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In Pennsylvania, most coal is mined underground
by the “longwall” method. Many of the costs related
to longwall mining are being borne not by the mining industry, but
by the residents of the coalfields, by the taxpayers, and by the
citizens of the Commonwealth whose environment is being sacrificed
without the proper attention of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection.
The increasing use of longwall and other full-extraction underground
mining techniques is creating widespread damage to homes, water,
and land resources in the bituminous coalfields in this country.
Unlike room-and-pillar underground mining, longwall removes 90 percent
or more of the coal and creates immediate and dramatic subsidence.That
subsidence is destroying homes, creating flooding and erosion problems
on farmland, destroying or contaminating groundwater supplies, and
altering drainage patterns in entire watersheds.
Click here
to read more about the true costs devastating mining practice
Click here to read about "That
SInking Feeling - the Devastating Effects of Longwall Mining"
Click here to read a letter from
a victim of longwall mining
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