Tour of Green County, Pennsylvania

By: Rustina

Old slate pile in Green County, Pennsylvania

 

July 2nd, 2014 - Just after arriving at the Center for Coalfield Justice in Washington, Pennsylvania, we left with Veronica Coptis, the wonderful woman who set up our presentation there. She took us on a tour of the area where the extraction industries have been affecting the land and people. We went through a couple of old coal company towns, a natural gas processing facility still being built that will be used for the purpose of separating out various gases which was just over the state line in West Virginia.

 

 

  Even though the facility is in West Virginia, its emissions will still affect Pennsylvania

Natural gas processing facility

residence who live within the area east of the plant. While hydraulic fracturing for natural gas has caused a lot of problems in Pennsylvania, the people are also having issues with the coal industry in the region. The primary form of coal mining done in this area is long wall mining, a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in one run. After the miner gets through cutting a wall of coal, the roof of the mine falls in behind causing extensive subsidence. Subsidence at the surface forms ravines as the layers of strata settle into the void where the coal seam once was. Subsidence also causes the sinking of people’s wells taking away many people’s only source of water.

 

 

Coal silos of the preparation plant

 Veronica took us to a coal preparation plant which has opened some people’s eyes to the industry’s practices. There is a house that sits next door to this coal prep plant, and a cemetery laying directly below the giant coal silos. People have to actually go on to the coal prep plant’s property in order to visit the cemetery where their loved ones have been laid to rest. It seems there is no aspect of life these industries won’t interfere with.