Mining the Mountains

Explosives and giant machines are destroying Appalachian peaks to obtain coal. In a tiny West Virginia town, residents and the industry fight over a mountain's fate

By John McQuaid
Smithsonian magazine, January 2009, Subscribe

80-square-mile Hobet 21 mine near Danville West Virginia

Mountain operations, like the Hobet 21 mine near Danville, West Virginia, yield one ton of coal for every 16 tons of terrain displaced. (Paul Corbit Brown)

Editor's Note -- On April 1, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency released new guidelines on mountaintop mining. For more on this update, check out our Surprising Science blog.

For most of its route through the hardscrabble towns of West Virginia's central Appalachian highlands, U.S. Highway 60 follows riverbanks and valleys. But as it approaches Gauley Mountain, it swoops dramatically upward, making switchbacks over steep wooded ridges. It goes by the Mystery Hole, a kitschy tourist stop that claims to defy the law of gravity. Then the road abruptly straightens and you're in Ansted, a town of about 1,600 people. There's an auto dealership, an Episcopal church and a Tudor's Biscuit World restaurant. A historical marker notes that Stonewall Jackson's mother is buried in the local cemetery, and there's a preserved antebellum mansion called Contentment.

The tranquillity belies Ansted's rough-and-tumble history as a coal town—and the conflict now dividing its townspeople. Founded as a mining camp in the 1870s by English geologist David T. Ansted, the first person to discover coal in the surrounding mountains, it played an important part in the Appalachian coal economy for nearly a century. The coal baron William Nelson Page made Ansted his headquarters. You get a feeling for the old connection to coal in the one-room town museum behind the storefront that serves as the town's city hall, with its vintage mining helmets and pickaxes, company scrip and photographs of dust-covered miners. But beginning in the 1950s, the boom ended, and one by one the mine shafts closed, leaving most of the local populace feeling bitter and abandoned.

"They burned the buildings down and left the area," Mayor R. A. "Pete" Hobbs recalled of the coal companies' abrupt departure. "Unemployment when I graduated high school"—in 1961—"was 27 percent."

Now coal is back, with a different approach: demolishing mountains instead of drilling into them, a method known as mountaintop coal removal. One project is dismantling the backside of Gauley Mountain, the town's signature topographical feature, methodically blasting it apart layer by layer and trucking off the coal to generate electricity and forge steel. Gauley is fast becoming a kind of Potemkin peak—whole on one side, hollowed out on the other. Some Ansted residents support the project, but in a twist of local history, many people, former miners included, oppose it, making the town an improbable battleground in the struggle to meet the nation's rising energy needs.

Since the mid-1990s, coal companies have pulverized Appalachian mountaintops in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Peaks formed hundreds of millions of years ago are obliterated in months. Forests that survived the last ice age are chopped down and burned. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that by 2012, two decades of mountaintop removal will have destroyed or degraded 11.5 percent of the forests in those four states, an area larger than Delaware. Rubble and waste will have buried more than 1,000 miles of streams.

This is devastation on an astonishing scale, and though many of us would like to distance ourselves from it, blaming it on others' callousness or excesses, mountaintop coal removal feeds the global energy economy in which we all participate. Even as I was writing this article at home in suburban Washington, D.C., it occurred to me that the glowing letters on my laptop might be traceable to mountaintop removal. An EPA Web site indicates that utlities serving my ZIP code get 48 percent of their power from coal—as it happens, the same portion of coal-generated electricity nationwide. In fact, the environmental group Appalachian Voices produced a map indicating 11 direct connections between West Virginia mountaintop coal sources and electric power plants in my area, the closest being the Potomac River Generating Station in Alexandria, Virginia. So coal torn from a West Virginia mountain was put on a truck and then a rail car, which took it to Alexandria, where it was incinerated, creating the heat that drove the turbines that generated the electricity that enabled me to document concerns about the destruction of that very same American landscape.

Demand for mountaintop coal has been rising quickly, driven by high oil prices, energy-intensive lifestyles in the United States and elsewhere and hungry economies in China and India. The price of central Appalachian coal has nearly tripled since 2006 (the long-term effect on coal pricing of the latest global economic downturn isn't yet known). U.S. coal exports increased by 19 percent in 2007 and were expected to go up by 43 percent in 2008. Virginia-based Massey Energy, responsible for many of Appalachia's mountaintop projects, recently announced plans to sell more coal to China. As demand increases, so does mountaintop removal, the most efficient and most profitable form of coal mining. In West Virginia, mountaintop removal and other kinds of surface mining (including highwall mining, in which machines demolish mountainsides but leave peaks intact) accounted for about 42 percent of all coal extracted in 2007, up from 31 percent a decade earlier.

Editor's Note -- On April 1, 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency released new guidelines on mountaintop mining. For more on this update, check out our Surprising Science blog.

Whether demand for coal will grow or shrink in the Barack Obama administration remains to be seen; as a candidate, Obama backed investing in "clean coal" technology, which would capture air pollutants from burning coal—especially carbon dioxide, linked to global warming. But such technologies are still experimental, and some experts believe they are unworkable. Former Vice President Al Gore, writing in the New York Times after the November election, said the coal industry's promotion of "clean coal" was a "cynical and self-interested illusion."

In Ansted, the conflict over mountaintop removal has taken on special urgency because it's about two competing visions for Appalachia's future: coal mining, West Virginia's most hallowed industry, and tourism, its most promising emerging business, which is growing at about three times the rate of the mining industry statewide. The town and its mining site lie between two National Park Service recreational areas, along the Gauley and New rivers, about ten miles apart. The New River Gorge Bridge, a span 900 feet above the water and perhaps West Virginia's best-known landmark, is just 11 miles by car from Ansted. Hawks Nest State Park is nearby. Rafting, camping—and, one day a year, parachuting from the New River Bridge—draw hundreds of thousands of people to the area annually.

Mayor Hobbs is Ansted's top tourism booster, a position he came to by a circuitous route. With no good prospects in town, he got a job in 1963 with C&P Telephone in Washington, D.C. Thirty years later, after a telecommunications career that took him to 40 states and various foreign countries, he returned to Ansted in one of AT&T's early work-from-home programs. He retired in 2000 and became mayor three years later, with ambitious tourism-development plans. "We're hoping to build a trail system to connect two national rivers together, and we'd be at the center of that—hunting, fishing, biking, hiking trails. The town has embraced that," Hobbs told me in his office, which is festooned with trail and park maps. What happens if the peak overlooking Ansted becomes even more of a mountaintop removal site? "A lot of this will be lost. 1961 is my reference point. [Coal companies] went away and left only a cloud of dust behind, and it's my fear that that's what will happen again with mountaintop removal."

Follow one of the old mining roads toward the top of Ansted's 2,500-foot ridge and the picturesque view changes startlingly. Once the road passes the crest, the mountain becomes an industrial zone. On the day that I visited, countless felled trees were scattered across a slope stripped clear by bulldozers. Such timber is sometimes sold, but the trees are more often burned—a practice that amplifies coal's considerable impact on air pollution and global warming, both by generating carbon dioxide and by eliminating living trees, which absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide. Half a mile beyond that treeless slope, a mountain peak had been rendered like a carcass in a meat factory: its outermost rock layers had been blasted away, the remains dumped in nearby hollows, creating "valley fills." Heavy earth-moving equipment had scraped out the thin layers of coal. A broad outcropping of pale brown rock remained, scheduled for later demolition.

The scale of these projects is best appreciated from above, so I took a flight over the coal fields in a small plane provided by Southwings, a conservation-minded pilots' cooperative. The forest quickly gave way to one mining operation, then another—huge quarries scooped out of the hills. Some zones sprawl over dozens of square miles. Explosives were being set in one area. In another, diggers were scraping off layers of soil and rock—called "overburden"—on top of the coal. Trucks were carting rock and gravel to dump in adjacent valleys. Black, shimmering impoundments of sludge stretched along hillsides. Tanker trucks sprayed flattened hills with a mixture of grass seed and fertilizer, which would give rise to a sort of artificial prairie where forested peaks had been.

I've reported on devastation around the world—from natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, to wars in Central America and the Middle East, to coastlines in Asia degraded by fish farming. But in the sheer audacity of its destruction, mountaintop coal removal is the most shocking thing I've ever seen. Entering a mountaintop site is like crossing into a war zone. Another day, as I walked near a site on Kayford Mountain, about 20 miles southwest of An-sted, along a dirt road owned by a citizen who declined to lease to the mining companies, a thunderous boom rattled the ground. A plume of yellow smoke rose into the sky, spread out and settled over me, giving the bare trees and the chasm beyond the eerie cast of a battlefield.

To an outsider, the process may seem violent and wasteful, with a yield that can equal only about 1 ton of coal per 16 tons of overburden. But it's effective. "With mountaintop removal you're able to mine seams that you could not mine with underground mining because they are so thin—but it's a very high-quality coal," said Roger Horton, a truck driver and United Mine Workers Union representative who works at a mountaintop site in Logan, West Virginia. Mountaintop operations can mine seams less than two feet deep. "No human being could burrow into a hole 18 inches thick and extract the coal," Horton said. Typically, he adds, a project descends through seven seams across 250 vertical feet before reaching a layer of the especially high-grade coal that is used (because of the extreme heat it generates) in steel manufacturing. After that's collected, it's on to the next peak.

The Appalachian coal fields date back about 300 million years, when today's green highlands were tropical coastal swamps. Over the millennia, the swamps swallowed up massive amounts of organic material—trees and leafy plants, animal carcasses, insects. There, sealed off from the oxygen essential to decomposition, the material congealed into layers of peat. When the world's landmasses later collided in a series of mega-crashes, the coastal plain was pushed upward to become the Appalachians; after the greatest of these collisions, they reached as high as today's Himalayas, only to be eroded over the ages. The sustained geologic pressure and heat involved in creating the mountains baked and compressed the peat from those old bogs into seams of coal from a few inches to several feet thick.

First mined in the 19th century, Appalachian coal dominated the U.S. market for 100 years. But the game changed in the 1970s, when mining operations started in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, where coal seams are far thicker—up to 200 feet—and closer to the surface than anything in the East. It was in the West and Midwest where miners first employed some of the world's largest movable industrial equipment to scrape the earth. Behemoths called draglines can be more than 20 stories tall and use a scoop big enough to hold a dozen small cars. They are so heavy that no onboard power source could suffice—they tap directly into the electrical grid. Western mining operations achieved fantastic economies of scale, though Western coal has a lower energy content than Eastern coal and costs more to move to its principal customers, Midwestern and Eastern power plants.

Then, in 1990, Eastern coal mining, long in decline, got a boost from an unlikely source: the Clean Air Act, revised that year to restrict sulfur dioxide emissions, the cause of acid rain. As it happens, central Appalachia's coal deposits are low in sulfur. Soon the draglines arrived in the East and coal mining's effect on the landscape took an ugly turn. To be sure, Wyoming's open-pit coal mines aren't pretty, but their location in a remote, arid basin has minimized the impact on people and wildlife. By contrast, coal seams in Appalachia require extensive digging for a smaller yield. The resulting debris is dumped into nearby valleys, effectively doubling the area of impact. More people live near the mines. And the surrounding forests are biologically dense—home to a surprising abundance and variety of life-forms.

"We are sitting in the most productive and diverse temperate hardwood forest on the planet," said Ben Stout, a biologist at Wheeling Jesuit University, in West Virginia's northern panhandle. We were on a hillside a few miles from his office. "There are more kinds of organisms living in the southern Appalachians than in any other forest ecosystem in the world. We have more salamander species than any place on the planet. We have Neotropical migratory birds that come back here to rest and nest. They are flying back up here as they have over the eons. That relationship has evolved here because it's worth it to them to travel a couple of thousand miles to nest in this lush forest that can support their offspring in the next generation."

Stout has spent the past decade studying the effects of mining on ecosystems and communities. We waded into a chilly stream, about three feet across, that ran over stones and through clots of rotting leaves. He bent down and started pulling wet leaves apart, periodically flicking squirming bugs into a white plastic strainer he'd placed on a rock. Stoneflies were mating. A maggot tore through the layers of packed leaves. Other, smaller larvae were delicately peeling the outermost layer off one leaf at a time. This banquet, Stout said, is the first link in the food chain: "That's what drives this ecosystem. And what happens when you build a valley fill and bury this stream—you cut off that linkage between the forest and the stream."

Normally, he went on, "those insects are going to fly back into the woods as adults, and everybody in the woods is going to eat them. And that happens in April and May, at the same time you have the breeding birds coming back, the same time the turtles and toads are starting to breed. Everything is coming back in around the stream because that's a tremendously valuable food source."

But a stream buried beneath a valley fill no longer supports such life, and the effects reverberate through the forest. A recent EPA study showed that mayflies—among the most fecund insects in the forest—had largely disappeared from waterways downstream from mountaintop mining sites. That might seem a small loss, but it's an early, critical break in the food chain that, sooner or later, will affect many other animals.

Mountaintop mining operations, ecologists say, fracture the natural spaces that enable dense webs of life to flourish, leaving smaller "islands" of unspoiled territory. Those become biologically impoverished as native plants and animals die and invasive species move in. In one study, EPA and U.S. Geological Survey scientists who analyzed satellite images of a 19-county area in West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia found that "edge" forests were replacing denser, greener "interior" forests far beyond the mountaintop mining-site borders, degrading ecosystems across a wider area than previously thought. Wildlife is in decline. For instance, cerulean warblers, migratory songbirds that favor Appalachian ridgelines for nesting sites, have dropped 82 percent over the past 40 years.

The mining industry maintains that former mining sites can be developed commercially. The law requires that the mining company restore the mountaintop's "approximate original contour" and that it revert to forestland or a "higher and better use." A company can get an exemption from the rebuilding requirement if it shows that a flattened mountain may generate that higher value.

Typically, mining companies bulldoze a site and plant it with a fast-growing Asian grass to prevent erosion. One former surface mine in West Virginia is now the site of a state prison; another is a golf course. But many reclaimed sites are now empty pasturelands. "Miners have claimed that returning forestland to hay land, wildlife habitat or grassland with a few woody shrubs on it was ‘higher use,'" says Jim Burger, a professor of forestry at Virginia Tech. "But hay land and grassland is almost never used for that [economic] purpose, and even wildlife habitat has been abandoned."

Some coal companies do rebuild mountains and replant forests—a painstaking process that takes up to 15 years. Rocky Hackworth, the superintendent of the Four Mile Mine in Kanawha County, West Virginia, took me on a tour of rebuilding efforts he oversees. We climbed into his pickup truck and rolled across the site, past an active mine where half a hillside had been scooped out. Then the twisting dirt road entered an area that was neither mine nor forest. Valley fills and new hilltops of crushed rock had been covered with topsoil or "topsoil substitute"—crushed shale that can support tree roots if loosely packed. Some slopes had grass and shrubs, others were thick with young sumacs, poplars, sugar maples, white pines and elms.

This type of reclamation requires a degree of stewardship many mine companies have not provided, and its long-term ecological impact isn't clear, especially given the stream disruptions caused by valley fills. And it still faces regulatory hurdles. "The old mind-set is, we've got to control erosion first," Hackworth said. "So that's why they want it walked real good, packed real good. You plant grass on it—which is better for controlling erosion, but it's worse for tree growth. It's a Catch-22."

Some landowners have made stabs at creating wildlife habitats at reclaimed sites with pools of water. "The small ponds are marketed to the regulatory agencies as wildlife habitat, and ducks and waterfowl do come in and use that water," said Orie Loucks, a retired professor of ecology at Miami University of Ohio who has studied the effects of mountaintop removal. "It's somewhat enriched in acids, and, of course, a lot of toxic metals go into solution in the presence of [such] water. So it's not clear the habitat is very healthy for wildlife and it's not clear many people go up on these plateau areas to hunt ducks in the fall."

Mountaintop mining waste contains chemical compounds that otherwise remain sealed up in coal and rock. Rainwater falling on a valley fill becomes enriched with heavy metals such as lead, aluminum, chromium, manganese and selenium. Typically, coal companies construct filtration ponds to capture sediments and valley-fill runoff. But the water flowing out of these ponds isn't pristine, and some metals inevitably end up flowing downstream, contaminating water sources.

Mountaintop sites also create slurry ponds—artificial lakes that hold the byproducts of coal processing and that sometimes fail. In 2000, a slurry impoundment in Kentucky leaked into an underground mine and from there onto hillsides, where it enveloped yards and homes and spread into nearby creekbeds, killing fish and other aquatic life and contaminating drinking water. The EPA ranked the incident, involving more than 300 million gallons of coal slurry, one of the worst environmental disasters in the southeastern United States. After a months-long cleanup, federal and state agencies fined the impoundment owner, Martin County Coal, millions of dollars and ordered it to close and reclaim the site. Officials at the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration later conceded that their procedures for approving such sites had been lax.

Scientists and community groups are concerned about the possible effects of coal-removal byproducts and waste. Ben Stout, the biologist, says he has found barium and arsenic in slurry from sites in southwestern West Virginia at concentrations that nearly qualify as hazardous waste. U.S. Forest Service biologist A. Dennis Lemly found deformed fish larvae in southern West Virginia's Mud River—some specimens with two eyes on one side of their head. He blames the deformities on high concentrations of selenium from the nearby Hobet 21 mountaintop project. "The Mud River ecosystem is on the brink of a major toxic event," he wrote in a report filed in a court case against the mining site, which remains active.

Scientists say they have little data on the effects of mountaintop coal mining on public health. Michael Hendryx, a professor of public health at West Virginia University, and a colleague, Melissa Ahern of Washington State University, analyzed mortality rates near mining-industry sites in West Virginia, including underground, mountaintop and processing facilities. After adjusting for other factors, including poverty and occupational illness, they found statistically significant elevations in deaths for chronic lung, heart and kidney disease as well as lung and digestive-system cancers. Overall cancer mortality was also elevated. Hendryx stresses that the information is preliminary. "It doesn't prove that pollution from the mining industry is a cause of the elevated mortality," he says, but it appears to be a factor.

Mountaintop removal has done what no environmental group could ever do: it has succeeded in turning many local people, including former miners, against West Virginia's oldest industry. Take 80-year-old Jim Foster, a former underground miner and mine-site welder and a lifelong resident of Boone County, West Virginia. As a boy before World War II, he used to hike and camp in Mo's Hollow, a small mountain valley now filled with rubble and waste from a mountaintop removal site. Another wilderness area he frequented, a stream valley called Roach Branch, was designated in 2007 as a fill site. Foster joined a group of local residents and the Huntington, West Virginia-based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in a federal lawsuit to block the Roach Branch Valley fill site on the grounds that the environmental impacts hadn't been adequately assessed. They won the first round when Judge Robert Chambers issued a temporary restraining order against the valley fills. The coal company is appealing the decision.

Foster says he puts up with a daily barrage of irritations from nearby mountaintop removal projects: blasting, 22-wheeled coal trucks on the road and ubiquitous dust. As we talked in his living room, trucks carrying coal explosives rumbled by. "Practically every day, our house is shook by the violent tremors caused by these blasts," he said, gesturing from his easy chair. "The one up there—you can see it from my window here—I've watched it as they tore that down. Before they started on it, it was beautiful twin peaks there, it was absolutely beautiful. And to look out and see the destruction going on day to day like it has, and see that mountain disappear, each day more of it being gone—to me that really, really hurts."

Around mining sites, tensions run high. In Twilight, a Boone County hamlet situated among three mountaintop sites, Mike Workman and his next-door neighbor, another retired miner named Richard Lee White, say they have battled constantly with one nearby operation. Last year, trucks exiting the site tracked onto the road a mud slick that persisted for weeks and precipitated several accidents, including one in which Workman's 27-year-old daughter, Sabrina Ellsworth, skidded and totaled her car; she was shaken up but not injured. State law requires that mining operations have working truck washes to remove mud; this one did not. After Workman complained repeatedly to state agencies, the state Department of Environmental Protection shut down the mine and fined its owner $13,482; the mine reopened two days later, with a working truck wash.

Workman also remembers when a coal slurry impoundment failed in 2001, sending water and sludge pouring through a hollow onto Route 26. "When it broke loose it come down, and my daughter lived at the mouth of it. The water was plumb up in her house past her windows, and I had to take a four-wheel-drive truck to get her and her kids. And my house down here, [the flood] destroyed it."

Ansted residents have had mixed success fighting a mining operation conducted by the Powellton Coal Company outside town. In 2008, they lost an appeal before West Virginia's Surface Mine Board, which rejected their argument that the blasting could flood homes by releasing water sealed in old mine shafts. But the year before, the town beat back an attempt to run big logging and coal trucks past a school and through town. "This is a residential area—this is not an industrial area," says Katheryne Hoffman, who lives at the edge of town. "We managed to get that temporarily stopped—but then they still got the [mining] permit, which means they will begin to bring the coal through somewhere, and it'll be the path of least resistance. Communities have to fight for their lives to get this stopped." A Powellton Coal Company official did not respond to requests for comment.

But many residents support the industry. "You have people who don't realize it is our livelihood here—it always has been, always will be," says Nancy Skaggs, who lives just outside Ansted. Her husband is a retired miner and her son does mine-site reclamation work. "Most of those against [mining] are people who have moved into this area. They don't appreciate what the coal industry does for this area. My husband's family has been here since before the Civil War, and always in the coal industry."

The dispute highlights the town's—and state's—predicament. West Virginia is the nation's third-poorest state, above only Mississippi and Arkansas in per capita income, and the poverty is concentrated in the coal fields: in Ansted's Fayette County, 20 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, compared with 16 percent in the state and 12 percent nationwide. For decades, mining has been the only industry in dozens of small West Virginia towns. But mountaintop coal removal, because of the toll it takes on the natural surroundings, is threatening the quality of life in communities that the coal industry helped build. And mountaintop removal, which employs half as many people to produce the same amount of coal as an underground mine, doesn't bring the same benefits that West Virginians once reaped from traditional coal mining.

The industry dismisses opponents' concerns as exaggerated. "What [environmentalists] are attempting to do is stir the emotions of people," says Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, "when the facts are that the disturbance is limited, and the type of mining is controlled by the geology."

West Virginia's political establishment has been unwavering in its support for the coal industry. The close relationship is on display every year at the annual West Virginia Coal Symposium, where politicians and industry insiders mingle. This past year, Gov. Joe Manchin and Senator Jay Rockefeller addressed the gathering, advocating ways to turn climate-change legislation to the industry's advantage and reduce its regulatory burdens. "Government should be your ally, not your adversary," Manchin told coal-industry representatives.

Without such backing, mountaintop removal would not be possible, because federal environmental laws would prohibit it, says Jack Spadaro, a former federal mining regulator and a critic of the industry. "There is not a legal mountaintop mining operation in Appalachia," he says. "There literally is not one in full compliance with the law."

Since 1990, U.S. policy under the Clean Water Act has been "no net loss of wetlands." To "fill" a wetland, one needs a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is supposed to evaluate the environmental effects and require mitigation by creating new wetlands elsewhere. If the potential impact is serious enough, the National Environmental Policy Act kicks in and a detailed study must be done. But the coal-mining industry has often obtained the necessary dumping permits without due consideration of possible environmental impacts.

The Corps has admitted as much in response to lawsuits. In one case, the Corps said it probably shouldn't even be overseeing such permits because the dumped waste contained polluting chemicals regulated by the EPA. In another case, brought by West Virginia environmental groups against four Massey Energy mining projects, the Corps conceded that it routinely grants dumping permits with virtually no independent study of the possible ecological fallout, relying instead on the assessments that coal companies submit. In a 2007 decision in that case, Judge Chambers found that "the Corps has failed to take a hard look at the destruction of headwater streams and failed to evaluate their destruction as an adverse impact on aquatic resources in conformity with its own regulations and policies." But because three of the mining projects challenged in that case were already underway, Chambers allowed them to continue, pending the case's resolution. Massey has appealed the case to the Virginia-based United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which has overturned several lower court rulings that went against mining interests.

In 2002, the Bush administration rewrote the rule defining mountaintop mining waste in an attempt to work around the legal ban on valley fills. This past October, the Interior Department, pending EPA approval, did away with regulations that ban dumping mine waste within 100 feet of a stream—a rule that's already routinely ignored (though the EPA recently fined Massey Energy $20 million for violations of the Clean Water Act).

Industry critics say they're also hampered by West Virginia regulations that protect private interests. The vast majority of West Virginia acreage is owned by private landholding companies that lease it and the mineral rights to coal companies. And while industrial land-use planning is a matter of public record in most states, not so in West Virginia. As a result, critics say, mountaintop projects unfold slowly bit by bit, making it hard for outsiders to grasp a project's scale until it's well underway.

In Ansted, residents say they can't even be sure what's coming next because the coal company doesn't explain its plans. "They will seek permits on small plots, 100- to 300-acre parcels," said Mayor Hobbs. "My sense is, we should have a right to look at that long-range plan for 20,000 acres. But if we got to see the full scope of those plans, then mountaintop removal would stop," because the enormousness of the affected areas would stoke opposition.

The standoff is frustrating to Hobbs, who has been unable to reconcile the coal industry's actions with his town's ambitions. "I'm a capitalist," he said. "I worked for a major corporation. I'm not against development. It's troubling—I see tourism and economic quality of life as the only thing that will last beyond a 15- to 20-year economic cycle. And with mountaintop removal, that is at risk. And even if we dodge that bullet, the next community may not."

John McQuaid lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, and is the co-author of Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms.

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Comments (68)

You don't Need rich's you Need you

Posted by on January 29,2013 | 06:17 PM

the epa is fooling you people,the so called streams that are covered up are not streams,they are run off when it rains for several hours and now the run off is controlled by ponds which before the water went every where causing destruction and flooding,also who are the people who have a death certificate that says they died from selinium,no such people.when all you retired miners loose your monthly check dont start yelling for the umwa,that will be gone to my friends,just wait for the gov. to pay that check,....you still waiting.......is you stomach growling yet...........

Posted by terry glandon on November 16,2012 | 08:37 AM

I spotted this fearsome-looking insect in our garden recently which I quickly discovered was not as alarming as it looked. The Wasp Beetle is harmless, and merely uses similar warning markings in order to provide itself with protection from predators enjoyed by wasps. This is called ‘mimicry’ and, more specifically in relation to evolutionary biology, it is a form of ‘Batesian’ mimicry. Henry Walter Bates (1825-1892) was an English explorer and naturalist who spent many years in the Brazilian rain-forest and noticed that certain harmless species appear to adopt certain characteristics of other species which are poisonous or otherwise distasteful. This type of mimicry can take several forms: it may be the mimicry of a smell (or pheromone) or it may take the form of a similar defensive noise or call, or even a similar posture.

Posted by machine à sous on October 23,2012 | 07:26 AM

My grandfather was a cole miner and he die in the cole mines. He was a great person and a great father my dad told me. I neaver got to my my grandfather he died when my father was 9 years old. But we have a picture of him so we would know who he was and what he looks like. When my father was young they lived in the tazwell Va mountians. About 5 years ago my father showed us where my family lived and the 3 bedroom house is gone that my grandfather build with his own two hands. The property is own by another family that we do not know. My father also showed us where my grandfather cole mine at and was not to far from the house that once stand. My grandparents had 12 kids 6 boys and 6 girls to feed and take care of. My dad family name is Smith and me and my brother is proud of are name and my grandfather that work and died to take care of are family. And where are family came from.

Posted by Ulissa on August 21,2012 | 01:30 PM

mountians are very intersting and sometime they are not safe but i can tell you one thing that mountains are very sciencey.(l)

Posted by mmb on August 15,2012 | 04:26 PM

I was born in Logan, W. Va. In 1937. It has always been this big companies from out of state getting the wealth and leaving the people of W.Va. holding the cleaning duty. This done with crooked people who are elected to office. I fought Vietnam and now live in the state of Washington in City of Spokane in eastern Wa. I will love W.Va. always.

Posted by J.R. Ashworth on April 8,2012 | 08:32 PM

B Johnson, unfortunately recovery from mountain top removal is not that simple! It makes it not only difficult but almost impossible for most plants to grow there once the land has been raped like that... coal companies are lucky if the can get a nice carpet of grass and twig like trees to grow there let alone the magnificent forests the once grew there!!! I am from Kentucky and have witnessed first hand the dramatic alteration of the landscape post mountaintop removal and it is terrible!!!!!

Posted by Jenna on February 20,2012 | 12:00 AM

Make the mine companys replace the trees and mountain tops that they tear down, after the coal is removed,

Posted by B Johnson on February 8,2012 | 12:14 PM

ok people you need to look at it this 50% of the united states come from right here in west virginia i no it aint great but if you take out coal mining you might as well take out 50%+ jobs and the last coal miner out of west virgina might as well turn off the lights

Posted by Shannon Jarrell on January 24,2012 | 08:06 PM

The mine only covers about 16 square miles... still bad but its not 80.

Posted by Mitchell Jones on December 11,2011 | 04:38 PM

I THINK THEY SHOULD STOP IT RIGHT NOW BEFORE IT GOES ANY FARTHER!

Posted by Brooklynn paige on February 17,2011 | 10:22 AM

why are there no Pictures of Tunnel Ridge Coal Company, Wheeling West Va? Tried to find on internet, no go!

Posted by john on October 15,2010 | 10:47 PM

Good article. Thank you for writing it. We the American people need to be informed. The word needs to go out. I'm renewing my Smithsonian Mag. subscription on account of this article. Good solid journalism.

I'm not from West VA. but I'm an American, and this is happening here in America. I wrote letters to my congresswoman, senators and president, and others, hoping someone would listen. I vacationed their when I was a kid, many years ago. its beautiful. Makes me want to weep.

We are so wasteful and so stupid when it comes to Energy.
Is this really 2009? What happen to innovation? we should be done with Coal and Oil by now.

Posted by Cowboy on June 21,2009 | 04:55 PM

Thanks for a fine article. Can't help but wonder who wrote the description in the magazine's table of contents, which passed this off as enviros "screaming and yelling" while coal companies go about their business. Credible scientific sources are providing lots of information about the true cost of coal-fired power, from the time a mountain top is blown up through dumping into streams, release of toxins and CO2 while burning (about half the soot - PM 2.5 - in the US, and single largest point source of mercury in our air and water), through the dumps that sometimes break and flood surrounding areas. Would also note that the wind power industry now employs more people than the 82,000 who mine coal in the US. And we still have to source about 60% of the parts for wind turbines in Europe, because we don't make them in the US. Time for a change.

If we use the conservation and energy efficiency now available, we can stop building coal-fired power plants right now.

Posted by Diana Christopulos on April 20,2009 | 05:54 PM

To the author and everyone else who is horrified by this article: If you have your electricity disconnected, you won't be a hypocrite!

Posted by JD on April 10,2009 | 01:25 PM

Who gets the blame? Who gets the blame for MTR? Do the profiteering coal companies get it? Do the greasy politicians (Governors, Senators, Congressman included)get it? Who gets the blame? I say we do. We the people are responsible for letting this happen and we the people can stop it from happening some more. MTR Coal accounts for just 5% of our coal. We can acheive 20%+ efficiencies in the way we use electricity. States like WV and KY can attract higher paying jobs that don't destroy their precious assets (the mountains). We can vote the crooked politicians out of office. We get the blame.

Posted by CBL on April 10,2009 | 09:22 AM

I spent all the summers of my childhood in Ansted. I stood in front of the "Company Store" the night it closed for good. I saw the mine desert the town. I saw that a lot of people got cancer in that area. I always wondered why. This type of mining will one day close down and desert the state. The jobs will be gone forever. And there will be no more shadows on the land. The shadows will be in our hearts. We who remember the mountains.

Posted by anne ferraro on April 8,2009 | 10:19 AM

This kind of destruction is just a bad idea. To those who say it helps the WV economy: it will, for about 20 more years, then there won't be any mountains, and WV will look closer to the surface of the moon or mars than earth, so good luck getting any money into the state at all. It is a terrible precident. If people get away with it now they will be able to get away with in the future, or at least thats the theory, and the world cant take this, it will pollute every single river, cloud, steam, lake, ocean, etc in existence, and remove to much of the worlds forest for recovery.
This is goign to continue until it is forced to stop, and by then there won't be any coal left (and ps: coal reserves wont last any longer than oil, or at least, not much longer)thats within my lifetime... i have no plans of watching the entire world crumble as all our sources of energy crumble away and the world as we know it dies...
We need the Earth, it doesn't need us, lets just hope we are smart enough to figure out a better solution, MTR is jsut horrific, and yet no one seems willing to stop it, but then thats been the history of the human race so far, and look at where its gotten us: oil due to run out in 50 years, global warming, economic turmoil because of profiteers not following the rules of common sense (this caused the great depression, and the current crisis, and probally msot others as well), and overall degrading of the planet, no we aren't living in a way we can continue to and hope to survive, i hope we learn before it is too late...

Posted by Chris Paquette on April 5,2009 | 08:13 PM

mountain top removal is terrible for the enviroment and ruins the wild life and places that people I beleive wew should stop mountain top removal before we ruin all the beautiful mountains we have!

Posted by mne on April 1,2009 | 02:36 PM

this was really helpful for the research report im doing for english...so thanks!:)

Posted by Liz on March 22,2009 | 01:33 PM

MTR does not increase jobs; in fact, because it is largely dependent on huge machines rather than actual workers, it has the opposite effect. The answer is to increase the number of green jobs in these areas. Like the clear-cutting in the Pacific Northwest, MTR is unsustainable. What happens when all the mountains are destroyed? Where will those "jobs" be then? MTR, like clear-cutting, besides destroying streams and our natural legacy, is a recipe for disaster.

Posted by Janet Ward on March 8,2009 | 01:35 PM

I think that the uproar this has created is extremely unjust. All of this comes as a scare because of the recent global warming trend where everyone feels that they have become "friends" with mother earth. One industry that is extremely small in size compared to the suburban developement that encircles most of your homes, was never given a second thought. The fact is that this industry gives high paying, stable jobs to the people of the community. Surface mining is practiced all over the world and maybe when our country can dictate to the nations of the world what they should do environmentally we should stay focused on other things, perhaps a failing economy. People cringe at mountain top removal but dont give a thought to the hundreds of thousands of miles of highways that were constructed throughtout the country by the exact same methods, through the exact same type of rock. Maybe we should stop the building of highways and infrastructure of the entire country and fall back to third world status. I hope that many of you remain unbiased on this. I am an environmentalist for one of the largest coal companies in the country and have a first hand look at the situation. Just as everything else there are ups and downs and pros and cons. So familiarize yourself with the issue before heading up a lynch mob that will send West Virginia families into further poverty and create more dependance on the welfare system that all of the tax paying readers provide for. Thank You.

Posted by Mike Underwood on March 1,2009 | 08:41 PM

It's devastating to see this pillage and its effects on biodiversity. Restored areas will never have the same plant and animal assemblages that were displaced. What is more alarming the indirect effects of burning the coal:

1) melting polar icecaps and drowning polar bears,
2) mountain species pushed to extinction by warming climates,
3) increased hurricanes like Katrina,
4) acidifying oceans,
5) drought-stricken farmers in Africa,
6) dying coral reefs and biologists trying to freeze their gametes to save the species.

We pay for this - either through our taxes or through lost biodiversity pilfering our children's inheritance. Loss of biodiversity and global warming amounts to a perverse subsidy for the coal industry and it has to stop.

CLICK THE LINK FOR A BRILLIANT CLEAN COAL AD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-_U1Z0vezw

Posted by Brian on March 1,2009 | 10:44 AM

I have just read all the above comments with interest, especially from those folks who say they know Ansted. I also know and love Ansted and the Gauley Mountain that surrounds it. I grew up there, went to school there and am proud to say I'm from Ansted. As a child on Sunday afternoons I used to take a snack and walk up to the top of the mountain just above my home in Coke Oven Hollow to enjoy my snack at "Devil's Tea Table" at the top of the mountain. I love going back there to view the beautiful mountain behind my chldhood homeplace. To think that that sight will no longer be available when I go back to visit makes me sad. I surely hope that doesn't happen. My Dad, Ira D. Skaggs, worked in the mines all his life, as well as my brothers, and it kept food on the table. I appreciate Gauley Mountain Coal Company supplying my family with our needs. However, to think that coal removal is being done is such a detrimental way these days is heart breaking. Something better should be considered.

Posted by Nell Skaggs Murphy on February 27,2009 | 08:38 AM

I am not really allowed to state an opinion either way on this issue since I work in regulating mining in West Virginia. My mother's family is from Ansted and my father's family is from the town of Glen Jean where the National Parks headquarters is located for the New River Gorge. I have lived in WV all my life and it is land I love. The biggest issue I can discuss is that one day, sooner than later, the coal is going to run out and so are the jobs that it provides. There are no contingency plans for what happens when this becomes a reality. Our government is actually one of the most economically stable state governments right now. All types of coal mining have waste and there will always be issues. Deep mines produce enormous valley fills and slurry impoundments as well. The bottom line is that WV needs to use more of the coal money to try and boost development in new directions and bring jobs that will last to the state. There are many facets to this predicament we are in. I don't even have all the facts so I doubt many others take the time to look at the issue in an objective manner. In the mean while, I will continue trying to keep the industry honest as best I can.

Posted by Mr. Anonymous on February 14,2009 | 02:57 PM

"what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" Mark 8:36

Destroying natural beauty is unethical. Beauty is what gives meaning and hope, even purpose to our human lives. Everyone thirsts and hungers for beauty, for things that satisfy the soul.
I am asking for your help to stand by your right as an American citizen or even as a human being of the planet earth to not forget your first love, to not give in to materialism and the rat race existence of modern life. As Marx once said in reference to modern life: "All that is solid melts into air and all that is holy is profaned".
Let not the mountains be the ones melting before us. Let it be our own hard hearts that melt, as we are convicted of our pride, our false sense of human right, and our dehumanization and betrayal of nature, our own birth right. Find a quiet place and sit down, turn your cell phone/pager off and take a minute to breath. Stop thinking so much, let your own small voice speak. I think you will find a deep agony there, and you will not be able to ignore it for long.
Don't be afraid to stand up for what takes your breath away.

Posted by Emily Clark on February 11,2009 | 06:46 PM

To all of you reading this and writing, if you love West Virginia and have the chance, please check out Burning the Future - a documentary about the human and ecological cost of Mountaintop Mining. It's heartbreaking to watch, but I hope it will move people to stand up and be counted against this destructive aberration. Please support the people of WV in their quest to save the mountains, their health and well being and their way of life.
http://www.burningthefuture.org/show.asp?content_id=14089
http://www.ilovemountains.org/
http://www.appvoices.org/index.php?/site/

I also know Ansted (grew up in Mt. Nebo). I do know Ansted and I want it to stay just the way it is, thank you. The replanting will not regrow the way it was and certainly not in our or our children or their children's lifetime - seriously. Come on. The Appalachian Forest is the second most diverse forest after the Rain Forest - you can't just plant that back. People are dying because their wells are filling with black water from slurry dumping. People are losing their homes from flooding caused by water runoff that's not being stopped because THERE ARE NO TREES. I understand that WV depends on coal, but there were 125,000 coal miners at one time. Today there are 15,000. That's not more jobs. Get the facts and then get on board to help save our beautiful wonderful wild resource. Please.

Posted by christi jensen on February 7,2009 | 09:45 PM

You people need to get all the facts straight. You don't go to these strip mines after they have been reclaimed, you just go in the middle of the process. They do plant trees put ponds and make it look beautiful. Yes the mountains might not be as tall, but look at what all coal does for us and the work it brings. You just can't look at the enviroment point of view, you got to look at all aspects. It provides hundreds of good paying jobs to this State. With the times like they are if you people lost your jobs and didn't have anywhere to work and needed to feed your family you would be right there in line if they would hire you. It seems people to complain about logging or mountains getting torn down to build new shopping malls or Wal-Marts, or even building new housing developments. Things will have to be destroyed when you put wind mills up to but those are ugly metal poles but the minds end up being a beautiful land.

Posted by John on January 27,2009 | 10:11 PM

Thank you for helping us to open the eyes of the world to what is happening here in WV. I was a member of the site inspection that Mr. Isabell says did not happen. What we saw that day was sickening; hundreds of trees gone, the earth disturbed, a once beautiful area of rolling mountain peaks in the process of being decimated, decapitated, and gone forever. According to the DEP's own permit, one of the coal seams in this Powellton mining operation is full of toxic selenium. The permit states that if this is not encapsulated quickly and correctly, the damage will be irreversible. In a recent court hearing, it came to light that one company had no idea how to take care of the selenium problem. Yet, Powellton Coal has asked to renew another existing permit in the same area. The propaganda machine of the coal industry, says that Coal turns the lights on! Well, it is going to turn the lights off, for all of us, permanently, if something is not done quickly, before the mountains of WV are only a memory. John R. Hoffman, Memeber, Ansted Historical Preservation Council.

Posted by John Hoffman on January 23,2009 | 09:31 AM

My heart just breaks.I go home at least twice a year to Charleston .I've hunted mushrooms in those mountains all my life.Raping our mountains is only a temporary solution.Whats next the grand canyon.

Posted by kim bannister on January 20,2009 | 08:42 PM

When will respect supercede greed?

Posted by Lisa O'Connor on January 18,2009 | 04:39 PM

Thank you for taking the time to research and communicate this unfortunate problem facing the Appalachian Mountains. I am no expert over the consequences of mountaintop removal mining, but I am able to distinguish between right and wrong. Blowing up mountains, for any reason, is wrong! These practices you’ve highlighted are saddening and we, as humans, should be ashamed of our actions against Mother Nature. I have a question for everyone. How many of your peers are actually familiar mountaintop removal mining practices? I’m astonished at the lack of public knowledge over this issue. How can we get the word out? I’ve never seen a story about mountaintop removal mining in any of the national media channels (i.e. USA Today, nightly national news, etc.). Have I missed something or is the fact that I missed it indicative of the problem? How can we get the attention of the general public?

Posted by John Haddock on January 18,2009 | 10:15 AM

What is the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration actively changing to improve these conditions surrounding this kind of mining? Some companies operate strictly for profit with utter disregard for nature's beauty, ecological systems, surrounding communities and the effect on them. This situation of irresponsible destruction needs attention. The EPA is failing to regard the reality that is occurring here.

Posted by patricia Lynn on January 17,2009 | 03:30 PM

Thank you so much for coming to our area, spending time with us, and telling the story of WV's dirty little secret. You should win a Pulitzer for this article. I belong to a group of committed citizens who are determined to save our area from the ravages of the Mountain-Top Removal method of mining coal. Our group realizes that coal must be mined until cleaner energy sources can replace it. However, coal can be mined without decapitating our mountains, polluting our streams and air quality. Go back to deep mining, enforce the laws to protect the people and the environment and the miners. The WV Department of Environmental Protection is not doing this, and is more inefficient than I have ever seen it. It is such a joke that the average person refers to it as the WV Department of Environmental Permitting (MTR must be permitted at any cost.) As for Mr. Isabell, He is either misinformed or telling fibs. There was indeed a site inspection. The DEP was gracious enough to let us inspect the site on the very day they granted the permit. If Mr. Isabell wishes to dispute this, I have the pictures to prove it. The only reason that you can't see part of the ruined site is that it is no longer there, it has vanished forever, blown to smithereens. The timber road going to the top of the mountain and on to the mine site is an ugly scar, visible from the New River Gorge Bridge. The mountains behind the town and above the town of Jodie are riddled with old mine workings. Acres of trees which held back much of the water are gone. Heaven help us if we get a substantial rain. We had a Blessing of the Mountain at which time Friends of Coal, a group of pro coal people, roared upon us with their four-wheelers, catcalling, and disrupting our service. Typical coal company tactics. We will prevail. Katheryne Hoffman, Victor, WV

Posted by Katheryne J. Hoffman on January 14,2009 | 05:52 PM

the sky is not falling,global warming does not exist as portrayed by un-american al gore fans,and you will not see much mining let alone mtr construction while driving along our beautiful scenic highways,but the big question is why do european scientists for the most part dismiss gore's claims of global warming as being an american scam by a wannabe,also as another point,there is less than 10% recoverable coal by mtr in the great state of west virginia.in closing why is there no outrage when an mtr site like southridge,a spralling urban shopping center located in both so.charleston and charleston is developed on what was once pristine farmland?it is always easy to fly high above an isolated area but to actually step one foot on a surface mine,well that would require a little leg work as well as having an open mind!

Posted by chuck light on January 12,2009 | 09:12 PM

My father was a coal miner. I grew up in W.Va (Turkey Creek, near Hawks Nest State Park and Ansted). I walked over the mountains from our home to Ansted High School because it was faster than walking to Highway 60 and taking the bus. In the 1950s coal companies were "strip mining" the mountain tops and destroying the small streams of water flowing down the mountains. At that time I wrote letters trying to get political support to stop the destruction. I was not successful and many people told me that I didn't know the value of coal mines. On the weekends I would travel to the tops of the mountains and attempt to make the mining more difficult by placing logs in front of the machines without any success. I joined the Air Force in 1959 and have only returned to W.Va. to visit. It is very sad to realize that our children and grandchildren will never see the beautiful mountains as I saw them. Thanks for your article. I hope it produces some change in destroying the mountains in W.Va. and elsewhere.

Posted by Jack Franklin Ph.D. on January 12,2009 | 04:42 PM

Thank you for an amazing article. I m very familiar with Ansted. My mother’s family settled in Ansted in the early 1900’s. My grandfather, uncles and other relatives worked the mines surrounding Ansted. I watched family die from Black Lung in the 70s and 80s. Many family members still live in the area and elsewhere in West Virginia. Coal has been part of the history of Ansted and West Virginia.

Gauley Mountain and the New River define Ansted for me. It’s hard to imagine the natural beauty of this area scarred by mining. I fondly recall summers in Ansted as a child. Quiet and sleepy, it was small town rural Appalachia. It was a town that had been stripped of its jobs when the coal industry left town. As tourism on the New River increased, it appeared that Ansted would again have its day in the sun. The natural beauty of the New River rapids is framed by the mountains surrounding its shores.

As the cither commenters responded above, the issue of coal mining, environmental stewardship and employment come together to do battle in these mountains. It is evident that the folks in Ansted depend on jobs created by this mine. The flip side is that they will suffer when the mountain disappears. The loss of natural beauty like this cannot be under valued.

I believe the answer is that industry must be environmentally accountable. We as consumers need to be aware that we will pay more for more environmentally sound mining and cleaner energy sources. Our government needs to be stewards of this country’s natural beauty.

What’s the answer for jobs in Ansted? It is most likely a compromise on this issue; safe and controlled mining combined with an aggressive push to tourism. The reality is we live in a time of recession where government spending will be sparse and the call for cheap energy is loud. It will drive a solution where few people win, especially in the long run.

Posted by Tom Bilcze on January 11,2009 | 05:57 PM

TO Mike Isabel--open up your eyes--the camera doesn't lie as much as you all that prosper from the blasting and poisoning of your neighbors would like for outside people to believe you---the camera does not lie. Niether do these groups that are fighting for justice in coal country. I am from Raleigh county and live in the middle of this mess. My daddy was a coal miner--underground- and he always told me that "Every law ever written about coal mining was written in our blood" and that is still true. So go sell your "bridge in Brooklyn" to some one else coal worshipers. America is seeing what you did and America does NOT like it.

Posted by Judy Bonds on January 11,2009 | 01:52 PM

Thank you for this very accurate and in depth article! I am relieved to see that the truth is finally escaping the mountains in which companies like Massey have buried it like the valleys they have filled. My family has a long history in WV and in the coal fields. It has maimed my father, my neighbors, destroyed the land, forced families from their homes, ruined scenic areas, and devastated road ways along with lives and land. The money these companies make is not passed on to its workers or to the local economy. They make millions and pass on a mere pittance. It has taken the health of the workers and given precious little in return. The mining industry needs revamped now. Its time for WV to stand up for WV. It is time for serious change in laws and implementation of those laws. If this is not done it is my fear that all the mountains we love so dearly will be destroyed.

Posted by Jessie Smith on January 8,2009 | 05:04 PM

To the above poster: Thanks for commenting. I disagree with you (and don't really appreciate being called a whinybutt, but I did kind of chuckle). Just wanted to point out that the author *was* on the ground at the mine site, and "A Powellton Coal Company official did not respond to requests for comment."

Posted by Ben Curnett on January 8,2009 | 03:17 PM

If two National Parks are so close to this site, wouldn't it make since for the parks to expand their borders to include this land, or expand until the two were only one large park? This would save the land and Federal Money (our money). D. Davis

Posted by David Davis on January 7,2009 | 05:05 PM

I know the area, know the mine and know Ansted. What a shame that the article was written without a site visit, a mine visit or even an attempt to talk to the company. It is always the same story from the same group. About the only truth in this one is that some of the people in the area support the mining and that the whinybutts don't know where their electricity comes from. They have lied about viewsheds, about park boundaries, about flooding in the town and about the "cancerous scars" that are caused by the process. I only hope that one day, people will open their eyes. Grandpa gave me good advise; believe nothing that you hear and half of what you see, find out the truth!

Posted by Mike Isabell on January 7,2009 | 09:06 AM

Thanks for a fine article on a devastating and dangerous practice. Gradually the word is getting out and mountain top removal mining is receiving national attention. When I looked up my Michigan hometown's energy source on-line, I saw that coal from mountains in southwest West Virginia and eastern Kentucky supply electric plants in southern Michigan...we are all touched by this. In 2005, I traveled to Whitesville West Virginia to see for myself. I felt I was journeying into the third world only 60 miles from Charleston the capital. Stores boarded up, roads too narrow for heavy coal traffic, school children traveling long distances on buses that shared the two-lane winding roads with overburdened coal trucks, Marsh Fork elementary school with a sludge tank rising above it, houses that have lost their value, water that must be imported in plastic bottles, gardens that cannot grow because of the sludge run-off, citizens fearful of "black water" , brave local organizations protesting. Thank you Smithsonian for publishing a part of the story so that national and international attention can continue to focus on shifting the mountains to renewable energy sources as quickly as tomorrow. We are running out of time.

Posted by Alice Williams on January 6,2009 | 09:47 PM

This is a great article that shows the true cost of so-called cheap energy. The people of Appalachia have for too long been expected to sacrifice their land and culture in order to fill the coffers of a negligent coal industry. But all is not lost, there are people and plans out there that offer different and viable alternatives for the mountains but for them to succeed, America must be weaned off of its coal addition. As long as America demands coal, mountains will be destroyed to get it. You can read the most factually accurate account of mountaintop removal and why it is allowed to continue, in the groundbreaking work of Dr. Shirley Stewart Burns titled, "Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal on southern West Virginia Communities". Dr. Burns is a native daughter of West Virginia, and her passionate and detailed work continues to inspire many to take a stand for their homes and future. The destruction occurring in the remote mountains of Appalachia affects us all. Thank you Smithsonian Magazine for telling the world about America's dirty little secret.

Posted by M.J. McKinney on January 6,2009 | 03:45 PM

I appreciate all the comments on this article so far but fail to understand the reasoning behind the pro-MTR commenters, it's like they all have this idea that nothing is going to change and there's nothing that can be done to stop it, nothing could be further from reality in my opinion. Many projects have begun to address the travesty that is MTR in WV and other surrounding states. Movies have been made, books have been written, speeches have been made all condemning this horrible practice and offering a multitude of alternatives to the destructive practice, just look around and you'll find them. What we can't seem to find here in the mountain state is the political will and that starts at the top. Senators Rockefeller and Byrd have long supported this criminal enterprise and they need to be held accountable. The EPA is also an accomplice in this by their lack of enforcement on the mines. Our governor Joe Manchin is also at fault and refuses to get involved in alternative solutions so far. This subject is not going away any time soon, thanks for writing this wonderful piece.

Posted by JB Christensen on January 6,2009 | 01:59 PM

I would also add that our state has a greater economic dependence upon the coal industry and the tens of thousands of jobs that it provides than it does to any other source of employment. Coal has always been king in West Virginia and will continue to be for at least the next 100 years.

Posted by DG Perry on January 5,2009 | 09:01 PM

This is certainly interesting. In my opinion, I consider jobs and tax revenues important to our State in these difficult economic times. I enjoy our scenic vistas; but, the jobs created in conjunction with the increase in tax revenues would provide the much needed monies to support our schools and infrastructure in West Virginia. I feel certain that existing state laws in conjunction with the existing EPA rules would enable the mining of this coal without a serious impact to our environment.

Posted by DG Perry on January 4,2009 | 01:29 PM

MTR is a tragedy. It's shameful in the way coal companies have sacrificed public health for money. It's abhorent in the way it disgraces nature and all it provides. It's sad in the way it chains hardworking people to poverty. It's scary in the way "clean coal" propoganda has permeated the media. It's heartbreaking that it is destroying my home. I'm not against mining. There's a responible way to mine coal, and I'm convinced that scientists can develop a responsible way to burn it. There's a responsible way to switch to alternative energy, and a responsible way to develop a sustainable economy. MTR is not responsible. It's reprehensible. Ben Curnett Ansted, WV

Posted by Ben Curnett on January 2,2009 | 09:55 AM

Genuinely astounding! The people of these hamlets being destroyed by out of state mining concerns remain in poverty, are insured of generations of poverty as they allow the natural beauty of their communities to be ravaged. The irony is tragic. We are blowing up natural scenic beauty, beauty that lures and mesmerizes people from around the world in exchange for short term jobs that will not even be around a generation from today. Where is the vision...and discipline?

Posted by Ellen Allen on January 1,2009 | 10:19 AM

Thank you so much for taking the time to research and write about this topic. This is a must read for all Americans. The major forests of West Virginia were destroyed by outside agents around 1900. Jobs were plentiful in the logging industry at the time. Once the trees were taken the jobs went with them. It took decades for the forests to grow back to anything close to what they once were. Now a hundred years later outside agents are at it again this time destroying whole mountains. When we destroy mountains they will not replaced. Jobs with the coal industry will dry up just as those did with the timber industry, only this time there will not be coal to come back to in a hundred years. I am proud to be a native West Virginian and I plan to spend the rest of my life here. I love the outdoors and the beauty of our mountains. I hope and pray that my children and grandchildren will have the same opportunity to enjoy them for their lifetimes. We must find a better way than to continue with mountaintop removal. May the birth of a new year give us hope that mountains will not be destroyed by the greed of mankind.

Posted by Scott Wilson on December 31,2008 | 10:58 PM

West Virginia does have a lot to offer to more than the passing through, hunting, fishing, class V rapids, local arts and crafts, agriculture, and a diverse ecology keep bringing people in as West Virginians by choice. Tourism is a potentially huge industry for this state, but not if the rivers and streams run orange from acid mine drainage that ends up killing the wildlife people come to hunt or admire. As many states have had their major industries moved or ended, there needs to be an understanding that education can bring these other industries back into the limelight and into the technologic age. FYI, the WV DEP does send out permitting requests by email to those who sign up for them and accepts concerned responses, but only hold town meetings if there is enough of a response. So, I encourage those of you who want change to make your voices heard to the agencies and local community organizations that deal with these permits and regulations or speaking out against them like the Office of Surface Mining. I also encourage those of you benefitting from coal power to REDUCE your CONSUMPTION, turn off your labtops and lights, use candles and fireplaces, wear more layers of clothing, quit watching so much TV, and come help us clean up this mess. If you really want to help, then you will.

Posted by Lily Kay on December 31,2008 | 11:55 AM

I am not a fan of burning coal. It creates a higher level of radiation in the air and potentiates acid rain as well as other air pollutants. There are, however, other considerations. First, we are doing our best not to implement alternate energy sources. Why should we when energy is cheap? Second, since Three Mile Island we have not built any nuclear plants in the US. Without the stimulus of new construction, development of safe systems for the US has come to a grinding halt, even though the rest of the world seems to be using it safely. Third, mountaintop removal is an ecological disaster. It does, however, do one positive thing. The injury and mortality rate for surface miners is significantly lower than among those who go into the deep shafts to bring us the coal. There has to be a way for us to provide our needs in a way that does not foul the environment. Third,

Posted by Eric Russell on December 29,2008 | 10:03 AM

It is sad to say that mountain top removal is just one small piece of a much bigger puzzle. Thomas Friedman's book, "Hot Flat and Crowded" addresses the real problem, we need to change the entire mind set of our country and the world to reduce our consumption, learn to conserve our resources and energy without reducing our quality of life and innovate new clean energy. America needs to become the leaders in green carbon free energy. Saving the Appalachian Mountains can only occur if our citizens and government are willing to change 150 years of behavior. Whether you are an environmentalist, a capitalist, conservationist, libertarian, or liberal, saving our mountains, wildlife and our way of life will depend on finding other clean energy sources and change the mind set of a consumptive society.

Posted by Jeff Proctor on December 28,2008 | 10:38 AM

My family and I left WV for economic reasons and hope to return one day. However, if the state has been destroyed in a last-ditch effort to bring some money into a dying economy, then we won't have much to come back to, will we?

Posted by Lisa Griffin on December 28,2008 | 10:16 AM

Massey Coal, one of the largest USA coal producers, has been "fined" millions and millions of dollars, and until lately, the feds have reduced them to a pittance, or they generally ignored them. Most citizens of our region have long given up to the power that corupts that which is most precious, holding in esteem those resources which are necessary to life. Giant or small disasters that pollute or kill are declared "acts of God." Bob Weaver

Posted by Bob Weaver on December 27,2008 | 02:46 PM

It always amazes me that when a very well researced article is published that it never tells the whole truth, and that truth is as follows. When my husband goes to work each morning at 3:30, and works his very hard laboring job as a heavy equipment mechanic on those big earth moving machines. He brings home a hard earned paycheck, I cash it and buy gas, food, we pay taxes, put back into the economy. We pay full price for school lunch, when we spend our coal paychecks it also keeps others in a job. The local pizza place, gas station, grocery store. We should never forget that every hard working coal operator is also paying tax dollars for schools and government programs. We also pay for all those people who won't work and always complain about those who do. I try to teach my children the value of a dollar, and a good work ethic. Why do people always try and look at the negative insted of the possitive. Try and look at a working mans point of veiw, and when coal is all you've worked at for 17 years, what do you do to provide for your family when its gone? Thank you.

Posted by Beverly Young on December 27,2008 | 11:43 AM

I worked in West Virginia many years ago and travel through it regularly now. The state is almost completely mountainous and does not have any stratigic advantages such as "location". It's mostly a place to travel through, although it certainly is "wild and wonderful". What would West Virginia be like without coal to provide the state government with tax money? Even with the coal tax money, its economy seems to be on life support. A lot of the local revenue seems to be generated by businesses catering to those who travel through WV to get somewhere else. I find it hard to sympathize with those who state 40% of their own electricity is produced by coal mined in the appalachian states, yet rail against it. I don't love the mining, but I'd like to hear some solutions rather than complaints. Hopefully we'll harness wind and solar power to make electricity...but that will bankrupt WV. Frankly, the state has nothing else of consequence going for it. Here's an option. Replace coal with other clean forms of energy and declare West Virginia a "primitive state". To live in the interior (most of the state), you must live off the land and agree to require almost no governmental services. About 50% of West Virginia's population would migrate to other states and take entry level jobs or go on welfare. Got any other ideas?

Posted by Frank Maston on December 26,2008 | 07:44 PM

A wonderful, detailed article telling the full story. Please visit www.burningthefuture.com to have a look at the full impacts of coal mining and burning and for a preview of the award-winning film, "Burning the Future: Coal in America."

Posted by David novack on December 26,2008 | 12:48 PM

I grew up in the Ansted area and attended Gauley Bridge High School and although I have lived most of my life in Western New York, I will always feel that West Virginia is my home. My grandfathers were coal miners as were all of my uncles. One grandfather belonged to the Molly Maguires so coal dust is in my veins. One of the tragic results of mountaintop mining that this article omitted was the landslides and flooding about ten years ago. People's homes were swept away, lives were lost, and the National Guard had to bring in heavy machinery to remove the thick mud that covered Route 60. Did West Virginia's legislators learn anything from that? Apparently not. As long as coal and timber companies can employ lobbyists and pay off the state's law makers, West Virginia's majestic mountains will continue to be destroyed. To me, Gauley Mountain, is indeed "Almost Heaven" and the destruction of that special place borders on sacrilege.

Posted by Rebecca Cale Camhi on December 26,2008 | 10:06 AM

It all says that all the science and all the politics in the world is impotent if we cannot put better energy to life and save those mountains. We completely failed as a human collective when we are not able to put together all the great minds in the world to solve this question, to make a plan to avoid the damage. All the millionaires and all the bussinessmen dont know nothing about the investments if they are investing by such a way which will kill their businesses soon. This business kills our world, people! Call the big demonstration to stop it and make sure change will follow. Make a global scientific action to find a solution. There is no time to wait.

Posted by Marcel Susko on December 25,2008 | 01:18 PM

I am a Private Pilot and therefore have seen this blight upon the land from a different view....It looks like a cancerous scar that you know can never be fixed or one that will never heal. Sure the vegitation will grow back, but in a way that looks like nothing our maker planned for it to look like....really saddens me to see a beautiful state like West Virginia to be raped and then forgotten about. Bill Martin

Posted by Bill Martin on December 23,2008 | 11:16 PM

I feel helpless too, but that is NOT real. We are Anything but helpless to stop this, but they want us to feel that we are. WE will stop this because we MUST, and we have to stop here, we can not let them take this from us. I am working on a solution- actually, I'm avoiding it, but I feel the breakthrough coming; something is going to Happen and this Happening will set into motion something so great that all eyes and hearts will open, the trees will stand up taller knowing they are safe again. the mountains will throw rocks to get our attention' we will all wake up, completely enlightened to the answer! sure, it will be easy! well, kind of easy, when it is clear, it is not easy or difficult, it is just clear what to do and the hesitation dissolves.

Posted by Sara Cowgill on December 23,2008 | 04:17 AM

Thank you very much for researching and writing this wonderful article. I have been part of the ecotourism movement in and around Fayetteville, WV, for the past eight years, leading field trips and giving talks at the New River Neotropicals Birding and Nature Festival. What the coal companies, with the complicity of the ACOE, the EPA and West Virginia's state government, are doing to their best natural resource, that "almost heaven" they tout, is criminal, both figuratively and literally. Thank you for pulling aside the curtain in such an eloquent and effective way. The incredible waste and devastation of MTR mining must be stopped, because as one resident said, "Mountains don't grow back."

Posted by Julie Zickefoose on December 22,2008 | 08:26 PM

I am a native Fayette Countian. I am so sad to know what is happening to those beautiful mountains, but feel helpless in stopping the MTR.

Posted by Felice Beni Jorgeson on December 22,2008 | 10:56 AM

Isn't there anything we can do to stop this?!?!?

Posted by Sarah S. Knox, PhD on December 22,2008 | 08:44 AM

This is an extraordinary story - surely the best I've seen on mountaintop removal. You should win a prize for this, Mr. McQuaid. Thank you for telling the stories of these heroic people that are fighting for clean water, a safe environment, their history, culture, and an economic future. It's time to turn the page on this ugly chapter of America's history.

Posted by Matt Wasson on December 21,2008 | 06:09 PM

What's interesting about the destruction of Gauley Mountain is that the Mountain Removers swear up and down that they're not doing any valley fills. The reality on the ground seems to put the lie to their claim. If America is willing to tolerate this being done in Appalachia, then I can't help feeling like we Appalachians just aren't quite as American as the rest of the country. Because the rest of the country cares so little about us here, so long as their lights stay on, it falls to Appalachian people to solve Appalachia's problems, and we're trying. Have a look at CoalRiverWind Dot Org. There's the solution to our Mountain Removal problem. Unfortunately, our elected "representatives" spend more time representing the coal industry than representing the people. Politicians, from WV's congressional delegation on down, are working overtime to make sure our children's heritage is eliminated and their future destroyed.

Posted by Bob Kincaid on December 21,2008 | 02:44 PM

Thank you for the excellent article. There are several things that are often lost in the discussion of mountaintop removal coal mining. A lot of the metallurgical coal from WV's mines is exported, which belies the coal industry's claims to be promoting "energy independence" for the U.S. and its current PR campaign for so-called "clean coal technology," which doesn't really exhist. Also, WV's blind support of the coal industry and whatever techniques it chooses to use precludes other types of economic activity, meaning that since mountaintop removal employs relatively few people, WV's biggest export continues to be its children. The state is literally destroying its future, by making its environment unliveable and exiling its residents to places where they can make a life. Your story quotes one local resident who characterizes the people organizing against mountaintop removal as new arrivals who don't share her family's long connection with the community. My family has been in WV since before the Civil War, too, but the state's obedience to the wishes of the coal industry meant that I had to leave. The phrase that really jumped out from your essay was the following: "I've reported on devastation around the world—from natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, to wars in Central America and the Middle East, to coastlines in Asia degraded by fish farming. But in the sheer audacity of its destruction, mountaintop coal removal is the most shocking thing I've ever seen. Entering a mountaintop site is like crossing into a war zone." Truly, Americans should take a look at what is happening in these communities at use whatever means at hand to bring it to an end.

Posted by Penny Messinger on December 21,2008 | 09:49 AM

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Mining the Mountains

Explosives and giant machines are destroying Appalachian peaks to obtain coal. In a tiny West Virginia town, residents and the industry fight over a mountain's fate

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