The Philadelphia branch of the Environmental Protection Agency has oversight of 16 possible mountaintop removal site permits in the Appalachian mountain range.

Mountaintop removal mining (MTR) is a form of strip mining in which coal companies use explosives to blast as much as 800 to 1000 feet off the tops of mountains in order to reach the coal seams that lie underneath. The resulting millions of tons of waste rock, dirt, and vegetation are then dumped into surrounding valleys, burying miles and miles of streams under piles of rubble hundreds of feet deep. The sediment gets shaved off of the mountains, and gets dumped into the cities where thousands get their drinking water. This waste is now part of the water that is used for various things.

Activists believe there is a link between power plants in states such as Pennsylvania and mountain top removal in the Virginias. The Pennsylvania Coal Association indicates more than 50 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. comes from coal-fired power plants. So what is the problem? Recently, a group of 40 concerned community members rallied outside the Region 3 EPA building on Arch Street in Philadelphia, where they demanded that the agency stop approving new permits for mountaintop removal mining. Philadelphia’s Region 3 office reviews MTR permits in Virginia and West Virginia. Activists have fought a losing legal battle against MTR. First, they claimed the practice violated Clean Water Act rules against dumping waste in waterways. But the procedures still go on today causing multiple effects on the health of people who are surrounded by MTR.