I. Intro
II. What Is MTR and Why Is It a Problem?
a. Process of Mountaintop Removal
b. Myths Believed, Why They are Untrue
III. Why MTR Is an Injustice
a. Why I Care About It
b. Why We Should Care About It
IV. What People Are Doing to Challenge It
a. End Mountaintop Removal Lobby Week
V. Conclusion
MYTH & FACTS ABOUT MTR http://www.appvoices.org/index.php?/mtr/myths_and_facts/
Myth: Mountaintop removal mining increases employment.
Fact: Mountaintop removal strip mining is so profitable for the coal companies precisely because it replaces most of the need for labor with highly destructive, but nonetheless efficient, explosives and machinery. Although coal production rose 32 percent between 1987 and 1997, mining jobs dropped by 29 percent over the same period.
Source: Citizens Coal Council
Fact: The number of people employed by the coal industry in West Virginia peaked around 1940 at over 130,000 people employed, producing approximately 130,000 short tons of coal annually. By 1997, less than 20,000 people were being paid by coal companies to produce over 180,000 short tons of coal annually.
Source: Coal Productivity, WV Office of Miners Health, Safety & Training
Myth: Mountaintop removal mining improves local economies.
Fact: Tourism pumps far more money into West Virginia economy each year than does the coal industry.
Source: Citizens Coal Council
Fact: Surface mining (which includes MTR mining), accounts for only 1.2% of jobs in WV and brings in just 2.6% of the state’s total revenues. The counties where surface mining predominates are some of the still poorest counties in the country.
Source: 2002 economic census data;
Myth: All surface-mined land is reclaimed equal to or better than it was prior to mining.
Fact: The Appalachian Highlands are characterized by some of the best and most diverse forest habitats in the world. Current reclamation practices are unable to restore native mixed hardwood forests, but rather replace these ecosystems with fields of non-native grasses. These changes in habitat may significantly impact neotropical bird populations, native salamander populations and other sensitive species.
Source: Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
Fact: The “Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and the Clean Water Act do not require that sites forested prior to mining would be reforested as a part of the post mining reclamation requirements.”
Source: US Environmental Protection Agency
Myth: Coal Companies do all they can to reduce the negative impact mountaintop mining has on the environment.
Fact: Reclamation is usually done late in the mining process for ease of operation. In order to reduce the size of valley fills and reduce reclamation costs, coal companies should reclaim the land contemporaneously with mining.
Source: Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
Fact: Valley fills are built from the top down. If valley fills are constructed from the bottom up, they will shrink in size due to leveling and compaction.
Source: Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
Fact: Slurry produced by coal mining contains dangerous heavy metals, including: Antimony, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chlorine, Chromium, Cobalt, Lead, Manganese, Nickel, Selenium, Arsenic and Mercury.
Source: US Geologic Survey
Fact: In the Appalachian Plateau, iron and manganese concentrations exceeded US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water guidelines in at least 40% of the wells, and about 70% of the wells near reclaimed surface coal mines.
Source: US Environmental Protection Agency
Myth: The coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia need more flat land for development purposes.
Fact: Over 300,000 acres of West Virginia have received surface mine permits. Less than 1 percent of mined land is currently reused for any development purpose.
Source: Razing Appalachia, by Maryanne Vollers, Mother Jones: July/August 1999 Issue
Fact: At the present rate of development, this is enough developable land to last 3,000 years. As of 2002 in the Coal River Basin area of West Virginia alone, there were 95,000 acres of flat land lying 600-800 feet above the existing infrastructure. This is enough land to build:
10 One hundred acre prisons
5 Five thousand acre parks
50 Shopping malls
400 Fifty acre schools
100 One hundred acre trailer parks
Source: Rick Eades, Speech at the Coal Summit, Charleston, WV, June 2002.
Myth: Appalachian coal reserves are large enough to provide coal for another century or more.
Fact: “In the northern and central Appalachian Basin coal regions… Sufficient high-quality, thick, bituminous resources remain in these beds and coal zones to last for the next one or two decades at current production.”
Source: US Geologic Survey
Independent Lens: RAZING APPALACHIA , Mountaintop Removal Strip Mining | PBS http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/razingappalachia/mtop.html
-Mountaintop removal mining is the practice of blasting off the tops of mountains so machines called draglines can mine coal deposits. Coal mining companies dump the mountaintops into nearby valleys and streams to create "valley fills," converting mountain landscapes covered in hardwood forests into fields of sparse grass. Coal companies are stripping off the tops of mountains in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. Tennessee has three inactive mines.
-More than half of the electricity in the U.S. today is generated by coal-fired power plants.
-Demand for electricity in the U.S. has increased by 136 percent since 1970.
-In the 1999-2000 election cycle, the coal mining industry contributed more than $3.6 million to federal parties and candidates.
-West Virginia has 4 percent of the coal in the world. The U.S. has 21.1 percent of the world total.
-The U.S. is responsible for 22.3 percent of the world's coal-related carbon emissions.
-52 percent of U.S. energy is powered by coal.
-Over 1000 miles of streams have been buried by strip mine waste in Appalachia.
-In 2000, almost 170 million tons of coal were mined in West Virginia, with 60 million tons coming from strip mines.
-In 1950, West Virginia employed 143,000 miners. By 1997, that number was down to 22,000.
-75 percent of West Virginia's streams and rivers are polluted by mining and other industries.
-300,000 acres of hardwood forest in West Virginia have been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining.
-St. Louis-based Arch Coal is the nation's second-largest coal producer and accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. energy.
-In 2001, Arch Coal reported revenues of nearly $1.5 billion.
Sources:
Your midterm was well researched and presented with an interesting video clip. The yellow highlighting here makes it hard to read the text. Try changing it to a lighter opacity and upload the mountain top removal documentary here. You are doing excellent work with your real world blogging activities and social media presence.
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