MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL

America is running out of the inexpensive energy we have been living with for a long time. As we see with oil prices escalating, so have our electricity prices, and they will be rising more. There are a number of ways that we can keep our energy costs down.

1. Use less energy. Become energy efficient.

--Use energy efficient appliances

American citizens use about 6 times more energy than what we have in land.

2. Practice coal mining as it is being done in Appalachia, mountain top removal.

Mountaintop removal (MTR) is nicknamed by the local West Virginia residents, “strip mining on steroids.” Mountaintop removal is a large-scale, bigger is better, cost-effective method of coal mining that Appalachian coal companies are employing to remain competitive in an energy-frenzied country. The reasoning is to keep energy reliable and inexpensive for most Americans, but some Americans, those in the areas where mining is occurring, are paying a much higher price.  They feel they have little say as they watch their world disappear.


America is the Saudi Arabia of coal, with 35% of the world’s coal reserves, about a 250-year supply if we continue at present usage.  To deter reliance on our less abundant gas and oil (about a 12 year supply), we have been increasing our use of coal, which is used mainly to create electricity.  Nine out of every ten tons of coal mined in the US is used for electricity generation. In 2005 coal usage generates over half of the electricity in the US. Coal is the cheapest form of energy production today when measured by BTUs, coming in below one-half the cost of natural gas and petroleum products, although capital, planning and permitting costs for coal are high when compared to natural gas. It is expected though, that coal will remain the most used source of fossil fuel in the next 20 years.

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West Virginia


Kayford Mountain


Marsh Fork Elementary School

Kayford MountainThe town of Kayford no longer exists. Instead there is a mountaintop that has been removed. All except one resident, Larry Gibson, whose family has lived on the mountain for generations. The mine wants to remove Larry from his mountain, but he is the keeper of the mountain, and maintains the local cemetery of others who have lived there.

Coal Keeps West Virginia Poor
Coal is an important source of income for West Virginia, yet, the state is one of the poorest in the nation. Many people feel this is due to the absentee ownership of land by large coal companies.  The large coal companies own up to 80 percent of the land in the southern counties and all of the mineral rights. 

Marsh Fork Elementary School
This school is distinctive because in 1994, after the school was built, Performance Coal, built a preparation plant and mine directly behind the school. The preparation plant has built a coal silo only a few hundred feet from the school. A coal silo is where washed coal is loaded onto trains. After loading the coal, chemicals are sprayed on the coal to keep it in place while traveling. Additionally, above the zig-zag in the picture(left) is a 2 billion gallon slurry pond, built behind a earthen dam. Dams like this have a history of breaking in Appalachia. When they do, people are killed.

Divide
When mountaintop removal is practiced entire landscapes and ecosystems are disrupted. The overburden removed to get to the coal is dumped in the valley below, often over streams, and further destroying the local ecosystem and biodiversity, as well as creating pollution problems for the local residents. Though reclamation of the mountaintops is required by law, it is sometimes not done at all, or done very poorly, leaving the land destroyed for generations.


Did you know

Using the Internet an average of 12 hours per week uses over 300 pounds of coal annually.

One pound of coal is required to create, package, store, and move 2 megabytes of data

Other websites about Mountaintop Removal

EPA

Department of the Interior - Office of Surface Mining

Appalchian Voices

OVEC