Mountaintop removal coal mining, often described as "strip mining on steroids," is an extremely destructive form of mining that is devastating Appalachia. In the past few decades, over 2,000 miles of streams and headwaters that provide drinking water for millions of Americans have been permanently buried and destroyed. An area the size of Delaware has been flattened. Local coal field communities routinely face devastating floods and adverse health effects. Natural habitats in some our country's oldest forests are laid to waste. Earthjustice has been in the courts and in Congress on behalf of other local and national environmental and community groups to stop this destructive practice and protect Appalachia for future generations.

How It's Done

Coal companies first raze an entire mountainside, ripping trees from the ground and clearing brush with huge tractors. This debris is then set ablaze as deep holes are dug for explosives. An explosive is poured into these holes and mountaintops are literally blown apart. Huge machines called draglines—some the size of an entire city block, able to scoop up to 100 tons in a single load—push rock and dirt into nearby streams and valleys, forever burying waterways. Coal companies use explosives to blast as much as 800 to 1,000 feet off the tops of mountains in order to reach thin coal seams buried deep below.

What We're Doing in the Courts

Earthjustice, the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and Public Justice, on behalf of Coal River Mountain Watch, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and Sierra Club have fought in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of mountaintop removal mining permits that violate the Clean Water Act. On August 27, 2009, we headed to the U.S. Supreme Court to appeal an adverse decision by a lower court that overturned a victory we won in 2007.

What We're Doing on the Hill

In Congress, two proposed bills could curtail mountaintop removal mining by banning certain activities related to this destructive mining practice. The Clean Water Protection Act, a bill in the House of Representatives, would put tighter restrictions on dumping pollution into Appalachian streams by overturning the dangerous fill rule. Led by Representatives Frank Pallone and David Reichert with more than 100 other cosponsors, the Clean Water Protection Act would restore Clean Water Act protections.

The Appalachia Restoration Act, a much narrower bill in the U.S. Senate, would prohibit dumping "excess spoil" resulting from mountaintop removal into streams and headwaters. However it would allow other mining and industrial wastes to still be dumped into waters, practices formally prohibited under the Clean Water Act.