Mountaintop Removal Mining in West Virginia
One of the most frequently talked about and discussed ethical issues, that I have heard a lot about since moving and living in the state of West Virginia for over a year, is about Mountain top removal mining. Mountain top removal poses two ethical questions, the environmental hazards of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia? And the economical benefits and resources it brings to the state? What is right and what is wrong; an answer or a problem?
In order to find the benefits and hazards of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia, I used the various resources and gathered information from both sides of the questions posed, including economical benefits such as earnings, and environmental hazards such as ongoing experiments to clean up acid mine drainage. And some opinions written and expressed in newspaper articles and magazines.
Both the National Mining Associations, U.S News, Office of Surface Mining have studied environmental and economical issues and numerous newspaper articles found on the subject. Here is a brief overview on what mountaintop removal is. Mountaintop removal is a type of surface mining that has been granted a variance of approximate original contour and extracts an entire coal seam or seams running through the upper fraction of a mountain, ridge, or hill. The coal must be extracted by removing all the overburden [topsoil] and by creating a level plateau or supporting certain post-mining land uses.
In the beginng of try to answer the ethical question of was mountaintop removal mining right or wrong for West Virginia, I decided to look at the environmental hazards first, exploring all the possible...
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...nd income; however, the industry is starting to devrease causing people to lose their jobs.
In 1948, a record of "125,000" West Virginia miners were employed. The picture looks different now however. Even though more coal is being mined than ever before in this state, the total number of miners employed is less than "19,000". The decrease in jobs have been blamed on technology.
After all was said and done, and reviwing both the environmental and economical effects of mountaintop removal mining, and trying to come to one answer to say one was right and one was wrong, and one is a problem and one was not. I could not, depending on who you talk to, and who benefits from it one side will say it is good and will say it is wrong. I don't think anyone or anybody will agree on one way or one solution which will make mountaintop mining a ethical question for along time.
...ing the conditions faced by coal miners and their families in addition to events leading up to the uprising. However, some additional research should be done in regards to the West Virginia Coal Wars and the Battle of Blair Mountain.
The tar creek mining site originally was owned by a Native American tribe, the Quapaw. The Quapaw wanted to keep these lands, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs deemed members opposing a transaction to mining companies “incompetent” (1). In such a case the business could continue and the Bureau of Indian Affairs sold the lands to mining companies. In essence these lands were stolen from the Quapaw because they were ripe for mining. These mines were then used from approximately 1891 to 1970. In the 79 years the mines were open 1.7 million metric tons (~3.75 billion pounds) of lead and 8.8 million metric tons (~19.4 billion pounds) of zinc were withdrawn from the mine (2). The entire area around Tar Creek is known as the tri-state mining area. This tri-state area was a massive source of metals. This area accounted for 35% of the all worldwide metal for a decade. It also provided the majority of metals the United States used in World wars I and II (3).
Removal of the mountaintops causes environmental impacts from blasting. The blasting has caused rocks to be deposited into valleys on the hillsides, burying almost 2,000 miles of streams which feed the Mississippi River. Slurry, the residue which is used to clean the coal can wash into groundwater and may contain arsenic, lead, manganese, iron, sodium, strontium, and sulfate. A recent research study is beginning to link these environmental impacts to the grave health concerns in the Appalachian communities. During most of the Mountaintop removal mining’s history coal industries have been able to obtain permits easily to operate, but once under the Obama administration Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) those permits now take more time to obtain. The permit process requires all applications to be reviewed before being given out to coal
Mountain Top Removal is an American tragedy, the process in which mining companies remove forests and topsoil then explode the mountain apart level by level to get to coal layer. It is estimated that the explosives are equivalent of the Hiroshima bomb. A lot of the mining waste is discarded into valleys and streams; the water runoff is high in silt, ion, and sulfur compounds, which in turn pollute water downstream. Even with chemical treatments, vegetation has a hard time growing on the infertile and highly acidic soil. Mountain top removal occurs in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and east Tennessee. Virtually 1.2 million acres of land has been surface mined and more than 500 mountains have been ruined by mountaintop removal mining.
Hoffman, Joe. "Potential Health and Environmental Effects of Hydrofracking in the Williston Basin, Montana." Serc.carleton.edu. Carleton College, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
To the northeast part of Arizona lay a conflict between two indigenous groups from the surrounding area and the world’s largest coal company formerly known as Peabody Coal (now Peabody Energy). The Hopi and Navajo reservations surround a region known as Black Mesa. Black Mesa is located on both the Navajo and Hopi Reservations which is a target source for underground water called the N-aquifer. The N-aquifer contains a great amount of pristine Ice Age water. As time drew on, many indigenous people were alarmed that the water was carelessly being depleted from their land. Mining on Black Mesa should be stopped because the inhabitants are affected by Peabody, livestock in the area must depend on the local springs, groundwater is being depleted at an average of 3.3 million gallons per day, and the water is being contaminated (SBMW Online par 1).
Currently, there are numerous species who are threatened in the area where PolyMet wants to construct the mine. Both the Canada lynx and the Gray wolf are threatened species, as well as the long-eared bat (U.S. Fish and Wildlife, 2016). The construction of the mine would disturb these endangered species and the habitats in which they live in. Another factor in the detrimental effects of the PolyMet mine construction is that by building the mine, relationships among Native Americans will be interrupted. A treaty that dates all the way back to 1854 would be compromised with the building of the mine (BC Hydro, 2013, p. X). This treaty, which was agreed upon by both the government and the Chippewa tribe, gave the Chippewa legal entitlement to the land in which PolyMet wants to build the mine (BC Hydro, 2013, p. X). The production alone will disturb animals and wildlife, which will leave the Chippewa with less resources on the land that they preserved for nearly two centuries. For these reasons and more, I believe that the PolyMet mine will ultimately cause more harm than
One major business of the Appalachian mountain range is the coal mining industry; the range is the second-highest supplier of coal in America (Wuerthner, 2008). A common method of coal-extraction, mountaintop removal, results in mountain peaks becoming plateaus. The use of 300 million pounds of an explosive, ammonium nitrate rich fuel allows miners to remove hundreds of feet off mountain peaks each day, making the underlying coal more accessible and thus the extraction more efficient (Reece, 2006 & Shnayerson, 2008). The proces...
Mining has a great impact on aquatic ecosystems, like creeks,wetlands, and lakes. From the perspective of a ecological and recreational point of view, the impact mining has is significant. This mining affects all of its inhabitants whether it being the fish that supplement nutrients through creeks, to the people who drink it.(Klemow Effects of mining on aquatic ecosystems n.pg) Prior to the 1977 federal water pollution control act, Mining companies would proceed with the exercise of strip mining, and the removal of culm material would proceed, without regarding the destruction of the ecosystems.(Frelich, n.pg) Water goes through some mines, and can seep into fractured bedrock which in result can contaminate water when resurfaced down the watershed.(Frelich, n.pg) Stream channels are usually altered on mined sites due to the contaminated water because the bedrock can contain radioactive substances, which cause a lot of erosion and some species cannot handle the amount of sediment deposition.(Frelich, n.pg) Another concern is the destruction of wetlands. they have many benefits in regard to the environment, and are now in protection by the government.Wetlands trap sediments and dissolved pollutants. But due to Mining has caused dirty water to to block the absorption of the sediments and can cause flooding in forests. Mining also impacts forests and terrestrial ecosystems.dissolve other materials such as metals and they can leak
While reading the class textbook in week seven, I had the interest to learn more about Brownfields briefly discussed. So, I utilized the week’s forum to learn in details that brownfields are not just unproductive, contaminated and abandon sites that have negative health consequences on the environments. Rather, brownfields as an author stated a land of opportunity. For instances, former use automobile lumber storage, railroads station, salvage yards and industrial landfill. However, brownfields turn out to have success stories. An article I read by Felten Jennifer stated that to redevelop and remove contamination of such sites, Environmental Protection Agency developed a program in 1995. Also, Brownfield Legislation bill was passed to support
Colorado also has a rich mining history which began in about 1859 with the discovery of gold and development of new reserves, Colorado’s present day industry is a modern, innovative, safe and environmentally responsible citizen that extracts a wide variety of minerals such as; gold, Marble, and gypsum from the earth, valued at more than $2 billion each year. (Colorado Mining Association, 2007)
...f. WVDNR personnel provided email addresses of past workshop attendees. Following the stated research protocols, I emailed past participants requesting their involvement to complete an on-line survey. I gathered and reviewed the data to develop a report that was presented and decimated to the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources.
...ch supplies. In the article Environmental Racism, Tribal Sovereignty and Nuclear Waste, Bullcreek, one of the Indians who lives on Utah reservation said, "The real issue is not the money. The real issue is who we are as Native Americans and what we believe in. If we accept these wastes, we're going to lose our tradition." The government should not intrude on the Native Americans’ traditions and culture by placing waste or hazardous facilities on or near their reservations. These government agencies and organizations do not know what their traditions are; however, in Environmental Justice in Indian Country, it is acknowledged that the first step to creating healthier living conditions is knowing what is relevant to the community. Assessments are regularly done without consulting the community about what is important and what risks or impacts need to be assessed.
In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.
Mountain top removal mining has been in practice since the 1960’s. In order to reach the coal around 400 to 500 feet of the mountain top is blasted off to expose the seam. All the excess material from blasting and bulldozing is piled up in the surrounding valleys and streams. The landscape is a pitiful sight resembling a moonscape. There are no trees, no wildlife, just rocks, dirt and mud. However, in 1983 the Federal Government took notice of environmentalist’s actions aga...