BRINGING DOWN THE MOUNTAINS: THE IMPACT OF MOUTAINTOP REMOVAL SURFACE COAL MINING ON SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA COMMUNITIES

6. “Show Me Where to Put My Fishing Pole": The Environmental Impact of MTR

118 6 “Show Me Where to Put My Fishing Pole” The Environmental Impact of MTR There must be a realization of the fact that to waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness , will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed. —Theodore Roosevelt, December 1907 At the onset of the nineteenth century, much of Appalachia had yet to be explored , and the forests were thick and dense. From 1880 through 1920, an industrial transition occurred there. This massive industrialization was accompanied by widespread environmental destruction. At the beginning of the twentieth century, two-thirds of West Virginia was covered by virgin forest; by 1920 it was gone, lost to untempered timbering.1 Particularly harmful was the industrial railroad logging that cleared out thousands of acres of forests. This timber boom lasted less than four decades , but the soil erosion, fires, and flooding that accompanied it persisted for several decades.2 The changes that came with this economic shift did more damage to the mountains in thirty years than any that had occurred in the past.3 “Show Me Whereto Put My Fishing Pole” 119 The coal industry was just as destructive. The furor to exploit West Virginia ’s coal resources left little room for concern about the environmental degradation that would follow. All forms of mining produce some environmental impacts, and the acid mine-drainage spewing from both underground and strip mines remains a persistent problem in many mining communities, particularly in the loss of aquatic life and drinkable water. When it became uneconomical for underground coal companies to exploit a seam of coal, they abandoned the site and left coal tipples and machinery to rust, unaware of (or unconcerned about) the environmental repercussions . The strip mining that came later produced massive scars on the land, and early reclamation efforts provided only a window dressing for the nutrient-deficient land left behind. Only after state and federal laws were enacted to enforce regulations did the industry show concern for the environmental costs of their mining practices.4 This lack of respect for the environment has continued to the present day as massive MTR operations now pervade the mountainous counties of southern West Virginia. The coal industry in West Virginia began to utilize early forms of MTR in the 1970s, and its use became more widespread in subsequent decades until, by the first decade of the twenty-first century, its magnitude had become a major public concern. Between 1992 and 2002, 90,104 acres had been permitted for MTR in West Virginia, which included 51,382 mining acres and 19,486 valley-fill acres. The remaining permitted 19,236 acres included buildings and other infrastructure.5 In fact, the granting of one permit could change “thousands of acres of hardwood forests into grasslands .”6 In addition, a 2003 review by the EPA found 150 valley-fill violations in West Virginia, wherein coal companies had been illegally dumping into valleys without the proper Clean Water Act permits.7 As a result, more than five hundred miles of southern West Virginia streambed have been destroyed. Even MTR’s exploration state is exploitive. Boreholes are drilled or opened using explosives, and trenches and pits are dug. Crude roads are constructed to go to and from the site. This is the most destructive effect of the exploration, and it can lead to erosion, resulting in increased sediment loads in streams.8 During the extraction, the blasts cause surface disturbances. Immense amounts of coal waste material are created and “the spread of chemically reactive particulate matter to the atmosphere Chapter Six 120 and hydrosphere” takes place, negatively affecting air quality.9 The many environmental repercussions related to MTR are examined below. Watershed The first step in understanding the environmental degradation occurring in the southern coalfields is understanding watersheds. West Virginia Save Our Streams defines a watershed as “an area of land that drains water, and everything in the water, to some sort of outlet.”10 These watersheds are composed of several small streams that feed into larger ones. The question at the forefront of the MTR dilemma is, what role do headwater streams play in the overall water quality? Healthy headwater streams assimilate nutrients and organic matter as well as provide habitats...