With much of our attention on the effects of longwall mining in Pennsylvania, and how surface owners' rights are denied through Act 54, we sometimes forget that longwall mining takes place in adjacent states. Dianne Burnham is an Ohio resident that became aware of the effects of longwall mining on humans after her work on trying to minimize longwall damage to forests. In this article, she makes the point that we are all in part responsible for the effects of longwall mining, because we all rely on electric power. As a result, she has resolved to minimize her electric consumption as much as possible. We hope to publish any follow-up articles she writes on this topic.

Powering Down as a Moral Issue

by Dianne Burnham

Introduction

Many folks concerned about global warming and climate change are aware of the effect burning fossil fuels has on God's Creation our environment, our wildlife, our climate, and our lungs. Evidence is gathering that mankind is changing everything from the very weather we depend on to the health of our children. My own introduction to this issue was through witness of the coal extraction process.

In 1997, after a few months of organizing in Belmont County, Ohio, to save Ohio's last unglaciated, deciduous, virgin forest, and one of God's precious Creations, Dysart Woods, from a coal-mining permit, I became known to the local farmers in the area. I was invited to their homes to see the actual damage done by a coal extraction technique called long-wall mining. The long-wall is a method of total extraction that immediately subsides everything above the coal seam (the overburden). I was shocked at what I witnessed.

Damage caused by coal mining 

The people who had been recently undermined suffered more damage than I could have imagined. There were cracks in the walls so wide that in some cases one could see the sky through them. Everything built of brick or cement (walkways, basement walls and floors, foundations, chimneys, fireplaces) were popping and crumbling. Windows were popping out of their frames and in some cases the septic tanks had backed up into the basement. In one case the basement walls folded in and the home was in a state of collapse (video available).

In every case that I saw the natural water on their land had disappeared.

They (and all local wildlife) had lost their wells, streams, ponds and springs. This represented a dewatering of many thousands of acres. Approximately half of Belmont County has been, or soon will be, dewatered due to mining practices. Picture 90% of the natural water lost (according even to the mining permits on record) to surface dwellers. What can wildlife drink?

Where do frogs live after the long-wall? What do farmers do? And how does the government justify approval of this dewatering while at the same time encouraging the population at large to CONSERVE fresh water? It seems ludicrous to try to save a gallon per flush when each undermined farm might have lost as much as 100 gallons per minute (study shortly underway to determine more accurate data).

Coal Company/fossil fuel industry attitude

It has been my experience that the coal companies interpret assistance from outsiders to these mined people as confrontational activities and any help given to these people are characterized as acts "unfriendly" to the coal company. The general populace (including all local businesses), consciously or not, pays a sort of homage "in awe" or afraid of the coal company. Even local attorneys say they won't take a case against the coal company "if they (the attorneys) except to keep practicing in this county".

Help givers

The small church congregations are filled with both the mined and the miners; the miners having the most money and support for the church. The miners may loudly boast of their jobs while those mined speak of their damage in hushed whispers. I have not yet found one case in Appalachian Ohio where the mined family receives even emotional support from his church.

The County and State disaster agencies have agreed that those mined are facing a true disaster but the agency funding is earmarked for natural disaster and "accidental" disasters. Unfortunately, what the land, the wildlife and the people experience during mining is manmade, deliberate and approved by the local, state and federal government, therefore the agencies are unable to offer help.

Psycho trauma

As a health caregiver, I have been trained to the patterns of psycho-trauma-dynamics following a tragic event spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, etc. I was struck by the similarities I found in people who have been mined. There is shock, denial, hysteria, confusion, much anger, then deep sadness, frequently followed by isolation and deep depression. These are the emotional states they are experiencing just at the very moment when they must be at their cognitive best in order to keep track of their damage, who they contacted about their damage, and the kind of response received. If they hope to recuperate any reimbursement from the coal company (usually not for several years), they must also keep accurate records of the everything that transpires. The farmers are stunned by the enormity of the sacrifice they have been forced to make for our country's energy source.

The land that they loved and their livelihood is ruined.

Dr Gordon Lewis of Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, has likened this psychological state to the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome of the Vietnam War.

Is it any wonder why the folks in Appalachia seem depressed?

American demand for "cheap" energy All this heartache and devastation to God's Creation and the farming community/surface owner comes, in part, from our careless consumption of electricity which, I have come to realize, we by-in-large squander. Since I have been aware of this situation, and realized the moral implications, I have considerably reduced my use of electricity. The following is my personal story of how I began my journey as a 600 kilowatt hour per month user and so far have pared down to a 230 kilowatt hour user in preparation for alternative energy. Know your kilowatt usage printed on your bill each month! The amount to which you are committed to saving our planet and helping our mined citizens can be measured by your kilowatt usage.

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