Why support SkyTruth? A Funder's Perspective

I work at the WestWind Foundation, a family foundation based in Charlottesville, Virginia, that provides support to non-profits working to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. WestWind has supported SkyTruth since 2004. Before coming to WestWind, I knew little of the technical analysis performed by SkyTruth. But in the past year, I have learned something of the destruction being wrought everyday upon the southern Appalachian mountains. Blasting off the tops of mountains to extract coal contributes to groundwater contamination and health problems, disrupts the lives of local people living with constant detonation, fills in hundreds of miles of streams, and destroys the ecological heritage of one of the most biologically diverse regions of the country.

At first, I wondered how a picture from space could possibly capture all the destruction, devastation, pain, and injustice that is caused by this type of coal mining. When I had the opportunity to view SkyTruth’s maps and images, and to learn exactly what their modeling and analysis could show, I was amazed. David, John and their team have uncovered and mapped the extent of mountaintop removal mining in the southern Appalachians, something that has never before been undertaken by government or industry (let alone a small non-profit). I watched, amazed, as David showed how the devastation has advanced over a thirty-year period, devouring a majority of the land area within certain counties in southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky.

Although the data and the maps are impressive, they alone are not what make SkyTruth’s work successful and engaging. The partnership between SkyTruth and Appalachian Voices is a truly unique relationship between science and the grassroots, and between data analysis and story-telling. Appalachian Voices has built a revolutionary website that allows anyone in the country to input their zip code and trace their energy utility’s use of mountaintop removal coal. SkyTruth provides the technical data and maps that show which mountains have been destroyed; Appalachian Voices provides the human stories behind the devastation. Both strategies are necessary to end this kind of ecological and community destruction.

What continues to impress me about SkyTruth is that this kind of behind-the-scenes advocacy is not limited to southern Appalachian coal communities. SkyTruth works to illustrate the impacts of natural gas drilling in Wyoming; diamond mining in Canada; oil and tar sands in Canada, Australia, and Colorado; trawling in the Gulf of Mexico, and the list goes on. What lies at the heart of SkyTruth’s mission is a deep concern for the planet’s shared ecological commons, and the commitment to bringing images of their destruction to the public.

Measuring Mountaintop Removal Mining in Appalachia

SkyTruth, in partnership with Appalachian Voices, recently completed a project that documented the impact of Mountaintop Removal Mining for coal (MTR) over a 59 county area in Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia. The goal of the project was to map the historical occurrence of mountaintop removal mining over a 30 year period, from 976 to 2005.

With this analysis, and some great database and Google Earth work by Appalachian Voices, we can tell you exactly which mountains in Appalachia have been - or are are being -destroyed to power your home or business (thought you might like to know...). The methodology involved several steps. The first step included a land cover classification for each decade that identified all the mining occurrences at that point in time. This digital spectral classification process was accomplished using a Landsat satellite image database totaling eight gigabytes of data. Classification required a two-step process where the spectral signatures of land cover types were identified (vegetation, soil, barren or rock, water, etc) and then, through a decision tree analysis, mined areas are classed.

The next step was to classify these mine areas as “MTR” and “Other Surface Mining.” The definition of MTR, as put forth by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, guided the development of a reproducible, rules-based method to classify the mines. Using digital elevation data from the U.S. Geological Survey 1:100,000 series, the terrain parameters of ridge top, slope, and valleys were calculated. The MTR mines were identified by calculating the percentage of ridge top that comprised the mine’s total area. Simply put, MTR mines span over 320 acres and removed at least 40 acres of ridge top, or cover between 40 and 320 acres and contain at least 10 - 40 acres of ridge top within the mined area.

The historical record shows significant increases in MTR occurring in the last two decades: from 77,000 acres in 1985 to over 272,000 acres in 2005, a 250% increase. Also increased was the size of the individual mines, with some reaching over 15 square miles. In regards to ridge tops, over 2,700 ridges were impacted by mining.

MTR PROJECT - OVERVIEW OF RESULTS

Mountaintop Removal Mines

Total MTR Mined Area since 1976 = 445,792 Acres

Largest Single Mined Area = 10,410 Acres

Median Mined Area = 128 Acres

Average Mined Area = 406 Acres

Number of Mines > 1 mile² = 73

Ridge Tops

Number of Ridges Mined = 2,789

Total Acres of Impacted Ridges = 130,655 Acres

Average Ridge Length Mined = 1/2 Mile

Largest Ridge Removed = 504 Acres

Historical Analysis (Acres Directly Impacted by Mining)