Before

After

70 percent of West Virginia’s streams/rivers are polluted (Barry 123)…

…1,2000 miles of streams degraded (McQuaid)

Selenium concentrations higher than bioaccumulation levels in 73/78 mountaintop mining and valley fill streams (Palmer et. al)

724 miles of streams buried (Lindsey)

No restoration projects successful

12 dead(Stockman, qtd. in Mitchell)

Highest diversity in North America destroyed …(Palmer et. al)

Cerulean warblers down 82% (McQuaid)

Forested area size of Delaware – gone by 2013(McQuaid)

Nutrient cycle disrupted

GRAVE

Higher hospitalizations, rates of mortality

Marsh Fork Elementary School

400 yards above elementary school…(Mitchell)

…2.8 billion gallons of toxic waste(Mitchell)

Class C facility(Mitchell)

Silas House, Kentucky resident: “We were also told the success of the mines mattered above all else, that if we complained about the dust, noise and disrespect pumped out by the mine in our community, people would lose jobs” (House).

Janice Nease, Kayford, West Virginia: “Those mountains are a part of us. When I look at them, I know there is a creator” (Motavalli).

3 million pounds of explosives per day(Motavalli)

“sense of powerlessness and depression” (Kriesky)

Patricia Bragg, resident of small town near MTR site: “People raise millions to save whales and walruses and birds, but the state doesn’t lift a hand to save the most precious thing in the world, a person’s way of life” (Bragg, qtd. in Barry 122).