What is Mountain Top Removal and what effect is it having on communities and ecologies in Appalachia?
Mountain Top Removal (MTR) is a form of strip mining that has existed since the 1970s. Its use was increased about ten years ago in West Virginia, and in the past three years its use has been accelerated to an all-time high. Instead of starting from the top and digging down to the coal seam, in MTR huge drills are used to bore holes into the sides of a mountain until they hit coal. Then the hole is packed with explosives and the top of the mountain is literally blown off. In most cases, the rubble, or overburden, is then pushed over into the surrounding valleys, burying the any headwaters that were there. So far over 1200 miles of headwater streams, in West Virginia alone, have been buried by this process, know as valley filling. Geologically speaking, the coal seams that exist in these mountains also play an important part in maintaining the water table by creating an impermeable layer that disperses water into the surrounding area instead of letting it sink. The combined effect of th
