Copeland Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy
removal mining involves removing the top of a mountain in order
to recover the coal seams contained there. This practice occurs
in six Appalachian states (Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia,
Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Ohio). It creates an immense
quantity of excess spoil (dirt and rock that previously composed
the mountaintop), which is typically placed in valley fills on
the sides of the former mountains, burying streams that flow
through the valleys. Mountaintop mining is regulated under
several laws, including the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act Critics say that, as
a result of valley fills from mountaintop mining, stream water
quality and the aquatic and wildlife habitat that streams
support are destroyed by tons of rocks and dirt. The mining
industry argues that mountaintop mining is essential to
conducting surface coal mining in the Appalachian region and
that it would not be economically feasible there i