By Ashley Bouman

Many people find beauty in mountain scenery and take trips to experience the sight themselves, finding it far surpasses any photograph. The Appalachian Mountains are particularly intriguing. They start at Belle Island in Canada and end at the Cheaha Mountains in the U.S. state of Alabama. However, since the 1960s, their beauty has been diminished by mountaintop mining. Mountaintop Removal Mining (MTR) has been practiced since the mid-1960s as an alternative way to mine coal. It is much quicker than the traditional method of underground mining that involved hundreds of workers. MTR completely obliterates the landscape and severely harms the surrounding ecosystems, therefore damaging the environment as a whole. In the Appalachian area, there are mountaintop mining sites from Ohio to Virginia, but they occur most commonly in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

Mountaintop Removal Mining has several stages of production. It starts off by clearing the land of trees (deciduous forests); then the topsoil is stripped away to make room for explosives. Explosives are used to blow up rocks and create access to the coal underground. About 500 to 600 feet of mountain is removed and the rocks and soil waste are dumped into nearby valleys and streams. Many explosions occur at the site daily. These explosions can be felt miles away and disrupt the lives of nearby communities and the surrounding wilderness. This is a complete loss and destruction of land. Unfortunately, the United States Surface Mining Control and Declaration Act of 1977 failed in the conservation of the mountains by allowing for unrestrained Mountaintop Removal Mining.

This specific mining practice of the Appalachian Mountains has currently caught the attention of the media and a recent article about the mining was published in Science magazine. There were a dozen scientists involved in the article, including engineers, ecologists and hydrologists. They concluded that MTR is "pervasive and irreversible" and that the attempts to regulate its practices are "inadequate". Essentially, there is no regulation whatsoever, and that obviously has surrounding communities and environmental enthusiasts worried. The article states that there is no scientific evidence that proves justification to continue mountaintop coal mining; however, many people theorized that corporate greed and money is the reason why it continues.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that approximately 5,700 km² (2,200 m²) of Appalachian forests will be cleared by the year 2012; that is 1.4 million acres and is a bigger land mass than the state of Delaware. On top of destroying all that valuable forest area, the debris removal process has buried nearly 2,000 miles of stream and has contaminated many others. Studies have found that in the local water systems, the up-streams are dead, and the down-streams have an abundant accumulation of heavy metals and sediment. Due to the processes of MTR, pollution is released at a rapid pace and therefore infects a wide range of water systems in a short amount of time. Not only is this detrimental to the water ecosystems of the area, it has prompted the human population to be wary about drinking from their tap water. People have resorted to drinking bottled water because of health concerns due to the poor quality of their drinking water. Environmentally-aware individuals know the disadvantages of drinking bottled water and the impact it has on the environment. However, these people are not doing it because it is trendy; they are doing it because they do not have access to clean water. It seems ironic that at the same time they are trying to stop the destruction and contamination of the land, they are forced to drink from bottled water, which just perpetuates the problem. Unfortunately, the wildlife does not have the option to consume bottled water; they are left to drink from polluted ponds and streams.

Companies that perform MTR try to appease the communities by saying that they can rebuild the mountains by putting the rocks back and reconstructing the "image" of the mountain; however, this obviously has it faults and the people of the local communities say it is impossible to put a mountain back. The companies also state that if you go back to a previously mined site after a few months, the rejuvenation of animal and plant life has already begun, and while nature does have the capability to renew itself, the contamination to the valleys and waters systems cannot be undone. The companies justify their actions by saying they are harvesting energy for the rest of the country and the world, and while that may be true, many countries of the world have programs implemented that are looking into alternative and sustainable forms of energy.

This problem goes well beyond the initiative to think about alternative methods of power, which is still very important. It can be brought down to an individual level as well, since practically everything we do in our day-to-day lives impacts the environment. We must look at our own personal energy consumption. As we all know, what we can do as individuals can make a huge difference, such as lowering the amount of energy that we use (thus lowering the amount of coal needed) and reducing our carbon footprint. If you are concerned about Mountaintop Removal Mining and want the United States government to know about it, consult your nearest search engine and you will find numerous websites that will help you get your voice heard.