Mountaintop removal mining is a form of surface mining that involves stripping the summit or the summit ridge of a mountain. It is harmful to not to only the environment, but the wildlife in the areas as well. It has a huge impact on human health causing significant issues. It has also been the cause of more than ten thousand job losses in states such as West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. The majority of those states rely on coal mining for employment. The processes can be very damaging to the properties around the MTR sites.

Mining has a great impact on the environment and wildlife around the sites. The dust contains toxic chemicals which threaten the lives of not only animals, but the people as well. It can cause the loss of biodiversity and toxification of watersheds. There are also human health impacts from coming into contact with affected streams and/or exposure to airborne toxins and dust. In many scientific studies it is said that the toxins, dust, and the affected streams cause 50% higher cancer rates and 42% higher birth defect rates. This way of surface mining is stripping away what our states are known for, it’s beauty and untouched nature. Are we just going to stand by idle while our mountains are being destroyed? Are you?

Coal mining has provided many jobs for the states such as West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and many more. The older way of mining proved to be too dangerous for its employees and too costly for the owners. Employees were harmed with illnesses or by falling debris. The new way of mining uses of fewer employees and in some ways is less dangerous, but has put over ten thousands of people out of a job. Our states depend on coal mining to put money in pockets and food on tables, with that being said, the thousands of people that have lost their jobs are no longer able to do that. People are no longer able to pay bills or even feed their children.

The process of this type of surface mining can be very long and very dangerous. They start by first clearing the trees, selling or burning the lumber. Then they use explosives to blast through the overburden, which consist of rock and subsoil. Miners use about 1000 tons of explosives per day to go through the overburden. You could only imagine where all of the debris goes; it goes into our streams, environment, and properties around the site.

During his 2008 campaign, President Obama pledged to rein in the coal industry’s efficient, but de-structive practice of mining huge seams of coal by “simply blowing the tops off mountains” and dump-ing the debris into valleys and streams below. Over the past several decades, coal companies have de-stroyed forests, brought down more than 500 mountains, polluted water, jeopardized public health and disrupted scores of communities through so-called mountain top removal. Environmentalists who have studied the geological carnage left by all this blasting and earth removal refer to it as “surface mining on steroids.”

“The stated goal of the Clean Water Act is to protect the physical, chemical and biological integrity of the water of the United States,” Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Mountain Advo-cates, an environmental watchdog group, once testified. “It does not take a PhD in biology to see that blowing up the mountains and forests is bad for the environment.” Industry officials say mountaintop removal mining gathers coal that wouldn't be cost effective to mine through traditional underground methods. Companies reclaim the sites to create areas where new highways, shopping centers, golf courses or airports can be built. If you think about it is it really worth it?