Until the Mountains Crumble to Dust...

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Ecological Impacts

Human Impacts

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Mountaintop removal has significant environmental impacts on the entire ecosystem including land, streams, and air; however the most immediately obvious and possibly most devastating effects can be seen on the land. With exemptions to restoration of AOC granted to mining companies, vast areas of Appalachia have essentially been permanently leveled. Reclamation usually involves replacement of the topsoil, though not the original topsoil, and the structure of the soil cannot be recreated.The mountains in the region should be forest with a mix of hardwood tree species, however tree growth on reclaimed lands has been shown to be nearly impossible. Inorganic fertilizers have been shown to increase tree growth for a year or two, but with no long-term improvement [6]. Organic compost and fertilizershave been shown to improve tree growth for up to six years before failing [7]. The image to the right shows reclaimed area near Channelton mine near Channelton, WV; this was the first MTR mine in WV (begun in 1967). Nearly 30 years after reclamation, you can still see a visible area that sustains only grass and no trees. Current estimates of the area of MTR mines in WV alone are roughly 158,000 hectares (390,000 acres or 610 square miles). The EPA estimates that 4% of Appalachia (from Virginia to Kentucky) has been leveled, and that 6.8% will be stripped by 2012 [3].

MTR mining also has a severe impact on headwater streams as well; largely through the associated process of valley fills (VF). "Overburden" is frequently dumped directly into the head of the valley, or further down an adjacent valley to form an impoundment. By 2001, mining companies buried 1165 km (1.2% of all streams in the entire region) of streams with valley fills, and the EPA estimates 1930 km (2% of all streams in the region) of streams are directly impacted by valley fills. Valley fills tend to increase the base flow amount of water in the streams [3], and the frequency of severe flood events [8-10], also see next page for human impacts). Leakage from MTR mines and impoundments tends to alter the pH of adjacent streams, as well as lead to increased heavy metal loads and decreases in many macroinvertebrate populations.