Appalachian Voices Photo Gallery

In addition to an expansion of the nearby mine sites, here is the future of Coal River Mountain as envisioned by the coal companies. The land disturbance shown on Coal River Mountain is a simulation based on the proposed boundaries of the Bee Tree, Eagle 2 and Eagle 3 permits.

As of 2003 many nearby mountains had been leveled by mountaintop removal and the last 4 years have brought an accelerated pace of mining.  Coal River Mountain is quickly becoming an oasis of wind power potential in a largely flattened area.

And if, as the coal industry claims, surface mining brings jobs, it’s certainly not very evident in this map of unemployment rates in Appalachian Counties.

There is also a striking correlation between the areas that have been surface mined and the poverty rates of the counties where mining takes place.

The argument from the coal companies is that additional flat land is necessary for economic development - an argument that most fair-minded observers find both outrageous and absurd.  The surface mined areas (shown in red) in this region of southern WV, Southwest VA and eastern KY are far from lacking and only about 1% of those leveled areas have been commercially developed.

After just 18 years, an industrial wind farm would create more jobs (as measured in 1-year increments) than all three proposed surface mines combined and would continue to provide a steady source of employment for local workers indefinitely into the future.

The employment benefits of wind development as compared to coal mining are substantial for nearby communities.  Development of a 229 turbine wind site on Coal River Mountain would directly create between 200 and 250 jobs per year for the first 2 years of construction and would support more than 50 permanent jobs in the area - potentially in perpetuity.  Surface mining would directly create between 50 and 150 jobs per year for about 14 years while the mines were active, after which the land would be unsightly, unstable, and of little use for economic development in the forseeable future. 

The local workforce has the skills to build and operate the windfarm, and the local populace would almost certainly prefer wind development over strip mining - and the environmental benefits of wind development over coal mining are obvious.

In just 96 years, this wind farm would produce as much electricity as would be generated by burning all of the coal projected to be produced in the Bee Tree, Eagle 2, and Eagle 3 permit areas combined.

While, in the short-term, this number is lower than the amount that could be produced by mining the coal from the Bee Tree, Eagle 2 and Eagle 3 permits, that coal would only last about 15 years while wind power could provide electricity in perpetuity.

Back to Coal River Mountain… Based on an average capacity factor of 40% for 229 potential sites, estimated by the Windlogics model, this wind farm would produce enough electricity to power 91,180 homes. 

Here is the view same view from 2003 - several years more recent than the 2001 terrain model that was used for the “after” part of the wind analysis.  Much more of the mountain has been mined even since this photo was taken and there is probably little wind potential left on this part of the mountain. 

Note: the terrain used in this image (from Google Earth) uses a terrain model from the 1950s - long before surface mining took place - thus the leveling from mountaintop removal and valley fill are not visible in this image.

This is a view of the Pre-mining landscape using aerial photography from 1986 overlaid in Google Earth.