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First, the Stats....
» 2,200 square miles of Appalachian forests will be mined using Mountaintop Removal by 2012.
» 1.4 million acres will be mined by 2010 -- that's bigger than the state of Delaware, folks.
» 2 out of 3 Americans are against Mountaintop Removal, but like other things most of us are against it is still taking place every single day.
How They Do It...
» First, the land is "clear cut"--this means all of the trees are chopped down and sold for lumber.
» Topsoil is removed and set aside for later.
» Explosives are used to blast away land to expose coal, a major source of destructive, cheap energy, and main contributor to greenhouse gases.
» The coal is then removed and transported by massive trucks to a processing plant.
» Millions of gallons of waste--aka "sludge"--is stored nearby in open pools.
» Once all of the coal is removed, topsoil is pushed back into the hold and the land is "re-seeded".
Why It's Bad..
» It's done mainly to reach coal, which isn't really a "clean" form of energy.
» The rock that is blasted away from the mountains requires a lot of washing to separate coal from bedrock. The result is SLUDGE -- a mixture of toxic waste that includes large amounts of arsenic, mercury, lead, copper, and chromium. Further these toxins seep into groundwater -- the only supply of water to most of the areas where mountaintop removal occurs. Finally, the earthen dams made to hold the sludge breach frequently, causing flooding in nearby towns and/or further contaminating rivers and streams.
» It blows the tops off of mountains....... C'mon, folks, who thinks that's really a good idea?
 
Here's a fact sheet on the issue..
Learn, Act, Change....
Appalachian Voices
Mountain Justice Summer
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