EPA Issues Guidance On Mountaintop Removal Mining
April 01 2010 - 2:04PM
Dow Jones News
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued
guidance to limit damage from mountaintop removal mining, a
practice that environmentalists have long sought to halt in West
Virginia and other parts of Appalachia.
Mountaintop removal mining involves blasting off mountaintops to
get at the coal underneath. Environmentalists consider the practice
to be the most abusive form of coal mining because it levels
mountains and buries streams under rock and debris. The coal-mining
industry says that the practice is cheaper and safer than
traditional underground mining.
The Appalachian region accounts for about a third of U.S. coal
production, with 40% of that coming from mountaintop removal and
other forms of surface mining.
-By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654;
siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com