scholarly journals Resource Wars: An On the Ground Understanding of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in Appalachia, West Virginia

2015 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 8-16
Author(s):  
Nicole Fabricant
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Student Responses ◽  
Students First ◽  
Elective Course ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Physical Degradation

This article sketches student responses and subsequent political action to directly witnessing the tragedy of Mountaintop Coal Mining (MTR) on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia. I have created an "engaged anthropological curriculum" as part of my Resource Wars of 21st Century (an upper level elective course) where students spend four days on an active battlefield in order to a) expose students first-hand to the stories and testimonials of social, economic, physical degradation caused by MTR.   

Microchemical analysis of selenium in otoliths of two West Virginia fishes captured near mountaintop removal coal mining operations

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1039-1044 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariah C. Arnold ◽  
Lisa A. Friedrich ◽  
T. Ty Lindberg ◽  
Matthew Ross ◽  
Norman M. Halden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
Mining Operations ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
Microchemical Analysis

Bioaccumulation and speciation of selenium in fish and insects collected from a mountaintop removal coal mining-impacted stream in West Virginia

Ecotoxicology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 929-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. Arnold ◽  
T. Ty Lindberg ◽  
Y. T. Liu ◽  
K. A. Porter ◽  
H. Hsu-Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
Mountaintop Removal

Welcome to Coal River

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan T. McNeil
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Corporate Restructuring ◽  
Strip Mining ◽  
Federal Regulations ◽  
Mountaintop Removal ◽  
History Of

This chapter describes the rise of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR) and the uproar that accompanied it both in West Virginia and in Coal River. The conditions that facilitated MTR in the late 1990s included trends in industry stimulated by neoliberal corporate restructuring, labor relations, politics, government, and regulation. Manifestations of these conditions on multiple scales from federal regulations to local businesses have shaped the battle lines in Coal River. Out of these conditions, the chapter chronicles the emergence of a fresh round of activism against strip mining and the emergence of Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW) within that activism. It also traces the history of Whitesville and Sylvester, two towns that sit side by side in the heart of Coal River.

Disaster at Buffalo Creek

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Erikson
Keyword(s):  
West Virginia ◽  
Coal Mining ◽  
Mine Waste ◽  
Collective Trauma ◽  
Mining Company ◽  
Middle Fork ◽  
Buffalo Creek ◽  
The Individual

This chapter focuses on the Buffalo Creek flood in West Virginia that occurred on February 26, 1972. Almost everyone along Buffalo Creek depended on coal mining for a living. The creek is formed by three narrow forks meeting at the top of the hollow. The middle of these forks, known as Middle Fork, had been for many years the site of an enormous bank of mine waste. The waste was there because it solved two important disposal problems for the Buffalo Mining Company. This chapter describes the events that led to the Buffalo Creek disaster and its aftermath. It also considers the individual and collective trauma caused by the flood. Finally, it presents the story of a survivor named “Wilbur.”

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