Mountaintop Mining Consequences
@article{Palmer2010MountaintopMC, title={Mountaintop Mining Consequences}, author={Margaret A Palmer and Emily S. Bernhardt and William H. Schlesinger and Keith N. Eshleman and Efi Foufoula‐Georgiou and Michael S Hendryx and A. Dennis Lemly and Gene E. Likens and Orie L. Loucks and Mary E. Power and Peter S. White and Peter R. Wilcock}, journal={Science}, year={2010}, volume={327}, pages={148 - 149} }
Damage to ecosystems and threats to human health and the lack of effective mitigation require new approaches to mining regulation. There has been a global, 30-year increase in surface mining (1), which is now the dominant driver of land-use change in the central Appalachian ecoregion of the United States (2). One major form of such mining, mountaintop mining with valley fills (MTM/VF) (3), is widespread throughout eastern Kentucky, West Virginia (WV), and southwestern Virginia. Upper elevation…
506 Citations
The environmental costs of mountaintop mining valley fill operations for aquatic ecosystems of the Central Appalachians
- Geology, Environmental ScienceAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- 2011
There is, to date, no evidence to suggest that the extensive chemical and hydrologic alterations of streams by MTVF can be offset or reversed by currently required reclamation and mitigation practices.
Assessing landform alterations induced by mountaintop mining
- Environmental Science
- 2013
A comprehensive
impact analysis of mountaintop removal and valley fill (MTR/VF) mining requires
an understanding of landform alterations since ecological impacts are so
intricately linked. In this…
How many mountains can we mine? Assessing the regional degradation of Central Appalachian rivers by surface coal mining.
- Environmental ScienceEnvironmental science & technology
- 2012
This work mapped surface mining from 1976 to 2005 for a 19,581 km(2) area of southern West Virginia and linked these maps with water quality and biological data for 223 streams to estimate the amount of watershed mining, stream ionic strength, or sulfate concentrations beyond which biological impairment is likely.
Cumulative impacts of mountaintop mining on an Appalachian watershed
- Environmental ScienceProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2011
The results demonstrate the cumulative impact of multiple mines within a single catchment and provide evidence that mines reclaimed nearly two decades ago continue to contribute significantly to water quality degradation within this watershed.
The Overlooked Terrestrial Impacts of Mountaintop Mining
- Environmental Science
- 2013
Ecological research on mountaintop mining has been focused on aquatic impacts because the overburden (i.e., the mountaintop) is disposed of in nearby valleys, which leads to a wide range of…
Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on the Mud River, West Virginia: Selenium Accumulation, Trophic Transfer, and Toxicity in Fish
- Environmental Science
- 2014
Selenium (Se) is a micronutrient necessary for the function of a variety of important enzymes; Se also exhibits a narrow range in concentrations between essentiality and toxicity. Oviparous…
Environmental hazard assessment of Benga Mining’s proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Project
- Environmental ScienceEnvironmental Science & Policy
- 2019
Characterizing the presence of P . cinnamomi on reclaimed mines in Eastern Kentucky
- Geology
- 2017
Coal Mining & Reclamation Efforts in Appalachia Surface coal mining is the dominant form of land cover change in the central Appalachian region of the United States (Bernhardt et al. 2012).…
Soaring Extinction Threats to Endemic Plants in Brazilian Metal-Rich Regions
- Environmental ScienceAMBIO
- 2011
The loss of plant species associated with mineral-rich areas should be added to the list of ecologic and genetic damages recurrently derived from surface-mining activities.
Linking upstream mining to downstream water quality: Mountaintop mining in West Virginia
- Environmental Science
- 2010
Mountaintop mining valley fill (MTM/VF) coal mining is currently the dominant form of land use change in the central Appalachians. MTM/VF activities level mountains, remove forests and forest soils,…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 65 REFERENCES
Surface mining and reclamation effects on flood response of watersheds in the central Appalachian Plateau region
- Environmental Science
- 2009
Surface mining of coal and subsequent reclamation represent the dominant land use change in the central Appalachian Plateau (CAP) region of the United States. Hydrologic impacts of surface mining…
Forest to reclaimed mine land use change leads to altered ecosystem structure and function.
- Environmental Science, MedicineEcological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America
- 2008
The goal of this study was to quantify the changes to ecosystem structure and function associated with a conversion from forest to reclaimed mine grassland by comparing a small watershed containing a 15-year-old reclaimed mine with a forested, reference watershed in western Maryland.
Downstream effects of mountaintop coal mining: comparing biological conditions using family- and genus-level macroinvertebrate bioassessment tools
- Environmental ScienceJournal of the North American Benthological Society
- 2008
The results show that mining activity has had subtle to severe impacts on benthic macroinvertebrate communities and that the biological condition most strongly correlates with a gradient of ionic strength.
Changes in the extent of surface mining and reclamation in the Central Appalachians detected using a 1976-2006 Landsat time series
- Environmental Science
- 2009
Carbon sequestration by forests and soils on mined land in the Midwestern and Appalachian coalfields of the U.S.
- Environmental Science
- 2008
Detection of flooding responses at the river basin scale enhanced by land use change
- Environmental Science
- 2009
The Georges Creek watershed (area 187.5 km2) in western Maryland (United States) has experienced land use changes (>17% of area) associated with surface mining of coal. The adjacent Savage River…
Landscapes and Riverscapes: The Influence of Land Use on Stream Ecosystems
- Environmental Science
- 2004
▪ Abstract Local habitat and biological diversity of streams and rivers are strongly influenced by landform and land use within the surrounding valley at multiple scales. However, empirical…
THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL REFORESTATION INITIATIVE
- Environmental Science
- 2005
The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a method for reclaiming coal-mined land to forest under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). The FRA is based on knowledge gained from…
How much do valley fills influence headwater streams?
- Environmental ScienceHydrobiologia
- 2004
AbstractValley fill mining has the potential to alter headwater stream habitat in many areas in the eastern United States. In valley fill mining, overburden is removed to expose underlying coal…
Survival and growth of hardwoods in brown versus gray sandstone on a surface mine in West Virginia.
- Geology, Environmental ScienceJournal of environmental quality
- 2009
After 3 yr, brown sandstone appears to be a better topsoil material due to the much greater growth of trees, but tree growth over time as these topsoils weather will determine whether these trends continue.