Longwall Mining

Most of us in this country take for granted that we can turn on our tap at the sink and get a glass of water. But, suppose you turned on the tap and didn't get anything. Further, suppose that the water came from your own well. What, specifically, would you do?

That isn't just an exercise question. It is happening in many states in the country and no one is even talking about it. Why? Because those causing water to disappear and homes to crumble are very large coal mining companies. They have a lot of money. They are very well connected. Read that as having politicians bought and paid for.

So, what would you do? If you had livestock would you sell them off? Would you go to town to get bottled water? For three and a half (3 1/2) years? It has happened that way. It is happening. And, as long as longwall mining is allowed to continue, it will happen again and again.

Just a suggestion here. Google longwall mining. Have a look at some of the photo's that are available. Contact citizenscoalcouncil.org. Get a little information. Then be prepared to be entirely pissed at what you see and hear. Mining companies like the dark (not just a pun) because the light of day, shone down on their dirty and murderous work, would do for their business what it has done for so many in the minefield. Namely, it would kill them.

One could point at mountain top destruction as the obvious sign of all that is wrong with coal mining. And, of course they would entirely correct in doing so. But, longwall mining is what is not obvious. You can't tell from above the mining itself that there is anything out of the ordinary going on.

What you need here is a rear view mirror. Look back at where the mining has taken place. See any flowing streams? No. Why, you might ask? Well lets see here. If you dig down 400-600 feet, then start digging horizontal to the plane of the ground above and don't shore up the tunnel behind you, what is going to happen? Of course, the ground behind will fall. How much? Let's see here. The machine that does the mining is about 4"-6" high. That means that you have a 4"-6" hole behind you wherever you do the longwall mining. If you don't shore up the hole, at some point the ground will sink 4"-6". Hmmmmmm. If you were to say, dig beneath or near to a stream, and the ground sinks, what might the obvious be? The water disappears.

At this point, the mining company would likely say that it really hasn't disappeared, but gone deeper and is coming up elsewhere. But, suppose, going back to the top of this post, that all of a sudden your water was gone? It may indeed be coming up elsewhere, but how in the hell does that help you? If your animals no longer have water to drink. And, your home, which has been using that water for drinking, bathing, washing clothes, you know the regular everyday stuff, is now dry. No water. It may be deeper and coming up elsewhere, but again the same question.

This little problem is not singular, nor isolated. It is common place and happening to a lot of people in the coalfield. Anyplace they are using longwall mining, there is on-going housing and water destruction.

It took only a couple of hours to get me started down the path that will cure my personal ignorance of the the destruction being done in the name of coal. Longwall mining is an unmitigated disaster. And, it is neither being talked about, nor written about at this moment. Through this diary, and hopefully others, Grist(?) this is about to change.