Environmental impact of coal mining in Appalachia

Environmental Impact of Coal Mining in Appalachia

An aerial view of mountaintop removal mining

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/Environment/article/3061652008)

The issue of coal mining in the Appalachian regions has in recent years been the cause of much debate and contention. The central concern in this debate is the dramatic and severe impact that coal mining has had on the environment of the region. In the age of global warming and climate change the issue of the devastation of the natural environment through mining methods such as mountaintop removal mining (MRM) tends to evoke strong and critical responses. The following is one example of these critiques.

When it comes to coal, perhaps the only thing more controversial than what to do about the heat-trapping carbon dioxide it generates is what to do about the social and environmental costs of getting it out of the ground. Nowhere is the debate over how far we are willing to go for inexpensive energy more contentious than in the coalfields of the Appalachian Mountains, where technology and engineering have allowed the scale of surface coal mines to reach gigantic proportions.

However, it should also be remembered that the history of mining in this region began in the middle of the Nineteenth Century and that the recent furor about coal mining in the region and new methods such as MRM or mountaintop removal mining is only the latest, albeit the most criticized, effect of coal mining in the Appalachians. This fact will also be borne in mind in this paper, which will attempt to provide an overview of the salient historical aspects of the development of coal mining methods in this region and the impact that they have had on the environment.

The following terse and succinct report on the condition of a mountain in the Appalachian region provides stark insight into the effects of cumulative coal mining and especially the more devastating effects of the more recent coal mining techniques. "... The mountain has been brought to its knees - cut down like a giant tree. Instead of gazing 200 metres up to its peak... you peer down at its rubbly remains, clawed at by giant shovels and trundled off by bucking yellow dump trucks.

It is estimated that approximately 500 mountains in the area of West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia have been destroyed in a similar way to the above description. This devastation has far-reaching implications, which refers not only to the direct effects on the natural fauna and flora of the environment, but also to the negative outcomes for the communities affected. "...Their homes have been flooded, walls cracked, wells poisoned, streams polluted; their jobs have been forfeited, cemeteries unearthed and communities abandoned. Many suffer from early-onset dementia and kidney stones. And they've lost their ancestral home."

While various traditional methods of extracting coal over the last century have all impacted on the assessment of environmental damage, the more recent use of the mountaintop removal mining is the most devastating. This method of mining is described as follows:

Instead of extracting coal the old-fashioned way, by burrowing, the mountain is extracted from the coal - blown up sequentially to reveal each black seam. Everything left over - trees, soil, plants and rock - is considered "overburden." it's dumped into the valleys below, filling them up."

2. The environmental history of Appalachian coal mining

2.1. Brief overview of mining activities

The history of coal mining in the Eastern United States begins shortly after colonization with"...large scale extraction commenced shortly thereafter."

The central area of Appalachia is known as a one of the largest producers of coal in the United States. Originally, the most common method of extracting coal from the ground was via underground mines. As has already been referred to, the more traditional forms of mining have been largely replaced by new methods such as strip mining which uses explosives.

While underground mines are still the most common form of Coal mining in Appalachia, surface mining has grown considerably due to the practice of mountaintop removal -- a type of strip mining that utilizes explosives to blast as much as 800 to 1,000 feet off of the tops of mountains to access underlying coal deposits.

The history of the environmental effects of earlier and more traditional forms of underground mining in the Appalachian region begins in the mid 1800s. The damage caused by these earlier mining methods is recorded in a 1906 report by State Geologist William Bullock Clark and his staff. This geological survey produced a Report on the Physical Features of Maryland.

As Baller, and Pantilat (2007) state of this report:

What Clark found, especially in Maryland's most heavily forested area - the Appalachian Region - alarmed him. In western Allegany County, in particular, where coal-company control of natural resources was all but complete, the forest cover had been largely removed. With regard to recovery, Clark was pessimistic, so much so that he recommended transferring ownership of large portions of western Maryland from private to public hands so ample time could be provided for regrowth.

The report refers particularly to the destruction of tress and natural fauna that was seen to be detrimental to the environment and ecosystem.

It is important to remember that the earlier methods of coal mining began the environmental damage that was later to become controversial in the development of strip mining and MRM. As one study in this regard notes;

Despite the considerable attention that has been directed toward Appalachia over the past thirty years, relatively little research has focused specifically on the historical environmental impacts of mining, lumbering, and other activities associated with expanding industrialization...Yet these remain important issues today in Appalachia, where the effects of past large-scale environmental modification are still being felt

In other words, while the focus is on the more contemporary use of strip mining and its deleterious effects on the environment, researchers point out that the decline of the environment as a result of mining has taken place over a long period of time and that the extensive effects of early industrialization and mining should be taken into consideration in an overall understanding of the present situation from an environmental point-of-view. For instance, as Buckley (1998) notes, "...western Maryland has been largely overlooked by historians and geographers studying southern Appalachia. Given the valley's early experimentation with new forms of transportation and its early experience with large-scale coal mining..."

This is also linked to the development and growth of the Consolidation Coal Company.

By the late1800s the coal companies has taken control of the region's mineral and timber resources and "The Consolidation Coal Company, in particular, had risen to prominence, moving into the lead among shippers of George's Creek coal"

It is also important to note that in the 1920s the Consolidation Coal Company was to become the largest commercial producer of bituminous coal in the United States.

However, what is of significance for the present discussion is that these earlier forms of mining methods and operations had an extremely negative effect on the natural environment. The following extract underlines this aspect clearly.

Historical evidence corroborates that by the second half of the nineteenth century, George's Creek was little more than a receptacle for industrial and domestic waste. No fish survived in it; no vegetation withstood its acidic waters. Its main purposes were patently to carry away the effluent from coal mines and to serve as "a public sewer" for the valley's inhabitants (U.S. Department of the Interior 1898, 27). Acid mine drainage, wastes from slaughterhouses, tanneries, distilleries, paper mills, stables, and sewer systems

This was to lead to a "new industrial order" in the early Twentieth Century in the region as evidenced by the rise of "company towns" or "coal camps." These earlier mining activities are described in many studies as having a disastrous effect on the environment.

The once majestic earth was scarred and ugly, and the streams ran brown with garbage and acid runoff from the mines. A black dust covered everything. Huge mounds of coal and "gob" piles of discarded mine waste lay about. The peaceful quiet of three decades before had been replaced by a cacophony of voices and industrial sounds.

The change from the more conventional methods of underground mining was due to a number of interrelated factors. These included corporate mergers and intense competition between mining companies. This was to lead to the search for more economic and effective mining technologies and methods, and the result was the adoption of "mountaintop removal strip mining." Because of [competition with] cheap western coal, mountaintop removal suddenly boomed in central Appalachia in the 1990s."

The development of large earth moving machinery was also an important factor which was to the increased feasibility and prevalence of mountaintop removal mining.

The amount of coal mining in the Appalachian area was to increase considerably in the latter part of the Twentieth Century. As one study notes; "...surface mining in West Virginia accounted for ten percent of the state's coal production in 1979; by 1999 it had jumped to almost one-third, with much of the increase attributable to mountaintop removal mining."

The prominence of this type of mining method is underlined by a study prepared for the Governor of West Virginia which states that,

"Mountaintop removal methods are essential to maintain the state's present level of coal production. The lower production costs of MTR have contributed significantly to maintaining West Virginia as a competitive coal producer."

3. Environmental impact of coal mining in the Appalachians.

3.1. Underground mining

The earliest coal mining in Appalachia consisted of various primitive form of underground as well as surface mining. However in the initial stages of mining in the region the methods used were minimally invasive in terms of the environment and "...had only minimal impact on the physical and organic environment."

However, this was to change with the increases in the demand from industry and more advanced technology. "In the 1870s, however, markets began to expand beyond local users. Industrial investment in the region led to a proliferation of railroad lines and the beginning of large-scale coal mining in Appalachia."

Some of the ways in which underground mining affected the environment have already been referred to. On the one hand, low scale underground mining can have little obvious effect on the environment but it can also lead to "... appreciable diminution, ponding, and/or diversion."

One of the main problems is water loss and the upsetting of the balance in the water table which can lead to concomitant stress on the natural environment.

The formation of subsidence-induced cracks, surface depressions, and/or sinkholes at the bottom of, or adjacent to, surface water bodies, such as streams, ponds, and lakes can lead to complete or partial loss of water due to leakage to the underlying strata.

This can also impact on natural drainage systems, which is essential for the balance in the ecosystem.

Among the other environmental effects of this type of mining in the late nineteenth century was the reduction of trees for timber props in the mines. This was to lead the destruction of natural animal habitats. These effects on the ecosystem of the region were to be exaggerated by the development of strip mining, which was to destroy large areas of forest and habitation.

3.2. Strip mining and MRM

Forms of strip mining and especially mountaintop removal mining have been used in Appalachian coal country for 20 years. This practice has also been the centre of legal debate and regulatory confusion.

"In the United States, one hundred tons of coal is extracted every two seconds. Around 70% of that coal comes from strip mines, and over the last twenty years, an increasing amount comes from mountaintop removal sites."

With the increase in competition, industrial demand and new technologies, strip mining began to overtake underground mining as the method of choice. Strip mining not only exacerbated the negative environmental effects of previous forms of mining but also added another dimension to the environmental trauma of the region.

As a result of this form of mining it was found that in the 1920s that mining in the areas of Appalachia had had a significant effect on waterways and acid drainage. This was to increase in the 1960s when it was established that;

..acid polluted nearly six thousand miles of streams in the region, primarily in the Susquehanna, Allegheny, Monongahela, Potomac, and Delaware River basins in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland. Most of this pollution, a result of the exposure of sulfur-containing pyrite and marcasite to air and water, came from abandoned deep mines.

Strip mining, especially in the form of mountaintop removal was to result in large areas of forest being cleared and an increase of the environmental effects of deforestation begun by underground mining. This of course had a severely negative effect on the animal population as well as contributing to erosion and the sedimentation of streams.

The mountaintop removal method has been shown to be extremely destructive of the environment. Furthermore," the removed material, or "overburden," is dumped into huge valley fills, often burying mountain streams."

2003 study of the environmental impact of this type of mining on a 12-million-acre study area including parts of eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwestern Virginia, and east Tennessee, found that;

..6.8% of the forested territory in that region "has been or may be affected by recent and future (1992-2012) mountaintop mining." Of the 59,000 miles of streams in the area, the draft reported that 724 miles had been covered by valley fills between 1985 and 2001, while a total of 1,200 miles had been affected.

This study goes on to conclude that, "Mountaintop mining operations in the Appalachian coalfields involve fundamental changes to the region's landscape and terrestrial wildlife habitats."