THE INDYPENDENT

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Operation Appalachian Spring
photos and text by Antrim Caskey

Since the late 1880s, powerful coal mining interests have dominated Appalachia, ravaging the land with underground, strip and contour mining, and the latest method, mountaintop removal. The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) institutionalized mountaintop removal coal mining, allowing coal companies to blow apart hundreds of mountains to remove thin hard to reach seams of coal. Today, local...
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Operation Appalachian Spring
photos and text by Antrim Caskey

Since the late 1880s, powerful coal mining interests have dominated Appalachia, ravaging the land with underground, strip and contour mining, and the latest method, mountaintop removal. The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) institutionalized mountaintop removal coal mining, allowing coal companies to blow apart hundreds of mountains to remove thin hard to reach seams of coal. Today, local residents and environmentalists say, "Enough! You'll have to put me in jail to get at that coal."
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