FACTS ABOUT WEST VIRGINIA COAL MINING

About 17-20 million tons of coal are produced each week in the United States. The demand for coal to produce electricity has tripled since 1970, to nearly 900 million tons a year. West Virginia, the 2nd largest producer in the nation, accounts for 3.5 million of that weekly amount, and 175 million tons annually. The nation's top producer is Wyoming, while Kentucky is third, and Pennsylvania fourth. Mingo County, in the southern part of the state produced over 26 million tons of coal in 1996. Boone County ranked just below Mingo in that year, and Logan County was third with 18 million tons. The majority of Logan County's coal was from surface mining. For a long time, surface mining only accounted for about 10% of West Virginia's coal production. Now it's nearly a third, due in part to the dramatic increase in Mountaintop Removal Mining.

More coal is being mined now than ever before, and 80% of it is burned to create electricity. West Virginia gets over 99% of its electrical energy from coal. And it takes a lot of coal to supply power plants, many of which burn more than 1000 tons per day per unit.

Samples Mine (Catenary Coal Co.) at the headwaters of Cabin Creek in lower Kanawha County is the largest surface mine in West Virginia. This is the mine near Kayford Mountain. But with more mining permits being issued than ever before, even the enormous Samples mine may soon be surpassed in size by others.

West Virginia coal is mined in at least 30 of the state's 55 counties, from more than 460 mines. Since West Virginia became a state in 1863 almost 12 billion tons of coal have been extracted from its mountains. West Virginia is the largest underground producing state, and has the most longwall mining systems. In 1948 a record 125,000 West Virginia miners were employed. The picture looks different now however. Even though more coal is being mined than ever before in this state (175 million tons/year), the total number of miners employed is less than 19,000. The reason of course is bigger machinery -- it only takes one man to run Big John, the gigantic shovel used at Mountaintop Removal operations. Only a small number of miners are necessary to run these huge scale operations. Some fear that one day automation may be so advanced as to eliminate nearly all jobs for coal miners.

The coal from West Virginia mines is some of the most valuable in the world. It is prized for its high BTU, low ash and low sulfur, qualities much sought after by by coke-making machines in the manufacture of iron and steel. West Virginia coal is shipped to 33 states and exported to 23 countries. Low sulfur coal is also in demand by power plants because burning high sulfur coal produces Sulfur Dioxide, which must then be "scrubbed" out of the flue gases to ensure compliance with The Clean Air Act. These scrubber units are very expensive to install and to operate. Everyone wants low sulfur coal.

In the entire decade of the 1980's only 46 Mountaintop Mining permits were issued covering a total of 9,700 acres. Contrast this with today's figures: in 1997 alone there were 46 Mountaintop permits covering 12,500 acres. Mountaintop Mining is rapidly on the rise, and the end is nowhere in sight. According to the National Mining Association, the United States has 300 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, enough for 240 years. But given the accelerated rate of coal depletion by Mountaintop Removal Mining, that figure may well be lower than that.

WV Secretary of State Ken Hechler has been fighting for better laws to control strip mining since the 1960's when he was a U.S. Congressman. Hechler recently referred to strip mining as "war on the environment." Hechler spoke with President Clinton at an Earth Day Celebration in Harpers Ferry, WV on April 22, 1998, and urged him to look into the seriousness of Mountaintop Removal Mining.


"The guts of our once proud mountains have been ripped out
. . . and dumped into the gullies."             Ken Hechler, in 1974


Twenty-five years later, many things still remain unchanged.



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