![]() ![]() The practice releases coal dust and silica into the air, and excess material is dumped into valleys, disrupting ecosystems and leaching chemicals into streams and groundwater. Mountaintop removal mining uses explosives to blast off mountaintops and expose coal seams. Are we considering all the evidence, and all the costs that are borne by the people who live around these mines?” Mounting Evidence “The question is how we make these decisions as a society. “For me the bigger question is not whether we should be mining coal or surface mining at all,” said Sarah Saadoun, of Human Rights Watch, which produced the study. But an advocacy group’s new report draws attention to the ways that science has been suppressed, and how the costs of dealing with the mining’s health risks shifted from industry to communities. A growing body of research supports those suspicions. Over time the Walkers’ well became unusable and then dried up.Ĭommunities living near the large-scale surface mines have long suspected the practice was to blame for health problems ranging from asthma to skin conditions to cancer. ![]() My windows will rattle, my dishes will shake,” he said. “The coal mine at the top of the ridge here, they let off a blast maybe around 2 in the afternoon. Jason Walker inspects the thousand-gallon tank he uses to store surface water since the failure of a well. ![]()
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