Jason Johnson, a member of Mountain Justice, spoke on campus about the need to fight mountaintop removal in Appalachia.
West Virginia residents have recently been subjected to mountaintop removal, an extreme version of strip mining that essentially blows away the land surrounding individual homes and communities.
Though the removal has been largely isolated in West Virginia thus far, some experts believe that it may soon be a widespread practice, reaching into Virginia and beyond.
In the process of MTR, entire mountaintops are exploded to expose the underlying coal and eventually provide flat land, which is much sought after. This practice gained root in West Virginia to the 1970s, increasing throughout the 1980s. Presently, many companies utilize new machinery in order to supply for the high demand of coal.
Shirley Burns, a doctor of history with a focus in Appalachian studies, is the daughter of an underground coal miner and has a strong interest in coalfields. Burns is also the author of "Bringing down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal on Southern West Virginia Communities," a book that outlines the process and effects of MTR on the people who live near the sites.
"The blasting from MTR can crack foundations, while also causing dust, decimated roads, noise pollution, exodus of inhabitants, slurry impoundments and valley fills," Burns said. "They are bought for their areas to be mined, and are forced to find work and a new home elsewhere."
Jeff Mann, an associate professor of English at Tech and author of "Loving Mountains, Loving Men," also expressed a strong disdain for MTR.
Mann said that with MTR many generations of a family and culture are uprooted. Mann added that it is not environmentally friendly in any sense, and can hurt the area inhabitants.
"I was once shown a (coal slurry) sample, and it was absolutely not drinkable; the stench could fill the room," Mann said. "I was disgusted of the practice because of the effect it has on the people that live there, as well as the environmental destruction."
Coal slurry is a metal-rich mixture of wastewater, along with coal dust, diesel fuel, chromium, arsenic and/or other cleansing agents. Valley fills are typically located at the head of a hollow, and are used to dispose of waste material from a coal operation.
Both of these factors can cause death by different means to those who use the contaminated water or have their homes flooded. There are currently 58 coal slurry impoundments in a nine-county West Virginia region.
"MTR employs fewer people than does traditional mining," Burns said. "It actually costs the state $2.66 billion in reduced forest-growth cost."
Anita Puckett, director of the Appalachian Studies program, gained an interest in mountains and the threats to them through her upbringing.
With her paternal family hailing from the mountain areas, it seemed a natural thing to study.
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Thank you for covering such an incredibly important issue plaguing the Appalachia, and in turn the entire watershed for the Southeast United States. However, I feel the need to point out that Mountaintop Removal has not been largely isolated in West VA. In Wise County, VA 25% of the land has been "strip mined" (VA will not admit that they blast mountains, but anyone with a pair of eyes knows that they do) and 33% is on the table for more permits. The landscape of much of Eastern KY is unrecognizable compared to that of my childhood and if the state government gets their way, there will be much more, not less, mountaintop removal mining. In fact, just this year Lt. Gov. Mongiardo traveled the state declaring that "I love mountaintop removal and we need more of it..." Now, Tennesseeians are fighting to keep to practice out of their state, but strip mining is nothing new to them. Thank you again for bringing this issue to your campus. With power in numbers, we WILL save America's air, land and water for ourselves and our children. We cannot let them take away that right. It is OUR right, not the corporation's.
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I couldn’t help but notice that, even though Virginia Tech has one of the top mining engineering schools in the nation, you didn’t bother to get an expert opinion from any of the PhD’s in that department. The article is about mining, and the closest you got to expert opinions was a public relations manager and persons who have a “strong interest” or family from those parts. This article lacks credibility and is in general poor journalism.
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