The Devastating Impact of Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining
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Introduction
Mountain top removal coal mining is a controversial and destructive practice that has led to irreversible changes in the Appalachian landscape. For many people, like Mary Anne Hitt, who grew up in the mountains, seeing the natural beauty of these areas destroyed is not just an environmental concern but a deeply personal one. The mountains hold spiritual significance for communities, and the loss of them represents a loss of culture and identity. This article will delve into the implications of this mining practice, highlighting environmental degradation, pollution, and the impact on local communities.
The Beauty of Appalachia
The Appalachian Mountains are known for their stunning natural landscapes, rich biodiversity, and the clean streams that run through them. Unfortunately, the practice of mountain top removal has transformed lush forests into barren wastelands, drastically altering the ecosystem that years of natural growth have created.
Spiritual and Physical Importance of Mountains
- Cultural significance: Many residents see the mountains as integral to their heritage and identity.
- Physical importance: Mountains provide vital resources and ecosystems that support wildlife and human life alike.
Once a mountain is destroyed, it cannot be rebuilt—a sentiment echoed by environmental advocates like Mary Anne Hitt. The disappearing mountains mean that entire ecosystems, as well as their cultural significance, vanish forever.
The Process of Mountain Top Removal
What Happens During Mining?
Mountain top removal involves blasting away the summit of a mountain to access coal seams located beneath it. This process entails:
- Blasting: The initial step involves dynamiting to remove vast amounts of rock.
- Debris disposal: The waste materials are often dumped into adjacent valleys, destroying streams and habitats in the process.
- Flattening: The landscape is flattened, erasing hills that have stood for millennia.
Environmental Damage
The environmental consequences of this mining method are staggering. Several key issues arise from this practice:
- Loss of biodiversity: The diverse ecosystems that once thrived are wiped out.
- Stream contamination: Over 2,000 miles of streams have been buried, impacting water quality and wildlife.
- Dissolved minerals: The rock materials pushed into streams release toxic substances like iron, magnesium, and calcium, which are harmful to aquatic organisms.
Water Pollution and Community Health
Contaminated Drinking Water
One of the most immediate impacts of mountain top removal coal mining is water contamination. Many residents in Appalachia struggle with polluted water sources. Some alarming facts include:
- Toxic sludge: Polluted water runs off from valley fills, affecting local streams and drinking water.
- Health risks: Communities report various health issues as a result of polluted water, including problems linked to heavy metals and other toxins.
Firsthand Accounts
- Regina Lilly shares her experience of contaminated water, noting that most wells are polluted, making them unsafe for cooking or cleaning.
- There are even cases where individuals were harmed by the water itself—one man reported that his water burned when a lighter was held to it, highlighting the severity of the contamination.
Impacts on Health
Residents are not just facing inconvenience; the polluted water raises serious health concerns:
- Illnesses: Long-term exposure can lead to various health complications.
- Mental health: The anxiety of uncertain water quality compounds the situation, affecting community well-being.
Conclusion
Mountain top removal coal mining poses an unparalleled threat to both the environment and local communities in Appalachia. The irreversible destruction of mountains and the contamination of vital water sources underscore the urgency for greater awareness and action against this destructive practice. As Mary Anne Hitt expresses, these places matter deeply to individuals and hold significant spiritual value. Advocacy efforts must continue to push for policies that protect these sacred landscapes, ensuring that the well-being of both the environment and the communities that rely on it remain a priority. Reclaiming and restoring damaged ecosystems will be a monumental task, but it is essential for the future of Appalachia.
Ultimately, the fight for the mountains is not just the fight for nature but a fight for cultural identity, health, and a sustainable future.
[explosion] MARY ANNE HITT: To me as somebody who had grown up in the mountains and love the mountains,
the idea that a coal company had the right to blow up an entire mountain and wipe it off the map forever was just unconscionable.
These places are not just sort of physically important to people, but they are spiritually important to people.
And once they're gone, they're gone forever. You can't put a mountain back together. And I just deeply feel that no company has the right
to take away something that ultimately belongs and matters to so many people. Just look across the valley.
Next door, that's what it used to be like-- one of the most diverse forests on the planet, and now it's a wasteland.
Over there used to be a valley and a stream that's now covered up with thousands of feet of boulders. That's never going to be the same again.
And over 2000 miles of streams have been buried in Appalachia-- some of the most diverse streams on the planet, some of the cleanest water
on the planet. And that is a huge loss to this part of the world. MARGARET PALMER: When that rock material is pushed
over the edge of the now flattened mountain, it ends up dissolving a lot of minerals into the water, things like iron, magnesium, calcium.
And organisms can't tolerate that, so it kills organisms in the stream. And so that material, that water that is now heavily polluted
runs out of the base of the valley fill, into streams, and eventually into rivers below. MARY ANNE HITT: They also store the mining waste
in these huge earthen dams, and they're holding back billions of gallons of toxic sludge that's leaking into the drinking water.
REGINA LILLY: Everybody's well is pretty much contaminated in one form or another. So I don't use water to cook.
I use it to do the dishes, but that's about it, because you can wipe the water off. There's a guy that we tend to help out every now and again.
Here's is blind from the water. He could take his water, turn his water on, put it in a clear water bottle, put his hand over it,
sit for a few seconds, even put a cap on it, take the cap off, and take a lighter and light it, and water will burn.