Mountain Top Removal Research Paper

Words: 836
Pages: 4

Do you enjoy watching entire communities forced to leave their homes? Mountain top removal is a horrible thing that ruins lives and lasts for years. It hurts the environment by putting all kinds of dangerous chemicals into rivers and the companies watch as forests are demolished. Also, it will poison water supplies and can drive many people from their homes. The author, Shirley Stewart Burns, explains in an excellent way how mountain top removal has ruined lives for hundreds of people. Burns wants to persuade people to support her and help stop mountain top removal because she hates this process and wants to see it stopped for good. Mountain top removal should be prohibited and there should be a law that states that it is forbidden to …show more content…
After the company blows up the mountain top, the effects can be felt for miles around. “If a rock this big hits you or your car or your house, you’re going to have more than a headache. It’s going to ruin your whole week, because there’s going to be a funeral” Carlos Gore, one of the people whose family was affected by this devastating event, said (Burns 35). It will damage and disturb properties, hurl dust and rocks from the removal site into lawns, and will ruin water wells. “The dust from mountain top removal can get into homes, making it very hard for people to remove it” (Burns 35). Nothing can be done to remove the dust, and hosing off the houses does not work since it will be covered again by rocks and dust. Also, children could be harmed or even die from the chemicals that are dropped into there communities water supply. Families are homeless because of this and can lose loved ones from the coal carrying trucks. “In 2003, the legal weight for hauling coal in southern West Virginia coal counties increased to 120,000 pounds. The roads are very narrow, and even at the previous low pound rate, these machines got into accidents with the coal-community residents on many occasions. Many of the coal trucks carry an overloaded, illegal weight of coal while police do nothing to stop them. Sometimes