APES- Land and Water Use Unit Mountain Top Removal Webquest http://appvoices.

org/end-mountaintop-removal/ Name: __________________Chau Vu_______________________________ Answer the following questions: Mountaintop Removal 101 1: What is mountaintop removal? -> Mountaintop removal is any method of surface coal mining that removes a mountaintop or ridgeline, whether or not the mined area will be returned to its approximate original contour. Methods of mountaintop removal coal mining include, but are not limited to: cross-ridge mining, box-cut method mining, steep slope mining, area mining or mountaintop mining. 2: How does each of the following affect the environment: Clearing - Before mining can begin, all topsoil and vegetation must be removed. Because coal companies frequently are responding to short-term fluctuations in the price of coal, these trees are often not used commercially, but instead are burned or sometimes illegally dumped into valley fills. Blasting - Many Appalachian coal seams lie deep below the surface of the mountains. Accessing these seams through surface mining can require the removal of 600 feet or more of elevation. Blowing up this much mountain is accomplished by using millions of pounds of explosives. Every week, the explosive equivalent of the Hiroshima bomb is detonated in Appalachia. Digging - Coal and debris are removed using enormous earth-moving machines known as draglines, which stand 22 stories high and can hold 24 compact cars their buckets. These machines can cost up to $100 million, but are favored by coal companies because they displace the need for hundreds of jobs. Dumping Waste - The debris, called overburden or spoil, is dumped into nearby valleys. These valley fills have buried and polluted nearly 2,000 miles of headwater streams. In 2002, the Bush Administration changed the definition of fill material in the Clean Water Act to include toxic mining waste, which allowed coal companies to legally create valley fills. Processing - Coal must be washed and treated before it is shipped to power plants for burning. This processing creates coal slurry or sludge, a mix of water, coal dust and clay containing toxic

chemicals such as arsenic, mercury, lead and chromium. The coal sludge is often contained in open impoundments, sometimes built with mining debris, making them very unstable. Reclaimation - While reclamation efforts are required by federal law, coal companies often receive waivers from state agencies with the idea that economic development will occur on the land. In reality, most sites receive little more than a spraying of exotic grass seed, and less than three percent of reclaimed mountaintop removal sites are used for economic development. According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency impact statement on mountaintop removal in Appalachia, it may take hundreds of years for a forest to re-establish itself on the mine site. 3: Where is mountaintop removal happening? -> To date, more than 500 mountains have been leveled, and nearly 2,000 miles of precious Appalachian headwater streams have been buried and polluted by mountaintop removal. 4: What can be done to stop mountaintop removal? -> Appalachian Voices is committed to promoting and protecting the mountains and communities of the central and Southern Appalachian region. 5: What agencies are involved in regulating mountaintop removal? -> Federal Legislation - Appalachian Voices is helping to create a national movement to pass strong federal legislation that protects Appalachia from the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining. Our primary focus is passage of the Clean Water Protection Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. iLoveMountains.org - Working with the Alliance for Appalachia, Appalachian Voices developed iLoveMountains.org, a powerful online resource and action center with more than 60,000 supporters dedicated to ending mountaintop removal. Mountaintop Removal in Google Earth - Appalachian Voices partnered with Google to produce the Appalachian Mountaintop Removal layer in Google Earth, bringing mountaintop removal directly to millions of users of Google Earth. In 2009, Appalachian Voices was one of five organizations worldwide recognized as a Google Earth Hero. 6: What is one reason why we dont need to use this type of process? Economic Impacts of Mountaintop Removal 7: Summarize the economic impacts of mountaintop removal -> Mountaintop removal mining is designed to remove the miner from the process, replacing manpower with machinery, and lowering the coal companies overhead cost. Coal mining

employs fewer people today than it did at the turn of the last century, while at the same time coal production has dramatically increased. West Virginia, which once employed over 130,000 people in the mining industry, now has a coal mining workforce of about 20,000 miners. Declining coal production and productivity in central Appalachia will further this downward trend. Ecological Impacts of Mountaintop Removal 8: Summarize the ecological impacts of mountaintop removal -> The EPA estimates that mountaintop removal valley fills are responsible for burying and polluting nearly 2,000 miles of vital Appalachian headwater streams. Water downstream of mountaintop removal operations has shown significant increases in conductivity and hardness as well as sulfate and selenium concentrations. (EPA) In 2003 the EPA estimated that mountaintop removal mining was responsible for the elimination of over 1.2 million acres of forest. Since the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act, which regulates mountaintop removal, does not require coal companies to reforest land as part its post-mining reclamation requirements, these rich ecosystems are routinely replaced with fields of non-native grasses. Affects biodiversity, affects birds, fish, Community Impacts of Mountaintop Removal 9: How does mountaintop removal affect the local community? -> Heavily strip-mined communities in Appalachia are among the unhealthiest in the United States. In 2008, Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index ranked Kentucky and West Virginiathe two states where mountaintop removal is most prevalentsecond to last and dead last respectively. Also rank at the bottom of the index. Communities near mountaintop removal sites frequently experience contamination of their drinking water supplies. The forceful blasting required by mountaintop removal often occurs close to residential dwellings at all times of the day. Communities near mountaintop removal mining sites are often subject to powerful flash floods. Without trees on steep mountain and valley fill slopes, rainfall quickly becomes dangerous.