Mountaintop Removal Clearinghouse

According to a recent article in the Augusta Free Press on the impacts of coal fired power plants, mountaintop removal coal mining in Southern Appalachia is responsible for:

* Leveling one in five mountain peaks

* Clearcutting 7% of hardwood forests

* Burying 1200 miles of streams with overburden

A couple other facts:

* Over 1,000,000 (one million) acres or 1500 square miles of mountains have been destroyed in Appalachia by mountaintop removal (aka contour and cross-ridge) coal mining

* The appalachian mountains are considered some of the oldest mountains in the World - 300 million years old