Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

In Tennessee, Virginia and elsewhere in Appalachia, the coal industry is applying a type of mining called “mountaintop removal.”  In terms of cost to the industry, it’s a relatively cheap and expedient way to mine coal. But the costs to nearby communities and the environment are staggering.

Forests and topsoil are stripped from mountain ridges and the timber is either sold or burned in place. Using tons of explosives, coal companies blast the mountaintops off to expose the underlying coal seams. The rock and soil, called “overburden,” are pushed into nearby valleys. Mountaintop removal has devastating impacts on the environment, including the loss of critical forest habitat and the destruction or damage of hundreds of streams running through the valleys. Amazingly, the practice is by-and-large allowed under current laws.

• More than 1,200 stream miles in four Appalachian states, including Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky, were damaged or destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining between 1985 and 2001, according to the federal government.  The practice has only escalated since then.


• The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that mountaintop removal could affect over 1.4 million acres by 2010 – an area larger than Delaware.


• Aquatic species throughout the region are imperiled by the ongoing loss of habitat and water pollution from the valley fills, as well as from other aspects of coal mining operations.


• As forests are cleared, native plants and wildlife are also taking a hit; mined sites are heavily compacted and often replanted with fast growing, non-native grasses that compete with tree seedlings.

SELC is working to stop the devastation from mountaintop removal in Virginia and Tennessee in multiple ways. We have filed petitions with federal agencies to change the way they regulate the coal industry to ensure that forest and stream habitats are protected. (See Restoring Clean Water in the Coalfields).  Also, our Global Warming Initiative, which aims both to stop construction of more coal-fired power plants and to compel energy efficiency in all sectors, will decrease demand for coal.