While Mountain Top Removal is devastating West Virginia and Kentucky, long-wall mining is having its own miserable impact here in southwest Pennsylvania.
One of the largest long-wall mines in Pennsylvania is Consol Energy’s Bailey Mine near Crabtree in Greene County. In 2006 this mine produced 10.2 million tons of coal. How that coal was mined is shown in a 7-minute video with the following introduction:
“After investigating the surface impacts of longwall mining, Center for Public Integrity reporter Kristen Lombardi went underground to witness the coal extraction method first hand. Led by representatives of Consol Energy and accompanied by photographer Steven Sunshine, Lombardi toured the 9-I panel of Bailey Mine, operating near Wind Ridge, Pennsylvania. Bailey Mine is more than twice the size of the city of Pittsburgh and is the third-largest bituminous colliery in the United States, snaking below the surface for 144 square miles.”
A second video at the same website illustrates the types of damage produced by long-wall mining.