Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange - PageName: Mountain Top Removal/Mining

Sunday September 5th 2010

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Mountain Top Removal/Mining

UNITED STATES

Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. According to the Nature Conservancy, the mountain region including southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and northeastern Tennessee contains some of the highest levels of biological diversity in the nation. This region is also at the headwaters of the drinking water supplies of many US cities. – Adapted from ILoveMountains.org

During the last two decades, mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia has destroyed or severely damaged more than a million acres of forest and buried nearly 2,000 miles of streams. –Adapted from Yale Environment 360

Studies found that the natural return of forests to mountaintop mines reclaimed with grasses under hay and pasture or wildlife post-mining land uses occurs very slowly. Full reforestation across a large mine site in such cases may not occur for hundreds of years. – Adapted from ILoveMountains.org

GLOBAL IMPACT

The devastation and violence perpetrated by Canadian mining corporations has been documented clearly with links to human rights violations in Guatemala, Peru, Romania, the Philippines, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, Ghana, Suriname, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, India, Indonesia, Zambia and Sudan. Though the criticism of Canadian mining corporations taking advantage of so-called weak human rights protection in the South is made often enough, significantly less is said about the role of the same corporations in the destruction and displacement of Indigenous communities within Canadian borders. –Adapted from Mining Watch

The Process of Mountain Top Removal

1) CLEARING — Before mining can begin, all topsoil and vegetation must be removed. Trees are often not even used commercially, but instead are burned or sometimes illegally dumped into valley fills.

2) BLASTING —Coal seams lie deep below the surface of the mountains. Accessing these seams through surface mining can require the removal of 500-800 feet or more of elevation. Blowing up this much mountain is accomplished by using millions of pounds of explosives.

3) DIGGING — Coal and debris is removed by using a machine called a dragline which stands 22 stories high and can hold 24 compact cars in its bucket. These are favored by coal companies because they replace the need for hundreds of jobs.

4) DUMPING WASTE — The waste from the mining operation, also known as overburden or spoil, is dumped into nearby valleys, burying streams.

5) PROCESSING — The coal is washed and treated before it is loaded on trains. The excess water left over from this process called coal slurry or sludge and is stored in open coal impoundments. Coal sludge is a mix of water, coal dust, clay and toxic chemicals such as arsenic mercury, lead, copper, and chromium.

6) RECLAMATION — While reclamation efforts such as stabilization and revegetation are required for mountaintop removal sites, in practice, state agencies that regulate mining are generous with granting waivers to coal companies. Most sites receive little more than a spraying of exotic grass seed, but even the best reclamation provides no comfort to nearby families and communities whose drinking water supplies have been polluted and whose homes will be threatened by floods. – Adapted from ILoveMountains.org

Links

Abandoned Mines http://www.abandonedmines.gov/index.html

Halifax initiative Conference http://halifaxinitiative.info/content/conference-corporate-accountability-canada%E2%80%99s-extractive-industries-operating-abroad

I Love Mountains http://dev.ilovemountains.org/about

Links/resources to mining information- http://www.minesandcommunities.org/links.php

Mining Projects in Africa http://www.miningweekly.com/article/mining-in-africa-projects-2009-01-16-1#

Mining Watch Canada http://www.miningwatch.ca

YALE 360 Video- http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2198

Prayer

Prayer for a World Renewed

O God,
our creator and sustainer,
we pray to you:

We want to celebrate life.

We cry out against all that kills life:
hunger, poverty, unemployment, sickness,
debt, repression, individualism,
abuse of the earth, injustice,
and all other forms of slavery.

We want to announce fullness of life:
work, education, health, housing,
safe environment, bread for all.

We want communion, solidarity,
a world renewed.

We hope against hope.
With the God of history,

We want to make things new again.

-- Adapted from Education for Justice

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