Blasting away the local environment (Image: 
Days after the US Environmental Protection Agency , a dozen scientists from across the US have called for a ban on the practice.
Mountain-top mining, widespread in the Appalachians, involves blasting the tops off of mountains and dumping the waste rock into valleys, where it buries streams and with sulphate and heavy metals. It has irreversible impacts on river life and human health, the scientists warn. Their calls appear to be falling on deaf ears.
In March 2009, the in its granting of mining permits. Last week it granted Patriot Coal’s mining project in Lincoln County, West Virginia, permission to expand. The firm had agreed to cut the length of stream the expansion would bury, from 6 miles to 3.
Advertisement
Margaret Palmer at the University of Maryland, College Park, remains hopeful that the government will heed the scientists’ call.
