EPISODE 371 STRIP MINING IN OHIO
alan skeoch
June 2021
See if you can find Andrew in this picture. Behind the Euclid are heaps of rubble that was once a dense and beautiful
Caledonian forest. Why destroy the forests of Central Ohio? Imagine the scale of destruction this Euclid could wreak.
A few loads like this and our farm in Southern Ontario would cease to exist. Can you guess the economic justification
of using these Euclids? What is being sought under the Osage Orange groves? Under the Shagbark Hickory trees?
Under the top soil? Under the subsoil?
Mining is not pretty. Strip mining is especialy ugly….extremely so.
We had good friends in central Ohio back in the 1990’s and spent several
week-ends driving down to their farm outside Zanesville. To us it was
a new world in many ways…sometimes a startling new world.
For instance Osage Orange trees thrived and in the fall dropped bushels
of aromatic smelling warted fruit the size of baseballs. The Osage Orange
trees, however, were not so pleasant as they were covered in spikes the size
of hypodermic needles.
Perhaps the most startling thing however was not the work of nature.
It was the opposite. Beneath the lovely forested hills of southern Ohio
are seams of coal. Layered parallel to the ground. These seams vary from
60 to 120 feet below the ground…technically called overburden.
To get access to these seams of coal it is easier to strip the hills of
their trees, shrubs, plant life with bulldozers. Then use gigantic
scoop shovels that, in the 1990’s, were bigger than some apartment
buildings.
The damage done to the hills and valleys of southern Ohio
by these strip coal mining operations is hard to describe. Best
seen visually in the picture of one Euclid dump truck that is so
large that it makes our truck look like a Dinky Toy.
After strip mining is complete the coal companies are obligated
to put top soil back but the end result robs central Ohio of
its former beauty.
alan skeoch
June 2021
When is it economic to strip mine in Ohio?
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Generally it is economic to strip mine when there is a 20:1 ratio of overburden-to-coal seam, meaning, for example that a three-foot coal seam can be surface mined economically when the overburden is up to 60 feet. However, at some surface mines in Ohio, highwalls of up to 200 feet high remain where five-foot-coal seams have been extracted.
Just a few pictures below.
In the 1990s, a new form of surface mining,mountaintop removal, became more common. This more invasive method provides access to coal that would’ve been left behind by traditional strip mining. In recent years, tensions over mountaintop removal have risen between those wanting to boost the state’s diminishing coal industry and activists wanting to protect the environment.
One final thought: WHAT HAPPENS TO OUR CIVILIZATION WHEN WE HAVE CONSUMED ALL THE COAL AND
OIL DEPOSITS?
