. Primarily, mountaintop removal is …

Appalachian Mountains. In his sweeping article, From Pick and Shovel to Mountaintop Removal: Environmental Injustice in the Appalachian Coal Fields, Patrick C. McGinley, a seasoned public interest coalfield litigator and scholar, surveys the marred historical landscape of strip-mining conflicts in West ia.

The area with the largest extent of strip-mining damage in the entire Ohio River basin is the Big Sandy watershed, which includes Pigeon Creek, and it's also the most threatened by extreme weather related to climate change, according to the new analysis. ... Across Appalachian coal country, mining companies, flood victims, environmental ...

Mountaintop-removal mining is devastating Appalachia, but residents are fighting back This article was originally published in Orion Magazine.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Appalachian coal-mining communities. Areas with mountaintop removal have significantly higher mortality rates from cardiovascular disease than other parts of Appalachia with similar levels of poor health, smoking and poverty. ... Heavily strip-mined communities in Appalachia are among the ...

Large areas of West ia 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.

Mountaintop removal mining is one of the most intensive forms of mining on the planet. Miners go to mountaintops for coal, stripping the tips with explosive and other environmentally invasive methods. Mining enterprises find a coal seam and start clearing the area with massive machinery, tearing up countless flora and displacing other wildlife.

The Appalachian region boasts a long, proud history of resistance by individuals, organizations, and alliances working to stop strip mining abuses in the region, beginning in the 1960s. The Appalachian Coalition Against Strip Mining formalized some of these efforts in the 1970s by working with a national coalition of groups from coalfields ...

Appalachian Voices. Human Health Impacts (n.d.). ... Douglas, Stratford, and Anne Walker. COAL MINING AND THE RESOURCE CURSE IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. Journal of Regional Science 57.4 (2017): 568-90. Web. ... Steelhammer, Rick. Kanawha Forest Coalition Prevails In 2- Year Effort to Halt Strip Mine. (2016, …

Strip mining has forever altered the Appalachian landscape by cutting off mountaintops to get at low sulfur deposits more cheaply and safely than underground mining allows. Now, after 20 years of dumping the debris into neighboring valleys, a federal judge has ruled that disposal violates the Clean Air Act, which prohibits depositing "waste" near waterways.

The rolling, stream-creased mountains of the central and southern Appalachian Mountains are blanketed by forests that have some of the highest biodiversity outside the tropics. …

Wildlife restoration is just one of the new uses of about 1.5 million acres of Central Appalachian land affected by strip- and mountaintop-removal-mining since the 1970s. Other communities have turned their land into sites for solar energy farms, outdoor recreation hubs, industrial parks, and more.

Strip Mining Appalachia's History. By scott parkin. We're starting hear rumblings that Arch Coal might be preparing to begin mountaintop removal coal mining operations on historic Blair Mountain. Blair Mountain is the site of the second largest armed insurrection in U.S. history (after the civil war.) In 1921, 10,000 miners fought an army ...

List of Pros of Strip Mining. 1. It is much more efficient compared to underground mining Those who advocate for strip mining believe that the recovery rate of materials is higher using the method. It is estimated that about 80 to 90% of the material can be recovered compared to the 50% recovered using tunnel mining. Strip mining is …