End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

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Photo of mountaintop removal mining by Kent Mason

Since the 1970s, the coal industry has blown up more than 500 of the oldest, most biologically rich mountains in America and destroyed more than 2,000 miles of headwater streams. Despite an ongoing citizen movement to end the destruction, and despite the decline in coal, it’s still happening.

Mountaintop removal coal mining is a destructive form of extracting coal in which companies use heavy explosives to blast off hundreds of feet from an ancient mountain ridge to access thin seams of coal below. The massive amounts of dirt and rubble, what the coal industry calls “overburden,” is dumped into adjacent valleys, burying headwater streams.

To meet federal reclamation requirements, the mining sites and “valley fills” are often sprayed with non-native grasses, and gravel ditches are built as so-called restored streams. Many sites don’t meet the requirements, and even if they do, these measures do little to prevent toxic contaminants from poisoning the creeks and streams below.

Mountaintop removal has a devastating impact on the region’s economy, ecology and communities. Appalachian Voices is committed to righting these wrongs and protecting the mountains and communities. For more than a decade, we have worked closely with partner groups and citizens in the region, helping establish and guide The Alliance for Appalachia and building a national movement 100,000+ people strong through ILoveMountains.org.

We remain vigilant in our mission to defend the people and natural resources of the Appalachian region, and will raise a hue-and-cry against any regulatory rollbacks.

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Latest News

White House Halts Review of Mountaintop Removal Health Impacts

In August, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior ordered the National Academy of Sciences to halt a two-year review of the human health impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining. The review’s budget was less than 1 percent of the department’s current grant spending.

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Pattern of Violations at Alpha’s Middle Ridge Mine

West Virginia ordered a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources to “show cause” for why it should be allowed to continue operating Middle Ridge Mine after incurring seven violations since July 2016.

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The National Mining Association doesn’t speak for coal communities

The National Mining Association shrugged when a review of research linking mountaintop removal to human health impacts was halted. But the NMA does not speak for coal communities.

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Va. health advocates hold coal company accountable for water pollution

Contact: Matt Hepler, 276-679-1691, matt.hepler@appvoices.org Brian Willis, 202-675-2386,…

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people by coal mining equipment

Massive mountaintop removal mine threatens Clearfork Valley

The Clearfork Valley of Tennessee has been intensely surface-mined going back decades. Now, Kopper Glo Mining is moving forward with a nearly 1,500-acre mountaintop removal mine on nearby Cooper Ridge.

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White House halts review of mountaintop removal health impacts

The U.S. Department of the Interior ordered the National Academy of Sciences to halt its review of the links between mountaintop removal coal mining and human health impacts.

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