BartonMemo9

Structural Map—Mountain Top Removal Mining

Legal and Legislative • Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA), 1977, especially the Approximate Original Contour (AOC) variance clause • Clean Water Act, 1972 • Clean Water Protection Act, introduced to House, 2005

Technological • Coal mining and coal burning technologies (e.g. draglines, "clean" coal, impoundments) • Information Technologies o Visualization technologies (e.g. Googlemaps, Youtube, digital photography) o Communication technologies (e.g., email lists, websites, old-fashioned phones)

Economic • Decreasing coal-related jobs • Depressed area • MTR-sites as development sites • Outdoor tourism • Limited education/training opportunities • Topography has made economic development difficult, mostly because of the challenges of transportation infrastructre.

Social • Development of local grassroots opposition groups • Growth of environmentalism and environmental discourses, and espcially the growing concern about gobal warming and fossil fuels • Population drains in many affected areas as people move elsewhere in search of work, or are encourage/forced to leave by the mining companies.

Political • Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) • State departments of the environment • Mine inspectors • House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (where the CWPA is sitting) • Patterns of corruption

Cultural • History of coal/politics/labor • History of political and economic disenfranchisement • Importance of heritage • Identification with the land

Natural • Permanent loss of the mountains • Southern Appalchians are one of the most biodiverse temperate areas in the world. • MTR causes massive loss of topsoil and vegetation with attendant losses in wildlife and habitat continuity as well as floods and loss of streams in addition to pollution (e.g. acid mine drainage). Reclamation processes often rely on non-native grasses that are not edible to most of the native wildlife. • Major watersheds lead to the Ohio River. • Topography has made economic development difficult, mostly because of the challenges of transportation infrastructre.