The Appalachian mountains once were the highest mountains on Earth; 466 million years ago they were higher than the Himalayas are now. Through erosion and time they have shrunk, but now coal companies are reducing the once tall, proud mountain tops to dust.

Beginning in the 1970s, Mountaintop Removal has been a method for extracting coal from the Appalachian mountains. According to iLoveMountains.org — a resource website about MTR produced by Appalachian voices — MTR has 6 components.

The first is clearing. In order to begin mining, all topsoil and vegetation are removed, often burned or disposed of illegaly. The next component is blasting. Since the coal lies anywhere below 500-800 feet of elevation, that must be blasted away using millions of pounds of explosives. Digging is next, when coal and debris are removed using a dragline machine. Next the waste is dumped, with most of it going into nearby valleys and streams. The coal is processed by being washed and treated. The excess is a coal sludge mix of water, coal dust, clay and chemicals such as lead, arsenic and mercury. This sludge is kept in impoundments, or sludge dams. The final component is reclamation. Revegetation and stabilization are required but most sites never see more than some exotic grass seed sprayed on.

This whole process is incredibly destructive and intrusive to the local area. The reclamation process does little for the local people, with their drinking water already polluted and a higher risk of flood without the forests that were once there. The families live within 300 feet of the blasting sites, which operate 24 hours a day and can send large boulders tumbling down the mountain.

The sludge dams and impoundments are notoriously leaky and unstable, contaminating waters and likely to fail completely. Much like the recent red sludge disaster in Hungary, an impoundment failure would be disastrous to the larger area. In fact, in 2000 a sludge dam failed spreading 300 million gallons of the toxic coal sludge through Martin County, Kentucky. The EPA called this one of the biggest environmental disasters ever.

All of this is in an area considered by the Nature Conservancy to be one of six biodiversity “hotspots” in the United States with a number of rare or threatened species.

According to iLoveMountains.org, the coal from MTR only accounted for 5% of American coal production, and there is very little coal left in the Appalachians. Employment is also decreasing as the production increases.

It is not worth the trouble. Destroying part of American heritage and unique ecosystems to produce an energy source that is dirty and outdated is not right. It is also all at the expense of American families, slowly poisoning them and increasing their risk of lung and respiratory problems. This just is not right or fair to anyone or anything involved.

If this continues the United States is projecting a view to other countries that its land is not significant for life on it or the amazing geological formations but only the worth of minerals of which it contains. If it does not stop the people of Appalachia will be sick and tourists visiting will ask, “What happened to all the mountains?”