Term of the day: AOC (Approximate Original Contour)--The name given to the process by which coal companies build the mountain back up to as close to the way it was created originally by nature.
The day started at Coal Mac in Chapmanville, West Virginia. Winding roads opened up to vast hilltops as far as the eye can see. The roads were eerily vacant with mining equipment every so often as we made our way to the main office. After a short video and Q & A session, we loaded in our vans to tour the 16,000 acres owned by Arch Coal. When you first look at the sites, I will be the first to admit that to the untrained eye--it looks really bad. It is obvious why so many look at a mountaintop removal site at face value. It is just too easy to say that coal destroys our mountains, but the reality is that in some cases it makes our mountains better.
When a company gets a permit for a site, a lot of planning goes into the whole process. Say for example, you want to get the coal out from a mountain that is covered in trees. Before your equipment can even make it in the site to get the coal out from underground, you need to clear the trees. Once this is done, topsoil may need to be removed to expose the coal seam. One thing that I learned from visiting the different coal operations this week is that a lot of complanies see removing part of the mountain as a last resort. They would much rather do contour mining (where they cut into the side of the mountain all around to get coal,) to keep the originial shape of the mountain. If they have to remove the top of the mountain, they build it up better and more compacted with greater drainage throughout so that there is less runoff. Just by looking at a reclaimed site, it was difficult to see exactly what was put in place under the surface.
By law, companies are only allowed to disturb 35% of a permitted site. Once they reach the 35% limit, they start mining the area and reclaiming part of it as well. Can companies disturb 35% without getting into trouble? The answer is yes. Our guide from Coal Mac mentioned that the only way that this could be done legally would be if the equipment would need more work space therefore they could disturb 50%. Near the end of the process which can sometimes take 6+ years, 660 trees are planted for every acre of land. Now that's a lot of trees! Also, the mining company works closely with the WV DEP and the EPA in making sure that the vegetation planted on a site is indigenous to West Virginia.
After we left Coal Mac, we went to Mount Laurel which is a coal processing plant that breaks up the coal and sends it out to the buyer. Coal can be used for two purposes: steam coal for generating electricity and higher grade metalurgical coal for making steal. The coal found in West Virginia is very high quality coal and that is why other countries buy it from us to make steal. I thoroughly enjoyed walking around Mount Laurel and seeing the process. The workers at the Mount Laurel were very accomodating to us and even offered to have our students visit the plant. I am surprised that not many groups have toured their facility and I intend to take them up on their offer someday!
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