Re: E-M:/ Love mountains? Hate coal!

["Robert Isaac" <rjisaac@gmail.com>]

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Enviro-Mich message from "Robert Isaac" <rjisaac@gmail.com>
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As opposed to a dropping water table, springs and creeks drying up,
and being forced to move off your ancestral land because you can no
longer find water for your animals and crops?

http://www.sacredland.org/endangered_sites_pages/black_mesa.html
http://www.stoppeabody.org/

They are both bad.

> I can think of several reasons why the issue is often more severe in
> the Appalachians:
>
> 1.        Higher rainfall.  This can result in
>          a.     More flash floods, landslides, etc.
>          b.     More acid drainage from waste rock and mines
> 2.        Higher sulfur coal in the Appalachians, resulting in
> increased water acidity
> 3.        Typically, steeper terrain in the Appalachians, resulting
> in more flash floods, landslides, etc.
> 4.       There are fewer places for Appalachian folks to live.  To
> live close to a mine, one must almost always live in a narrow
> valley.  I worked for a number of years for the West Virginia
> Geological and Economic Survey (a state agency), and pored over every
> topo map that covers the state.  In most of southwestern WV, where
> the majority of the mountaintop removal takes place in that state,
> the only reasonably flat areas (until mountaintop removal occurs!)
> are the narrow floodplains of streams.  Exposing excavated rock and
> haul roads to heavy rainfall causes excessively high stream levels,
> and damage to homes, roads, etc.  In addition, the streams are often
> so acidic that they contain no game fish, and if you try to swim in
> them your eyes sting horribly.  Whole counties are like this.  In the
> west, there are plenty of flat areas near the mines for housing, and
> there are plenty of clean streams around.
>
> See the attached topo map of Red Jacket WV for typical SW WV
> topography.  The purple stipled pattern shows strip mines.  Note the
> ringed pattern surrounding the hill whose summit is 2031 feet in the
> western part of the map.  There is most likely valuable coal still
> left under that summit and above the uppermost strip mine.  Removing
> the "country rock" (mostly sandstone and shale) above that strip mine
> would enable them to get to that coal more easily.  Likewise, some of
> the lower coal seams (represented by lower strip mines) might be
> candidates as well.
>
> Much of eastern KY is very similar, as well as parts of western VA
> and even SE OH, though the hills in OH is lower.  Farther north, most
> current coal mines are underground mines, which have their own
> problems (e.g., subsidence.  This damages homes and roads, and even
> caused a popular state park lake to drain into the ground near the SW
> corner of PA.  The coal company has made no effort to deal with the issue.).
>
> `                                   -doug-
>
>
> At 12:18 AM 12/1/2007, Robert Isaac wrote:
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Enviro-Mich message from "Robert Isaac" <rjisaac@gmail.com>
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> >  > Is
> >  > one method less destructive to the environment than another?
> >
> >I would classify the western strip/pit mines to be just as bad as
> >blowing a hill up in the south.
> >
> >==============================================================
> >ENVIRO-MICH:  Internet List and Forum for Michigan Environmental
> >and Conservation Issues and Michigan-based Citizen Action.   Archives at
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> >Postings to:  enviro-mich@great-lakes.net      For info, send email to
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>
> Doug Welker
> 26344 Tauriainen Road
> Pelkie MI 49958
> dwelker@up.net
> (906) 338-2680
>
> Never underestimate the power of human greed.
>
>

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