1: What is mountaintop removal?

*Mountain top removal is a method of surface coal mining that removes a mountaintop or ridgeline, whether or not the mined area will be returned to its approximate original contour.

2: How does each of the following affect the environment: *Clearing -Topsoil and vegetation must be removed. Trees are burned or illegally dumped into valley fills *Blasting -Removal of 600 feet or more of elevation *Digging -Coal and debris removed using draglines, earth-moving machines. *Dumping Waste- Debris is dumped into nearby valleys. Polluted 2,000 miles of headwater streams *Processing -Creates coal slurry, sludge, coal dust and clay containing toxic chemicals. *Reclamation -Reclamation might take a hundred years for a forest to re-establish itself on the mine site.

3: Where is mountaintop removal happening? *Mountain top removal is happening in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, southwest Virginia and East Tennessee

4: What can be done to stop mountaintop removal? *Clean Water Protection Act could provide long-term fix that would be difficult for any presidential administration to change

5: What agencies are involved in regulating mountaintop removal? *Agencies involved in regulation mountaintop removal, are the President's Council on Environmental Quality, EPA, U.S Army Corps of Engineers.

6: What is one reason why we dont need to use this type of process? *One reason, is that mountaintop removal mining provides less than 4.5% of our electricity.

7: Summarize the economic impacts of mountaintop removal *Mountaintop removal decreases the coal companies' overhead cost. It causes less jobs for coal mining, however has increased coal production dramatically. Not only does it reduce underground mining jobs, but it creates barriers to economic development and diversification making areas less attractive for other industries. Places that have coal mining show high rates of economic distress in proportion to the amount of mining that occurs there. Whether or not mountaintop removal mining is ended, the number of coal mining jobs will continue to decrease.

8: Summarize the ecological impacts of mountaintop removal *Ecological impacts of mountaintop removal include the pollution of nearly 2,000 miles of headwater streams. It shows significant increases in conductivity and hardness as well as sulfate concentrations. It has been estimated that mountaintop removal would be responsible for 1.2 million acres of forest elimination. When topsoil is removed, the land is incapable of restoring native hardwood forest habitat, and looses most of it's nutrients. Fish species are also threatened by mountaintop removal. Mountaintop removal is eradication forests integral to fish survival.

9: How does mountaintop removal affect the local community? *How mountaintop removal affects the local community, is that it causes people to eat contaminated food, and gives them respiratory problems. It contaminates drinking water and also causes flyrock,which is when communities are blanketed in dust and rocks of all sizes. Mountaintop removal causes powerful flash floods. Without trees, rainfall becomes a danger.