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Mountaintop Removal (Part II)

© Greg Cruey

In Part I of this article, we introduced the concept of mountaintop removal and looked at a couple of recent articles on the issue. Most can be found at Mining in the Mountains, an archive of articles and editorials on the subject as presented in the Charleston Gazette.

We also looked at some of the key players in the current debate on the issues. The stature of those players gives some insight into the importance of the issue: West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood; Congressman Bob Wise (D-WV), who recently announced that he would like to have Underwood's job and will probably run for governor in 2000; Arch Coal, Inc.; The United Mine Workers of America; two Federal agencies (the Office of Surface Mining and the Environmental Protection Agency); and, well, the list goes on...

What's at stake in the mountiantop removal debate? Why has it become so heated, and so central to West Virginia politics?

Issues...

Three major issues collide with unusual force at the political intersection created by the recent increase in mountaintop mining. Here they are:

The individual rights of West Virginia residents in the path of mountaintop removal projects are at stake in the issue. A Gazette article on the Blair mountaintop removal project, which has become the heart of the debate in West Virginia, presents a picture of Arch Coal, Inc. basically destroying the historic town of Blair in Logan County, WV. The article, Buying Blair, claims that Arch Coal has purchased two-thirds or more of the houses in the town and persuaded the residents to move away.

Mountaintop removal is probably the most disruptive form of mining for surrounding communities. The process includes a lot of blasting, dust, flyrock, etc. But if the Charleston Gazette is to be believed, Arch Coal has been more than a little forceful in its approach to the local community. According to the Gazette, local residents who sold thier properties to the company have been required to promise "never to live or own property in a 25-square-mile region around Arch Coal's Logan County mining complex." Their contracts also reportedly included a clause saying that they would never again protest against a strip mining operation and that they would withdraw all current complaints.

If the Gazette's claims are true, Arch Coal is in danger of having the mountaintop removal issue decided in the political arena on the basis of its own insensitivity in Blair, instead of the merits of the case.