Documenting mountaintop removal

iLoveMountains.org is an invaluable resource if you care about the Appalachian mountains and what mountaintop removal is doing to them. The site is up with a new resource (with an interactive map) called "Communities at risk from mountaintop removal."

For years, it was impossible to track the spread of mountaintop removal coal mining in Central Appalachia over the course of time. Appalachian Voices has compiled 30 years of satellite imagery and other data to show how this destructive form of coal mining is gradually getting closer to communities, even as coal production in the region is declining.

Of the thousands of communities at risk, the research identified the top 50 where the adverse effects of mountaintop removal — including water pollution, increased health risks, poverty rates and population loss — is greatest.

Needless to say, West Virginia has more than its fair share in the top 50.

(image from Alternet)
(hat tip to Ken Ward, Jr. at Coal Tattoo)

April 28 -- remembering the mining disasters

It was on this day in 1914 that the second worst mining disaster in West Virginia occurred in Eccles. 183 miners perished.

And on this day in 1928 an explosion at the Benwood Mine took the lives of all 119 miners on the morning shift.