Appalachian Environmental Issues

Southern Appalachia alone includes three hundred counties covering most of West Virginia and the Southern Highlands or Upland South. The mountains form a natural barrier between the eastern Coastal Plain and the vast Interior Lowlands of North America. As a result, they have “played a vital role in the settlement and development of the entire continent.”

Arguing flaws in the expansion of Appalachia’s postwar economy, Eller responds this led to “growth without development”. With the coal industry flourishing

Biggers referred to the Appalachia as, “the burning ground of industrial America; the region’s coal.” Coal was a vast reason why immigrants began to inhabit the area to work and families settled to make a living on the natural resources offered. It was not until the late 1800s, after the Civil War when cotton mills became established and “outside corporations and entrepreneurs, tied their hopes for prosperity to the whirling of spindles and the beating of looms.” Jacquelyn Hall, Luke a Family: The Making of the Southern Cotton Mill World.

Drugs and alcohol is a major social issue (J. David Hawkins, Richard F. Catalano, and Janet Y. Miller, 1992). It is not something that can be solved by the law (Lee P. Brown, 2008). Throughout history, many attempts have been made to try and legalize and control alcohol and drug addiction but has failed.

The best option to combat such problems is to start emphasizing the idea that addicts need to be willing to look outside their home areas for the best possible detox and rehab facilities in the country. There tends to be a direct correlation between the quality of addiction treatment to substances like alcohol and heroin and the longevity of recovery. By eliminating the temptation associated with the home neighborhood, addicts can increase their chances for a unfettered

West Virginia can make you wonder about different things that it might have different from any other place. The biomes has many interesting things about its self. The temperature can change for different reasons, the Precipitation is different everywhere, the plants, soil and animals are important in their own ways.

The Appalachian Trail is America's first Scenic Trail. It stretches from Katahdin Mountain in Maine to Springer Mountain in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia. This stretch of the trail includes some of the most difficult sections. Some trails are suitable for day hikes or short backpacking hikes.

lexington, Ky: Universtiy press of kentucky. This short book written by Caudill describes the effects industry and modernization has played on the Appalachian lifestyle.

“Factors contributing to substance abuse in rural America include: Low educational attainment, poverty, unemployment, high-risk behaviors, and isolation”

In the book, “The face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century”, (2005), discusses different elements towards the economic crisis of the capital and labor, local businesses, redevelopment of agencies, and state and federal governments. Dublin and Licht pounder upon the remarkable range of sources including oral histories, documentary photographs, records of coal companies, and community newspapers. The authors observe the effect of the economic decline across a wide region but mainly focuses on a small group of mining communities in specific regions. Also, the authors place the anthracite region within a broader framework,

The discovery of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania in the late 1700s led to the development of a robust coal industry in the eastern part of Pennsylvania that grew rapidly and contributed greatly to the history and the economy of Pennsylvania. The book The Face of Decline written by Thomas Dublin, Walter Licht, provides a well written historical and personal account of the discovery, growth, and finally the collapse of the anthracite coal industry in Pennsylvania in a chronological format. Half way through the book one starts to notice some changes in the authors format to cause and effect. The change occurs in order to discuss the cause and resulting effect of events in the region and the solutions. The story is one of great growth and opportunity in the early years which are highlighted by the documented economic growth experienced and supported through testimony within the eastern Pennsylvania coal region. After a period of economic prosperity and community growth from 1900 through 1940 challenges began to erode and occur that created problems for the community and the economy that the coal industry provided. Finally the region’s economy suffered horrendous losses as described by interviews of local residents and families who lived and experienced the rise of the region’s economy. Many of the scars are still evident by the blight and decaying scenes one would experience by traveling through the region’s communities that once fueled the American economy with the energy

Coal mining, in particular, strip mining has become the latest casualty of the growing green movement in the United States. What is strip mining? Encyclopædia Britannica Online defines strip mining as the removal of vegetation, soil, and rock above a layer of coal, followed by the removal of the coal itself (“strip”). Most Americans don’t realize the impact this material of biological origin that can be used as a source of energy (“fossil”), or fossil fuel, has on their everyday lives or the nation’s economy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the mining industry directly employs some fifty thousand Americans with nearly half that number working in the more specific field of strip mining, or mountain top removal

Nonmedical prescription drug abuse has been the rise, in small towns such as in West Virginia. Treatment submissions for Nonmedical prescription drugs have increased 430 percent in the last decade. Law enforcement is trying to keep up with this increase in drug abuse; However, when they move to shut a supplier down, the suppliers just set up in a new location (Nieves, 2012).

As a young Kentuckian, I recognize the importance of coal to the world's energy supply and its increasing use worldwide. Coal does indeed power the nation, but at what cost? At the cost of Appalachian qualities of life, at the cost of their health, the environment, and the economy. No one should suffer like the Appalachian region has due to the extensive devastation resulting from mountaintop removal. We, as a country, should stand up and defend Appalachia. We should come up with clean alternative energy sources or methods of obtaining coal rather than explosively destroying the entire Appalachian region one mountaintop at a time. We call upon anyone who is eager to learn more about coal and mountaintop removal to get educated and involve yourself in the fight to reclaim the Appalachian mountains for the environment and the well-being of our nation.

Mountaintop removal and valley filling is the process of mining for coal, primarily in southern Appalachia. In mountaintop removal, the tops of mountains are removed to expose the layer of coal. The earth that is removed from the mountaintop is then disposed in nearby valleys. Following the removal of the coal from the mountain, the coal is “washed”; the liquid that is left over after cleaning the coal is called coal slurry. This process of reshaping mountains and valleys has dangerous and lasting effects on the ecology and aesthetic value of the mountain. Citizens in rural Appalachia typically rely on water from small streams in order to have a clean water supply for their families. Due to the misshapen landscape caused by mountaintop removal and runoff from coal slurries, communities surrounding mountaintop removal sites and valley fill typically experience contaminated water. Even though mountaintop removal coal mining is an effective way to remove the entire amount of coal from a mountain, mountain top removal should be strictly regulated by the government because the water quality of persons in areas surrounding removal sites are being demolished and flow rates of the streams and stream ecosystems are being disturbed due to the nature of mountain top removal and valley filling. It is important to discuss the rights that local water users have in areas surrounding mountain top removal sites as well as the trade-offs that water users make in dealing with large coal