What is Mountaintop Removal?

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 2,500 miles of headwater streams that provide drinking water for millions of people have been destroyed permanently. An area the size of Delaware has been flattened. Local communities routinely face devastating floods and adverse health implications from the fallout of blowing up mountains over our homes. Natural habitats of the second most bio-diverse region in the world are being forever destroyed. Some of our country’s oldest mountains are now miles of flat, dead land without safe water.