Green Apprentice
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:07 pm
Location: American Southeast and wherever I get the chance to go
Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:31 pm
Mountaintop Removal (MTR)
Mountaintop removal is the most destructive method of coal mining. It permanently destroys mountains, rivers, and communities, and generates huge amounts of waste. Nearly 500 mountains and countless communities in Appalachia have been destroyed as a result. I love being in the mountains anywhere, and I can't stand the idea of losing them. Not to mention that Appalachia is one of the best sources of fresh water in the United States and we're sacrificing that for small amounts of coal. Please read this just to educate yourself a little. 
The following text was taken from http://www.mountainjustice.org:
"1. Forests are clear-cut; often scraping away topsoil, lumber, understory herbs such as ginseng and goldenseal, and all other forms of life that do not move out of the way quickly enough. Wildlife habitat is destroyed and vegetation loss often leads to floods and landslides. Next, explosives up to 100 times as strong as ones that tore open the Oklahoma City Federal building blast up to 800 feet off mountaintops. Explosions can cause damage to home foundations and wells. “Fly rock,” more aptly named fly boulder, can rain off mountains, endangering residents' lives and homes.
2. Huge Shovels dig into the soil and trucks haul it away or push it into adjacent valleys.
3. A dragline digs into the rock to expose the coal. These machines can weigh up to 8 million pounds with a base as big as a gymnasium and as tall as a 20-story building. These machines allow coal companies to hire fewer workers. A small crew can tear apart a mountain in less than a year, working night and day. Coal companies make big profits at the expense of us all.
4. Giant machines then scoop out the layers of coal, dumping millions of tons of “overburden” – the former mountaintops – into the narrow adjacent valleys, thereby creating valley fills. Coal companies have forever buried over 1,200 miles of biologically crucial Appalachian headwaters streams.
5. Coal companies are supposed to reclaim land, but all too often mine sites are left stripped and bare. Even where attempts to replant vegetation have been made, the mountain is never again returned to its healthy state."
The following text was taken from http://www.mountainjustice.org:
"1. Forests are clear-cut; often scraping away topsoil, lumber, understory herbs such as ginseng and goldenseal, and all other forms of life that do not move out of the way quickly enough. Wildlife habitat is destroyed and vegetation loss often leads to floods and landslides. Next, explosives up to 100 times as strong as ones that tore open the Oklahoma City Federal building blast up to 800 feet off mountaintops. Explosions can cause damage to home foundations and wells. “Fly rock,” more aptly named fly boulder, can rain off mountains, endangering residents' lives and homes.
2. Huge Shovels dig into the soil and trucks haul it away or push it into adjacent valleys.
3. A dragline digs into the rock to expose the coal. These machines can weigh up to 8 million pounds with a base as big as a gymnasium and as tall as a 20-story building. These machines allow coal companies to hire fewer workers. A small crew can tear apart a mountain in less than a year, working night and day. Coal companies make big profits at the expense of us all.
4. Giant machines then scoop out the layers of coal, dumping millions of tons of “overburden” – the former mountaintops – into the narrow adjacent valleys, thereby creating valley fills. Coal companies have forever buried over 1,200 miles of biologically crucial Appalachian headwaters streams.
5. Coal companies are supposed to reclaim land, but all too often mine sites are left stripped and bare. Even where attempts to replant vegetation have been made, the mountain is never again returned to its healthy state."
