Mountain Top Removal Webquest
1: What is mountaintop removal?
Methods of surface coal mining that removes a mountaintop or ridgeline, whether or not the mined area will be returned to its approximate original contour.
2: How does each of the following affect the environment:
• Clearing-Topsoil and vegetation that are removed,burned, or illegally dumped into valley fills
• Blasting-The Removal of 600 feet or more of elevation
• Digging-Coal and debris removed using draglines (earth-moving crane)
• Dumping Waste-When Debris is dumped into nearby valleys.
• Processing-Creates coal slurry, sludge, coal dust, and clay that often contain toxic chemicals.
• Reclamation-A process that can take hundred years for a forest to re-establish itself on the mine site.
3: Where is mountaintop removal happening?
Mountaintop removal takes place in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia and East Tennessee
4: What can be done to stop mountaintop removal?
Clean Water Protection Act would provide long-term fix that would be difficult for any presidential administration to change
5: What agencies are involved in regulating mountaintop removal?
Agencies involved in the regulation of mountaintop removal are the President's Council on Environmental Quality, EPA, and the U.S Army Corps of Engineers.
6: What is one reason why we don’t need to use this type of process?
Mountaintop removal mining is not needed since it only provides 4.5 percent of our electricity.
7: Summarize the economic impacts of mountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal lowers the cost for coal companies and causes less jobs/people needed for coal mining, but has increased coal production dramatically. Places that have coal mining show high rates of economic distress and prevents economic development. The number of coal mining jobs will decrease since technology is making it easier to do these jobs
8: Summarize the ecological impacts of mountaintop removal
Ecological impacts of mountaintop removal include the pollution of 2,000 miles of headwater streams. When topsoil is removed, the land is incapable of restoring native hardwood forest habitat. Fish species are also threatened by mountaintop removal since mountaintop removal is the eradication of forests integral to fish survival. The water shows significant increases in conductivity and hardness as well as sulfate concentrations. It has been estimated that mountaintop removal would be responsible for 1.2 million acres of forest elimination.
9: How does mountaintop removal affect the local community?
It causes increased mortality due to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It can also cause the contamination of drinking water and can also cause fly rock where communities experience being blanketed in dust and rocks. Mountaintop removal can trigger powerful flash floods.
1: What is mountaintop removal?
Methods of surface coal mining that removes a mountaintop or ridgeline, whether or not the mined area will be returned to its approximate original contour.
2: How does each of the following affect the environment:
• Clearing-Topsoil and vegetation that are removed,burned, or illegally dumped into valley fills
• Blasting-The Removal of 600 feet or more of elevation
• Digging-Coal and debris removed using draglines (earth-moving crane)
• Dumping Waste-When Debris is dumped into nearby valleys.
• Processing-Creates coal slurry, sludge, coal dust, and clay that often contain toxic chemicals.
• Reclamation-A process that can take hundred years for a forest to re-establish itself on the mine site.
3: Where is mountaintop removal happening?
Mountaintop removal takes place in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia and East Tennessee
4: What can be done to stop mountaintop removal?
Clean Water Protection Act would provide long-term fix that would be difficult for any presidential administration to change
5: What agencies are involved in regulating mountaintop removal?
Agencies involved in the regulation of mountaintop removal are the President's Council on Environmental Quality, EPA, and the U.S Army Corps of Engineers.
6: What is one reason why we don’t need to use this type of process?
Mountaintop removal mining is not needed since it only provides 4.5 percent of our electricity.
7: Summarize the economic impacts of mountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal lowers the cost for coal companies and causes less jobs/people needed for coal mining, but has increased coal production dramatically. Places that have coal mining show high rates of economic distress and prevents economic development. The number of coal mining jobs will decrease since technology is making it easier to do these jobs
8: Summarize the ecological impacts of mountaintop removal
Ecological impacts of mountaintop removal include the pollution of 2,000 miles of headwater streams. When topsoil is removed, the land is incapable of restoring native hardwood forest habitat. Fish species are also threatened by mountaintop removal since mountaintop removal is the eradication of forests integral to fish survival. The water shows significant increases in conductivity and hardness as well as sulfate concentrations. It has been estimated that mountaintop removal would be responsible for 1.2 million acres of forest elimination.
9: How does mountaintop removal affect the local community?
It causes increased mortality due to diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It can also cause the contamination of drinking water and can also cause fly rock where communities experience being blanketed in dust and rocks. Mountaintop removal can trigger powerful flash floods.