Is strip mining a negative or positive?

Answer 1

Strip mining is a type of surface mining that involves excavating earth, rock, and other material to uncover a tabular, lens-shaped, or layered mineral reserve.

One third of America's coal is mined in the Appalachia using the strip mining technique called Mountain Top Removal which literally means the actual removal of the mountain top. The coal is found in the mountain stacked up in layers similar to the frosting in cake and mining operations are set up to remove the coal as effectively and as cheaply as possible. It used to be that mining operations dug tunnels into the mountain and retrieved the coal that way, but with the demands for energy and coal growing it became necessary to find quicker and cheaper ways to obtain the coal. In strip mining, the land is first bulldozed and dynamited to expose the bedrock and coal. Using some of the heaviest and biggest equipment that run on diesel, the top layer called the overburden is hauled away and is deposited into the valleys or put back onto the mountain when the operation ends. This effectively exposes the coal, which is mined and hauled away.

Bad mining practices can ignite coal fires, which can burn for decades, release fly ash and smoke laden with greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals. Furthermore mining releases coal mine methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Coal dust inhalation causes black lung disease among miners and those who live nearby, and mine accidents kill thousands every year. Coal mining displaces whole communities, forced off their land by expanding mines, coal fires, subsidence and contaminated water supplies.

Strip mining destroys landscapes, forests and wildlife habitats at the site of the mine when trees, plants, and topsoil are cleared from the mining area. This in turn leads to soil erosion and destruction of agricultural land.

When rain washes the loosened top soil into streams, sediments pollute waterways. This can hurt fish and smother plant life downstream, and cause disfiguration of river channels and streams, which leads to flooding.

There is an increased risk of chemical contamination of ground water when minerals in upturned earth seep into the water table, and watersheds are destroyed when disfigured land loses the water it once held.

Strip mining causes dust and noise pollution when top soil is disrupted with heavy machinery and coal dust is created in mines.

The common strip-mining techniques are classified as area mining or contour mining on the basis of the deposit geometry and type. The cycle of operations for both techniques consists of vegetation clearing, soil removal, drilling and blasting of overburden (if needed), stripping, removal of the coal or other mineral commodity, and reclamation.

All surface or strip mining first removes the overlying vegetation, soil and underground rock layers in order to expose and extract coal from an underground seam or coal deposit. Responsible surface mining attempts to limit the side effects of this removal through several basic steps. The usually try to extract coal and other types of minerals. The pits are parallel and adjacent to each other with each strip of overburden and the mineral beneath extracted in following order.

In the past, strip-mined mineral deposits that became exhausted or uneconomical to mine often were simply abandoned. The result was a barren saw tooth, lunar like landscape of spoil piles hostile to natural vegetation and generally unsuitable for any immediate land use. Such spoil areas are now routinely reclaimed and permanent vegetation reestablished as an integral part of surface-mining operations. Generally, reclamation is performed concurrently with mining.

Strip mining has destroyed over 740,000 acres of forests and 1,000 miles of waterways. Just like the elephant in the room, something has to be done. A group called the Coal River Wind Project is proposing a wind farm on one mountain instead of having it mined. As of December 2008, there is a bill in the House called the Clean Water Protection Act if passed into law that would help save some of the streams in the valleys that are lost or compromised by the depositing of overburden. However, with the environmentally detrimental measures passed by outgoing President Bush in his final hours threatens not only the environment but the health of communities near coal mines and coal plants by allowing them to dump their waste in local streams and valleys. Hopefully, the new administration will be able to save us from the harms of the coal industry that yet remains to be seen.

Answer 2

It totally depends on your point of view. For instance, it can and does provide a large number of good jobs, profits shareholders, and provides raw materials for industry. On the negative side, some would consider strip mining to be an eyesore, noisy, or harmful to the environment.

Answer 3

The advantages of strip mining are to save miners in the case of an accident. Instead of shaft mining, where you are in a cave that could collapse at any given moment, you just take off layers of the ground to get the minerals you need. I think I also read somewhere that it helps the environment too, but I don't believe it.