coal - mountaintop removal mining
Beyond Coal
Mountaintop Removal Mining
Kayford Mountain, WV, has been almost entirely destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining. The unmined portion belongs to longtime activist Larry Gibson, whose family has lived on Kayford for 200 years.
Watch Ashley Judd speak out and join the fight to end mountaintop removal coal mining.
Mountaintop Removal Mining: An Overview
In places like Appalachia, mining companies blow the tops off mountains to reach a thin seam of coal and then, to minimize waste disposal costs, dump millions of tons of waste rock into the valleys below, causing permanent damage to the ecosystem and landscape.
This destructive practice, known as mountaintop removal mining, has damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020. The mining poisons drinking water, lays waste to wildlife habitat, increases the risk of flooding and wipes out entire communities. Meet the people fighting to protect Appalachia.
Mountaintop Removal Mining and Clean Water
Government decisions to weaken clean water protections are putting communities at risk. Under the weakened protections large coal mining operations are allowed to dump mining waste and fill into mountain streams, burying and polluting local supplies of drinking water. Read more.
Reports and Factsheets
Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
Destroying Appalachia One Mountain At A Time
Learn the basics of MTR with this tri-fold fact brochure.
Fill an Alaskan Lake with Mining Waste? A Bad Precedent for our Nation's Waters
In 2002, the Bush administration changed a key Clean Water Act rule to allow mining companies to dump their waste into waterways. Known as the "Fill Rule," it allows mountaintop removal coal mine operators to bury Appalachian streams with their waste.
Mountaintop Removal Lays Waste to Appalachia
Learn about the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining on the environment and communities of Appalachia, and what you can do to help stop the destruction.
Toxic Selenium
How Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Threatens People & Streams
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