But that's just the beginning. As the machinery eats away at the mountain to expose thin seams of coal, the pile of mountain guts grows. In fact, because earth expands when dug up, the pile grows larger than the original mountain peak. In short, mountaintop removal pushes the ridges into the valleys, replacing the topography from over 500 million years of Appalachian evolution with square miles of flat ground suitable for, perhaps, a parking lot. The impacts of mountaintop removal permeate every aspect of life in nearby communities.
People are upset.
The Methodists, the Catholics, the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, and the Presbyterians have recently passed resolutions calling for the end of mountaintop removal. County governments have called for a halt to the practice. An environmental protection organization, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, took the issue to court. Meanwhile, pressure to continue and expand mountaintop removal unabated is mounting from the mine owners and operators. At a recent pro-industry rally in Charleston, West Virginia, hundreds of miners gathered to protest the environmentalists' lawsuit, claiming that mountaintop removal is the only effective way to mine coal from the steeply sloped mountains of Appalachia.