Extraction
Many different methods are used in the extraction of coal. On a large commercial scale, the two primary methods are surface mining and underground mining. Underground mining is used when the coal deposit lies deep below the surface of the earth and employees use systems of shafts and tunnels to get at the coal (BLS, 2009). Surface mining, on the other hand, utilizes large machinery to remove rocks and soil and gain access to the coal seams (BLS, 2009). Surface mining typically has more environmental problems associated with it and, in recent years, mountain top removal, a specific type of surface mining, has drawn much attention because of its extreme impact on the environment.
"Mountaintop removal, which provides a mere 7 percent of the nation's coal, is done by clear-cutting forests, blowing the tops off of mountains, and then dumping the debris into streambeds€¦ This technique has buried more than 800 miles of Appalachian streams in mining debris and by 2012 will have seriously damaged or destroyed an area larger than Delaware"
– (Hansen, 2009, p. 1)
MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL
- Requires massive deforestation (Hansen, 2009)
- The mountaintop is literally blasted off with explosives to reveal coal veins
- The “valley fills” or former valleys which have been filled with mountain rock debris, destroy headwater streams and surrounding forests which are crucial to mountain ecosystems (McQuaid, 2009)
- All topsoil is removed from the area, preventing any plant and tree life of significance from growing in that location (Hansen, 2009)
- The blasting of mountaintop rocks exposes naturally bound metals, including arsenic, magnesium, manganese, lead and mercury, to the surrounding ecosystem, which leads to water contamination among other things (McQuaid, 2009)
- Cleaning process creates toxic “slurry” which is stored in mountain areas and can contaminate the water supply (McQuaid, 2009)
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