Mountaintop removal

From my hometown* paper (Pikeville hopes mountaintop mining will aid expansion):

The towering mountains that frame this Appalachian town have been a hindrance to growth, forcing homes and businesses to crowd side by side on precious little flat land.

That could change under a plan by Pikeville leaders who have recruited a coal company to flatten two mountaintops to expand with new homes, businesses, athletic fields and factories in the town of 6,300.

Wetlands are a hindrance to the growth of coastal areas. Should we fill them in? Uh, OK, bad example. Some places just weren't meant to grow in certain directions. If growth in Pikeville is so vital, why don't they build 10 story condos? Pikeville is a nice town, but if you've ever driven through it, you might recognize that growth there isn't vital.

And by the way, removing a mountaintop is not a sterile procedure:

However, mountaintop coal mining has come under heavy attack from environmentalists who say the practice takes a large toll on nature.

In the procedure, explosives and heavy equipment are used to expose coal seams. The excess dirt and rock are dumped into hollows, creating additional flat land.

The process requires large-scale blasting and removal of trees, soil and rock, which the environmental group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth says destroys wildlife habitat and contaminates streams with sediment and harmful mine runoff.

...

Ordinarily, coal companies are required under federal law to restore mountains to the original contour, said Tom FitzGerald, head of Kentucky Resources Council. However, an exception in the law allows mining companies to leave the land flat when that better serves post-mining purposes.

FitzGerald, who often provides legal representation to people who suffer from the effects of coal operations, said mining increases the likelihood of flash flooding and has an obvious effect on the views.

*Note: I grew up 25 miles up I-71 from Louisville (aka, Derby City, Loserville).

Comments

[Dano]

They've been duped into thinking all growth is good. If you're outta room, you're outta room.

D

[joshua corning]

I like New York...and I had the privilage of being there and reading an article on how good New York was for the enviornment because of the high density it has achived.

The article neglected to mention that New York was once a hilly forested island that was flattend by developers. If only they had done the same for seattle (maybe not being a fault line but you get the idea) there wouldn't be such a whole sale waste of land.

Sounds like a little of pain for a whole lot of benefit.

[Tracy W]

Do you have pictures of these mountains?

I live in Wellington, NZ, and we are very good at building on the sides of steep hills. Steeper than anything I've seen in the USA apart from the Grand Canyon. I once lived in an apartment which was one of six - a six storied building with each apartment on its own floor and four apartments at ground level. And the top apartment was not at ground level but was below the level of the road. (20 St Michaels Cres, if anyone doubts me.)

[Vivian Stockman]

For pictures of the mountains and mountaintop removal, cut and past these links into your browser:
http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/007/index.html
and
http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/010/index.html

Click on the photos to open high resolution images you can zoom in on.

Or go to www.ohvec.org, in left column click on mountaintop removal under photo galleries.

Consider the value of ecosystem services. Using mountaintop removal coal companies have buried over 1,200 miles of headwaters streams and razed about 500,000 acres of North America's most biodiverse temperate forest. In West Virginia since 2000, at least t 12 people have died in floods made worse by mountaintop removal.

[Common Sense]

Check out this web page for the truth about the economics of coal mining. http://windpub.com/DirtyMoney.htm