Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977

United States has disastrous environmental impacts thanks to a broken regulatory system. Environmental devastation from coal extraction is unmatched. The most popular form of coal mining is mountaintop removal mining, a form of surface mining which removes mountaintops to reach coal. The popularity of mountaintop removal mining is due to the cost-effectiveness of the process; unfortunately, the only one saving on costs is the miners, and at the expense of the environment. Deforestation; harm in aquatic

Mountaintop mining and valley fill (MTM/VF) coal extraction, which is heavily practiced in the Central Appalachian region of the eastern United States, represents a dramatic landscape-scale disturbance. The process includes removing as much as 300m of rock, soil, and vegetation from ridge tops to access deep coal seams; the overburden material is then placed in adjacent valleys, burying headwater streams. Post-mining topography, vegetation, soils, and runoff pathways can be severely altered during

It is clearly stated in the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) that surface mining operations cause environmental and social damage “by impairing natural beauty, by damaging the property of citizens, by creating hazards dangerous to life and property by degrading the quality of life in local communities...” (#6). Surface mining causes more damage to the environment than other methods. Everything ranging from air and

vertical durations. Coal mining in all likelihood consequences in an extra disturbance to the geologic conditions of an area than any other form of mining(Ehlen, Haneberg & Larson, 2005, p. 79). The two ways to mine coal; surface mining and underground mining both extraction operations have their own personal negative impact on the environment. Strip mining a type of surface mining, is highly destructive scraping away at earths landscape to reach the coal buried near the surface removing plants, trees

There is a common bond throughout Kentucky that stretches from western to eastern state lines that unites many Kentuckians. This common thread is coal mining. Window decals proudly proclaiming “Coal miner’s daughter”, “friend of coal” license plates, and yard signs declaring “Coal keeps the lights on” are only a fraction of the coal mining propaganda frequently seen throughout my community. There is an allure to being a coal miner not only because it is a high paying job that does not require a

This paper will review past practices and policies relating to mountaintop coal mining, evaluate and analyze current research on the impact of coal mining on human health, and provide recommendations for further research guided by logic and in agreement with biblical truth. Review of Past Practices and Policies Broad form Deeds Coal mining is not new to the Appalachian region. Miners have been working the rich coal fields of Appalachia for generations.14

Mining is an essential need for humans to access coal which produce rich resource to generate electricity. Mining comes as simplistic image of just people in hard hats with a pickaxe repeatedly pounding onto rocks until they gather desired materials. However, mining requires a trade cost in order to get reliable energy resource, as coal mining influences and infatuated the environment around it. In particular, surface mines, also known as strip mines, is a practice mining commonly used to access

vast deposits of energy resources, mainly coal. In order to extract this supply of cheap energy, mining companies have turned to a practice called mountaintop removal mining, or simply mountaintop mining. Mountaintop mining is a form of surface mining that involves removing the tops and sides of a summit in order to more quickly and efficiently remove underlying coal deposits. Although this kind of mining is cheaper than traditional subsurface methods, its social and environmental costs are steep, making

matter for faith and what we can do to help stop it. It states that the removal is a choice and is not a need. "Blowing Up Mountains: Destroying the Environment for Coal." YouTube. YouTube, 3 July 2012. Web. 12 Nov. 2015. The video was about the coal mining in West Virginia and how it destroys the earth. The maker of the video traveled to the state to observe what was really going on there. They found out instead of just digging for the coal and getting it out they decided to remove the tops and blow

they might be in jeopardy of losing. Surface mining began to replace traditional underground mining around WWII (Bozzi 116). Rather than digging into the mountain to extract the coal, strip mining involves removing the overlying soil and rock that covers the coal deposits (Lutz 1). It seemed appealing at first because the previous known dangers of black-lung disease and cave-ins were now limited with the surface mining method (Bozzi 116). However, surface mining came with it’s own problems, a lot