The Center For Public Integrity  [Printer-friendly version]
January 12, 2009

THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND HUMAN DISASTER OF LONGWALL MINING

[Read the stories, "Undermined," and "The Big Seep," both by
Kristen Lombardi of the Center for Public Integrity, and watch this
video.]

[See also: multimedia, resources, and documents.]

Down in Washington, Pennsylvania, an hour's drive southwest from
Pittsburgh, one message can be found plastered on billboards,
newspapers, even diner placemats. It reads: "Coal, Pennsylvania's #1
Fuel for Electricity. Now Clean and Green."

Those last words probably don't spring to mind for citizens in the
coalfields of northern Appalachia, where longwall mining thrives. A
highly productive method, longwall mining yielded 176 million tons of
coal in 2007 -- 15 percent of total U.S. production. An estimated 10
percent of all U.S. electricity now depends on coal from longwall
mines, which have grown in Appalachia and in Illinois, Utah, Colorado,
and New Mexico.

But longwall mining is the most brutal technology yet employed to
extract coal from underground quickly and cheaply. A hulking shearer,
the longwall machine chews the coal seam and leaves the ground to cave
in what the industry calls "planned subsidence." Residents living
above mines describe the effect differently. Says Rebecca Foley, whose
historic house has been shaken apart by the shock waves: "It's like
living through an earthquake that happens in slow motion."

Northern Appalachia represents that epicenter. In southwestern
Pennsylvania, six of the country's top 25 longwall mines snake below
138,743 acres of rural terrain -- 15 percent of the area. By contrast,
the remaining 19 mines are scattered among West Virginia, Ohio,
Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and western states. Nationwide, no other
place has as many operations -- or as many citizens living above them
-- as southwestern Pennsylvania.

This project examines social and environmental impacts of longwall's
full-extraction method. Our first article exposes the David-versus-
Goliath battles that define the region, and documents the landowner's
dilemma: He must fight not only the powerful coal industry, but also
indifferent state officials. The second article looks at the
method's steep environmental price: Longwall mining has sucked surface
and ground water into the earth, and left behind disrupted aquifers.
The result? Residents have had to sacrifice their way of life for
"clean coal."

Consider these findings:

* Structures above a longwall mine almost always suffer subsidence,
forcing homeowners to contend with such damages as shattered
foundations, crooked roofs, and cracked plaster. By last September,
1,819 property owners had reported longwall damages since the state
began documenting such complaints.

* Longwall mining dams, diminishes, and dries up water sources.
Scientists have found the practice is permanently lowering the area's
water table and draining its aquifers; state regulators have reported
damages to 23 stretches over 97 miles of mined streams.

* The environmental fallout has hit farmers so hard that the
agricultural land and farming community are dwindling.

* State policymakers have fostered this destruction through the mining
law and environmental regulations, leaving citizens virtually
powerless to undo harm.

Today, the country is building more power plants that will burn the
coal from this area; indeed, northern Appalachia ranks as its third
largest coal-producing region. And yet most Americans have never heard
of longwall mining. Our project aims to change that, and to expose the
havoc wreaked by an industry peddling a "clean coal" campaign. The
longwall machine may not look as dramatic as blasted mountaintops, but
it is quietly collapsing not just the ground below but the communities
above it.