Mountaintop removal is a technique used by coal-mining companies that involves blasting away the tops of mountains and hills to get to the coal seams beneath.Back when I was a reporter for the Bristol Herald Courier in the mid 1980s, I toured some of the largest (and ugliest) strip mining and mountaintop removal mining sites from a small plane with an environmental group. Back then, I realized that what the environmentalists were saying about the future consequences of such mining on the environment might be true to a certain extent, but the money from coal has long been the lifeblood of those who live there. Even today, as beautiful as the Appalachian mountains are, they offer few ways to earn a decent wage beyond tourism, timber and coal.
If you love the Appalachian region, I recommend reading a very interesting op-ed piece titled "My Polluted Kentucky Home" from The New York Times to learn more about how this type of mining has affected the heart of Appalachia and the people who call it home.
And here's another article, EPA Study Confirms Damage From Strip Mining, that offers even more sobering evidence of the toll it has and is taking.
And here is an example of what mountaintop removal mining looks like:
