Click to enlarge. Photo by Lynn Willis; Flight by Southwings

Surface coal mining has been going on in Appalachia for a long time. If you live in the part of central Appalachia that produces coal, it probably feels like it’s been going on forever. The regulations have been modified a few times, the markets have had their ups and downs, and some of the names of the coal companies are different than they used to be.

Aside from that, not much has changed.

In 2009, there was a great deal of excitement about early conversations with Obama administration officials. The previous eight years had been a nightmare for Appalachian community groups fighting against mountaintop removal coal mining. Finally, there were people in the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Interior who seemed eager to hear from communities and make some real changes. Yet, five years later, mountaintop removal coal mining is still happening in Appalachia.

A few weeks ago, Southwings took my colleague Amy Adams and photographer Lynn Willis on a flight over mountaintop removal sites in West Virginia. The images are hard to look at, not because they show anything new, but precisely because they are more of the same. Mountains continue to be deforested, blasted apart, and dumped into nearby valleys and streams.

I always find it interesting to hear from folks in our movement describe what it was that motivated them to become active in fighting against mountaintop removal mining. There are all sort of answers, including: “It was happening in my backyard,” and “I heard a presentation from impacted Appalachian residents.” For me, it was a mix of things, starting with meeting some residents of eastern Kentucky.

This image, however, is what made it all click in my mind.

That’s a Google Earth satellite image of approximately 5,000 square miles of central Appalachia (roughly the size of Connecticut). Notice those grey splotches. Those pock marks. Those coal tattoos. Each of those giant marks on the earth is a mountaintop removal coal mine.

The scale and pervasiveness of the destruction is almost impossible to comprehend. The satellite image is evidence of an ongoing crime against nature that regulators and policy makers are astonishingly allowing to continue.

Understanding the extent of the mining is an important step to understanding the connection between mining pollution and the Appalachian health crisis occurring across 50 counties. Blowing up more than 500 mountains, burying more than 2,000 miles of streams, and desecrating over 1 million acres of land cannot be done without polluting the air and water necessary to human health. That’s why there’s a close link between mountaintop removal mining and elevated rates of cancer, heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and birth defects throughout the entire region.

Yet, mountaintop removal is still happening.

Appalachians are not going to give up, and neither is Appalachian Voices. Federal agencies can still take major steps to ending mountaintop removal, and we all need to do what we can to make sure they do.

>> Learn more about mountaintop removal mining.