Series 8. Mountaintop Removal Mining, 1997-2021

Series 8 consists of materials related to OVEC’s efforts to stop mountaintop removal mining (MTR), one of its most important missions. In practice, MTR mining used explosives to obliterate mountain tops, revealing the coal seams below for extraction. Overburn or spoils from the process were then dumped into the surrounding streams as “valley fill.” Valley fills disrupted the natural dissipation of rainwater and led to catastrophic flooding downstream. A secondary result of MTR mining was the need for containment ponds to store coal sludge; a thick slurry of coal dust and water left over from the coal cleaning process. The failure of these containment ponds also led to catastrophic flooding. 
Series 8 is comprised of many types of materials documenting the destructive nature of MTR. They include newspapers and newspaper clippings, magazines, and journals. Additionally, there are materials related to Blair Mountain, Spruce Fork No. 1 Mine, water quality issues from MTR, Mine Sludge Safety Project, Cumulative Hydrological Impact Assessment (CHIA), and Office of Surface Mining materials. Lastly, there are oral histories, a set of letters from San Francisco, California Third Graders opposing MTR, and a file entitled “No Brains Emails,” essentially hate email sent to OVEC. 
Individuals involved in the fight against MTR are represented in this series: Larry Gibson, Marie Gunnoe, Jack Spadaro, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and others.
A highlight of this series is the publication Like Walking onto Another Planet: Stories about the TRUE Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Mining. This pamphlet consists of oral interviews with individuals affected by mountaintop removal. These are serious and somber accounts of the devasting effects of MTR mining on West Virginia’s environment and its culture.