Economics of Mountaintop Removal

Mountaintop removal is a mining technique designed, from the very start, to take the labor force out of the mining operation. What used to take hundreds of miners employed for decades, now takes a half dozen heavy equipment operators and blasting technicians a couple of years. According to the bureau of labor statistics, in the early 1950’s there were between 125,000 and 145,000 miners employed in West Virginia; in 2004 there were just over 16,000. During that time, coal production has increased.

This decline in the workforce continues today. Draglines and other advances in technology resulted in a 29% decline in mining jobs during 1987 and 1997, while coal production rose 32 percent during the same period.

         

Despite claims that mountaintop removal increases local tax revenues, counties that produce coal are devastated by poverty, school closings, and unemployment. McDowell County has produced more coal than any other county in West Virginia, and for many years in the nation, yet the median household income is $19,931 and 37.7% of residents live in poverty. In 2000, the Appalachian Regional Commission classified more than three quarters of Appalachian Coal counties as “economically distressed.”

Worse even than the loss of jobs, however, is the manner in which mountaintop removal destroys the potential for alternative economic growth. The blasting from mountaintop removal typically leads to the loss of the local water table and thus the drinking water for nearby communities. According to the EPA Mid Atlantic Regional Assessment:

“The impact of mountaintop removal on nearby communities is devastating. Dynamite blasts needed to splinter rock strata are so strong they crack the foundations and walls of houses. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others. In many coalfield communities, the purity and availability of drinking water are keen concerns.” “Blasting and shearing mountains have added to the damage done to underground aquifers by deep mines.”

In addition, the massive sludge impoundments that are required for MTR pollute the drinking water supplies of the entire Appalachian region. In the Appalachian Plateau, iron and manganese concentrations exceeded US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water guidelines in at least 40% of the wells, and about 70% of the wells near reclaimed surface coal mines (read the EPA report here)

The EPA also notes:

“West Virginia's waterways are among the state's most valuable tourist attractions. Canoeists and fishermen come for the pleasures of rivers meandering under umbrellas of green or dancing in sunlight. The valley fills bury streambeds and contaminate streams with sediment from the mines.”

In looking across the southern and central Appalachian region, the evidence speaks for itself. Mountain counties in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee that have no coal industry have enjoyed some of the greatest economic growth and property value increases in the country over the past few decades. Because of the booming economy built around tourism, for instance, Watauga County, North Carolina, has maintained one of the lowest unemployment rates of all 100 North Carolina counties in recent years. In contrast, the coal-producing counties to the north suffer some of the highest unemployment rates, lowest education rates, and highest poverty in the nation.

In the biggest coal producing state in Appalachia, West Virginia, tourism already contributes more to the economy, and creates far more jobs, than the coal industry and has for more than a decade. It doesn’t take an economist to tell you that mountaintop removal is permanently destroying the best economic assets that mountain counties have: the beautiful and ancient Appalachian Mountains themselves.