Feb 25 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rob Scott The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.

Every day, more than 6 million pounds of explosives are detonated to blow the tops off of mountains in Appalachia, Barbara Strangfeld told a roomful of people Sunday.

The process makes it easier for miners to get at the coal underneath.

Unfortunately, it also drastically alters the landscape, chokes nearby waterways and puts those living in the valleys below the mountains at risk, Mrs. Strangfeld -- a volunteer with Appalachian Voices -- said during a presentation put on by the local chapter of the Sierra Club at the Lewisburg Senior Center.

She called mountaintop mining an "ecologically devastating practice" that over the past several years has destroyed more than 400,000 acres of land and buried more than 1,000 miles of streams.

Before mining begins, the top of the mountain is clear-cut and much of the lumber burned, according to Mrs. Strangfeld. After that, the topsoil is removed and explosives are used to remove several hundred feet of mountaintop, exposing the coal seams underneath.

The land blown off in the explosion is pushed into the valley below, often covering nearby streams and killing the aquatic wildlife.

The removal of the forest vegetation also increases water runoff from the mountain and can often lead to severe flooding, she said.

Most of the mountaintop mining in the United States is done in the Appalachian Mountain range, which encompasses approximately 15 states in the eastern part of the country. Appalachian Voices was formed by residents of this region to protest the destruction of their land.

"These people are being asked to sacrifice their land," said Mrs. Strangfeld. "And with the land goes their homes, their culture ... their identity."

The practice of mountaintop mining also provides little economic benefit, she said. While coal companies reap a profit, the process drastically reduces the need for workers.

In the 1970s, West Virginia -- where much of this mining is taking place -- was home to more than 130,000 coal miners, according to Mrs. Strangfeld. As of 2002, there were only 13,000.

Mountaintop mining "doesn't even offer many jobs to the people as it wreaks havoc on their landscape," she said.

While mountaintop mining has been in practice since the 1970s, it ramped up after the Bush administration removed language from the Clean Water Act in 2001 to define mining waste as fill, which allowed coal companies to dump the material into waterways, Mrs. Strangfeld said. "That gave them sort of carte blanche to do this with a vengeance."

The Clean Water Protection Act, a bill currently in the House of Representatives, would reverse the change made by the current administration.

Mrs. Strangfeld urged people to spread the word about mountaintop mining and lobby their Congressmen to support the House bill.

Though the practice has not spread to Pennsylvania, it should be a concern for everyone "because the Appalachian Mountains are a national treasure," she said. "Certainly, they belong to all of us as Americans."

n E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.