Appalachian Mountains in Trouble

Tinga

Tinga

Active member
So basically, individual mountains in the Appalachian Mountain chain are

being clear cut and burned. Then the top layers of rock are blown off

so that the thinner layer of coal can be extracted and then burned for

electricity. This repeats downward to reach more layers of coal.

Here are the implications:

1.

Mountains are being blown to pieces, effectively ruining the oldest

mountains, taking off as much as 800 feet of elevation, and completely

leveling them off = no skiing on them

2. The rock that gets blown up

(and isn't wanted) is being pushed into the valleys which is where the

communities are located and the water resources are also located. This

pollutes the water quality tremendously

3. The coal that is

extracted needs to be washed so the dirty water after this process

(coal sludge) is pumped into a 72-acre slurry"pond". These have broken

in the past and have killed people, as well as polluted rivers

completely.

4. The sludge and waste release toxic chemicals from the rocks into our drinking water

5.

This form of mining employs fewer people than traditional "under the

mountain" mining, so it really isn't helping the economy - which is one

of the poorest in our nation.

6. The blasting disrupts water tables,

makes people breathe in coal dust and has increased the flooding rates

by 3 -5 times the normal amount because the trees and ecosystem can no

longer absorb the plentiful rain, instead it runs off the hard rock

down to the valleys, where the communities are.

7. Completely ruining the value of people's land who live here.

8.

The coal that is extracted from this method only account for 4% of our

nation's electricity. For a mere 4% of our electricity these companies

have ruined 500 mountain tops and 2,000 miles of waterways already, and

they are not stopping, because there are no laws that are making them

stop and a few people are getting very very rich, at the expense of

almost everyone else.

Write to your senators and encourage them to become a cosponsor of The Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696 is the bill number).

This

act is "a simple piece of legislation that restores the original intent

of the Clean Water Act to clarity that fill material connot be

comprised of mining waste. passing this legislation would protect all

the nation's rivers, streams, and lakes from being used as garbage

dumps for mining waste. It would also help end the destruction of the

Appalachian Mountians" So it says the Mining companies can't put the

"waste rock" into the valleys and this would essentially end this

method because it is too expensive to do this any other way.

Handwritten

letters are better than email. Go to congress.org to get the local

district office address for your member of Congress (this is better

than their DC address, which it takes them much longer to receive those

letters due to security.)

 
this is Southern Appalachia, but still that sucks for you guys. I will consider it if i ever get the time.
 
I hiked the appalachian trail in 07

/claim

but seriously thats shitty, but thats how people mine these days unfortunately. Its much easier to make a big hole. At least we dont live in centralia pa, that place is a fucking disaster
 
The mountain top blasting is mostly in the mountains of West Virginia.. The NC and TN mountains are mostly protected by either National Park/Forrest, so we dont have to worry about that type of mining here in TN/NC.
 
I don't live in that Appalachians and I have plenty of other local environmental problems to deal with in CO. I'm a Natural Resources Student, wtf are you talking about? Is there something wrong with being against strip mining and clear cutting?
 
You can all help no matter where you live by just writing to your senator and telling them as a voter you want them to cosponsor The Appalachian Restoration Act S.696. Mail it. Done, you helped, for real.
 
Coal and coal power have to be some of the worse natural resources out there that we use for power today. Dirty, expensive, and VERY harmful to nature.
Discuss?
 
there is a great NY Times article that talk about some of the effects this kind of event is having on towns nearby the mines. Super disturbing, but a great article no less.
 
that's much more constructive than calling me out for being ignorant, thank you. if that's not an alias, nice first post.
 
then you should be the first to see the problem with your statement.

"I live id dah you ess of aye so I kant help them kiddies in uganda!"
 
fine, that statement wasn't fully thought out and I posted before reading the entire thing. i didn't see the part at the bottom about the legislation. my bad. happy now?
 
I'm happy if you write to your legislators, not an alias, and I agree, we should totally get rid of all coal-fired plants. Someone who lives in Appalachia told me there is no such thing as clean coal if it creates water damage and ruins the environment like this - "clean coal is a dirty lie"
 
there's much more deserving candidates. i will admit my posts in this thread have been far less than intelligent though.
 
what stands out to me is that the mountains are small enough to be "flattened".. haha just imagine "the rockies are being blown up!" SHIT hahahahaha
 
mountain top removal is so fucked up. it ruins the whole ecosystem. i have no idea how the hell this trend ever got approved.
 
Yep. I would actually consider CA one of the few states actually catching onto the "green" movement. Are we close to being "green?" No. Are we closer than most states? Yes. We have all the resources to go green too. PG&E has that huge solar project in Mojave and the two lakes I drive past on the way up to the mountain are owned by Southern California Edison and are used to generate Hydroelectricity, and not much farther past my resort there are two more. We have the rivers/runoff, the sun, and the right companies/people. Tesla is the only company actually trying to develop an electric car while Detroit refuses to change their ways.

Back on track. That really is a terrible thing to do. It makes me so sad to see that people will ruin the Earth just to make some money. It's just like those greedy oil bastards. They don't encourage fuel efficient vehicles and don't really give a flying fuck about anyone else besides themselves. It really makes me sad that some people are so ignorant. Regardless of whether or not global warming is real, we really shouldn't be driving big trucks that we don't need or inefficient vehicles.
 
fuck that.

WEST VIRGINIA IS NOT PART OF THE SOUTH. Neither is virginia. West Virginia wasn't even part of the Confederacy, and it should not be associated with the south.

Back to the topic. (I dont support leveling mountains in this manner) So people know. These are not huge mountains. You can barely ski these, and they usually lie at lower elevations (seldom above 3500 or 4000). So please don't bring skiing into this as that should be the least of the worries.

If people heard about the floods, I think it was either Kentucky or Tennessee a few years ago, it was caused by this type of mining. There have been other floods in WV back in the day as well. Certainly this type of mining should be regulated.

Now as for coal. Everyone will get pissed at me for saying this, whatever. Coal is possibly one of the greatest resources we are so lucky to have. (First, consider smokestacks, and see that the smoke coming out is white and not black). There have been tons of emissions regulations that have tightened pollution and coal is not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It is cheap. It is (relatively) accessible(the amount of energy needed to extract coal is less than the amount of energy needed to get natural gas, cool it, and ship it long distances to the US).

The inexpensiveness of coal drives much of the economy in this area of the country(also towards the midwest). There are people who depend on coal, not only miners or people working in power plants, but companies also depend on the cheap source of energy. If the cheap source of energy no longer exists, the companies will move, limit production(lay off workers), or stop production altogether.

Of course alternative energies should be explored and invested in(by the private sector), and there are some great new technologies being developed. But Im glad I dont like in a fucked up state like California that can make such poor energy choices(look at all their blackouts they were having--no one would let them build any powerplants even nuclear for a while). (I make this statement about california more about their high taxes and great job they have done to drive industry from the state).

 
I live here in CA and the last thing we need is more pollution. The power plants would most likely be built within the central valley of CA, because of cheaper land and lower taxes in that area. The central valley stretches from Sacramento down to Bakersfield. A huge problem with the valley, is pollution collection. It acts as a funnel, as all of the Bay Area's emissions are funneled into the central valley, then forced down South towards Bakersfield. I have lived here in the central valley my whole life, right in between Sacramento and Bakersfield (Fresno) and the Summers are rough as far as pollution goes. Pollution from just vehicles and agriculture, yet we have some of the worst air in the country. Granted, it's not quite as bad as Los Angeles, but it's no bargain. As far as driving industry from this state goes, I don't really see a problem with it. With much less industry, we still remain 13% of America's economy. Give me one good reason as to why we should burn coal instead of make use of the many natural resources we have. We have the nation's largest solar project, large wind farms, and many hydroelectric power plants.
 
your state is fucking bankrupt. You might still have one of the largest economies in the world, but you have a huge deficit. I understand what you mean about that shit getting trapped though. Perhaps there is a better location. Solar and wind are not as efficient and expensive. energy is only a small part of how your state is failing. Taxes are a much bigger part. I dont understand how you can not see that industry being driven from your state is anything but terrible.
 
Yes, our state is bankrupt, and there are so many reasons for that, some being the federal government's fault, and most being the state's fault. Yes, solar and wind are not as efficient, but that should not stop us from trying to harness these resources, because as technology gets better and better, it becomes more efficient and less expensive. 30 years ago a laptop computer was such an unrealistic idea, even a personal computer was an unrealistic idea. Of course, with more use and interest, computers became more efficient and more affordable. This concept will definitely be similar with renewable resources. Dams will generate more electricity with less water, solar panels will generate more energy with less panels, and wind mills will generate more energy using less wind. As far as industry goes, I think it would be great to have more products made here. However, I feel wrong speaking solely on CA eliminating industry because look at the United States as a whole. Almost everything you buy is made in a country other than America. Yes, while CA has far less industry than other states, America as a whole has far less industry when compared to China or India. Hopefully you see where I am coming from, and I definitely understand industry would help our economy, but it would also help if people would step it up and work the fields instead of letting some illegal take that position, while they bitch about not having a job. People are ridiculous.
 
an area the size of delaware has been cleared off of mountains, if it didnt say that in the original post.
 
dude have you seen the climax mine? before and after pics make it look pretty impressive... they essentially tore down that mountain and it was over 12,000 feet, granted they only took a few thousand feet off.

any mountain can be torn down if we want whats inside bad enough, its sad, but unavoidable given current trends
 
Do this. If you live in the area, you know what a problem this is.... it's HUGE. Unfortunately there's enough money involved that small efforts are pretty worthless, but the first step is putting the issue higher up on the public's priority list so legislature actually deals with it.
Go to www.ilovemountains.org for more information.
 
Going back to the point that you had about coal mining supporting this economy, in the original post it talked about how "under the mountain" mining creates more job opportunities then this "leveling of the mountain" mining. Although I don't support either kind of mining, would't it be better for the economy and the environment if we stopped this specific kind of mining, which seems to be so destructive?
 
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