By John Maxey
 
In the late 1950s West Virginia’s coal industry began its long decline. My parents, along with thousands of their fellow mountaineers, were forced to leave home to find enough work to provide for the family. The departure was not something that any of us wanted, and we all yearned for the day we could return. Every summer as I grew up we would come back to the Mountain State to visit grandparents and cousins – or sometimes just to pitch a tent and spend a few weeks surrounded …

 
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal under the Clean Water Act to restrict or prohibit mountaintop mining at the Spruce No. 1 surface mine in Logan County, W. Va. The project was permitted in 2007 and subsequently delayed by litigation. The EPA says Spruce No. 1 mine would bury over seven miles of headwater streams, directly impact 2,278 acres of forestland, and degrade water quality in streams adjacent to the mine.
Last year  EPA launched a review into applications for permits allowing mountaintop removal. It’s a process in …

by Jeff Feldman
I sat engrossed in Coal Country during last month’s American Conservation Film Festival in Shepherdstown. The film documents a range of perspectives on the issue of surface mining for coal in Appalachia, what many have come to call mountaintop removal. Interviews and footage depict miners expressing pride in their heritage; locals struggling to navigate a range of assaults upon their quality of life, health, jobs, and sense of community; and coal company representatives, lawyers, citizen activists, and elected officials each interjecting their own sometimes narrow view of the …