From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):
Many Pennsylvanians have never heard of longwall coal mining. But it can cause more environmental damage than many other types of coal mining — and that’s saying a lot.
State officials estimate that the process of longwall mining is responsible for a whopping 99% of mining-related damage to streams in southwestern Pennsylvania in recent years. In fact, it’s responsible for polluting or destroying hundreds of our state’s local streams.1
Tell state officials to protect our streams from longwall mining at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=43358.
Incredibly, under Pennsylvania state law, longwall mining is allowed to damage and destroy property and homes. While they’re supposed to repair or replace damage they cause, homeowners are often locked into long, painful legal battles with coal companies to get properly compensated.
As the name insinuates, this harmful method of mining is done by taking a long, underground wall of coal and shearing it off with a massive piece of mining equipment. The size of the coal removal is immense, removing pieces of coal vein that’s 1,500 feet wide and often over 2 miles long.2
Since longwall mining is done without permanently propping up the ground above it, the mine tunnel often collapses once the equipment is removed, causing homes, farms, and streams above it to sink into the earth. In the worst cases, streambeds collapse and the stream’s water disappears, draining into the mine.
Enough is enough. It’s time to end this harmful coal mining process in Pennsylvania.
The good news is that environmental officials at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) are currently asking for the public’s input on the rules that govern longwall mining in the state. By adding your comment in favor of reining in longwall mining and ensuring stronger protections for our streams and property owners, you can help defend against this harmful process of extracting fossil fuels in the state.
Tell the DEP: it’s time to protect our streams and homeowners from longwall mining.
1. Bain et al., “The Effects of Subsidence Resulting from Underground Bituminous Coal Mining in Pennsylvania, 2013-2018,” Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, August 2019.
2. Schmid & Company, “Undermining Trust: the collapse of environmental protection in Pennsylvania,” Citizens Coal Council, January 2021
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