Surface Coal Mining in Appalachia
Scale and Impact of Operations
Surface coal mining in the mountainous areas of Appalachia — often called “mountaintop mining” — generates controversy, in part because of its scale and the post-mining appearance of the land. Yet there is limited public access to information on the size, location, and life span of these operations, or on how the land can be expected to look afterward. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to report on the characteristics of: (1) surface coal mining and (2) reclaimed lands that were disturbed by surface coal mining in the mountainous, eastern part of Kentucky and in West Virginia, where most…
