Geography of Mountaintop Removal

Mountaintop removal coal mining occurs primarily in 4 Appalachian states: West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. The maps below show the region in which mountaintop removal is occurring, with the map on the right also showing some of the main coalbeds in the region.

       

The map below shows the extent of mountaintop removal and valley fill area, as compiled from permit maps from Kentucky and West Virginia. Because of the difficulty in obtaining permit maps from the states of Tennessee and Virginia, sites in those states are not yet included in the map.



While nobody knows for certain how many acres of mountains have been leveled and how many miles of valleys and streams have been filled (there have been few attempts by federal and state agencies to compile information or evaluate the impacts), there is no argument that it is occurring faster all the time. Click on each decade in the map below to see how mountaintop removal has expanded in southern West Virginia since it first began in the 1970s. The map shows boundaries of mountaintop removal and valley fill permits, which do not necessarily reflect the reality on the ground (see below).

How Accurate are Permit Maps?

The maps above are compiled from permit maps that coal companies are required to provide when applying for a mining permit. Unfortunately, those maps have proven to be so inaccurate as to be almost worthless for scientific or planning purposes. Recent studies by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) have demonstrated that permit maps filed with the WVDEP underestimate the actual amount of valley fill by as much as 40% in eight southern West Virginia watersheds. The interactive map below, based on actual data published by Michael Shank, demonstrates the large discrepancies between the amount of valley fill shown on permit maps and the actual amount of valley fill. Click on the different pages to see an overview of Shank's findings.

Who Is Affected by Mountaintop Removal?

All of this is happening, not just in the back yards of people living in Appalachia, but at the headwaters of the drinking water supplies of many US cities. The map below shows major river systems with headwaters in the Appalachian coalfields.



Many mountaintop removal sites are visible from aerial photos, like those used in photo browsers like this one available from the West Virginia DEP, as well as map-browsing software such as GoogleEarth. Unfortunately, those photos are not always up to date and tend to under-represent how much mountaintop removal has occurred in Appalachia. For this reason, Appalachian Voices is taking advantage of the new opportunities GoogleEarth provides to share up-to-date maps of mountaintop removal sites in GoogleEarth format. We are also compiling virtual flyovers of specific mountaintop removal sites and should have those resources posted on this page in the next few weeks - so stay tuned. In the meantime, feel free to check out a sample flyover by clicking this link and downloading the file to GoogleEarth. If you don’t have GoogleEarth installed on your computer, click here.