This website provides updated, in-depth statistical research on mountaintop removal practices in West Virginia. Some of the statistics provides are: Between 1992 and 2002, 380,000 acres of mountain tops were destroyed; the 800+ square miles of mountains estimated to be already destroyed equals a one-quarter mile wide swath of destruction from New York to San Francisco; and Over 1,000 miles of West Virginia streams have been buried by mountaintop removal valley fills which is longer than the Ohio River. These statistics cover the wide range of destruction that mountaintop removal has produced on West Virginia turf. These statistics, and the many more listed on the web page, would be useful to a researcher because they truly put into perspective the damage that mountaintop removal has had on the land. A researcher could use these statistics for factual, credible evidence of the practice's impact on the planet.
Appalachian Voices. Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Central Appalachia: An Overview for the Congress of the United States. Retrieved June 10, 2008, from http://www.appvoices.org/images/uploads/AppVoicesMTRBooklet_web.pdf
This booklet put together by the Appalachian Voices organization is presentational information for Congress and provides detailed statistical information to show the impact of mountaintop removal. Some of the statistics include: In West Virginia, mountaintop removal has brought fewer jobs to the area, amounting to only 1.2% of employment; mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia produces less than 60 mst/yr of the nation's total annual production of 1100 mst.; and West Virginia's streams now contain between .35 and 2.3 p/m antimony in them. The statistics provided are very specific and revealing of how the practice has lowered environmental and economic standards in the West Virginia region. These statistics would be useful to a researcher because they also allow the researcher to see in factual and numerical terms just how much the mountaintop removal practice ha affected the area in all aspects. The researcher would be able to to prove and measure destruction with these variables in however he or she used the information.
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