Mining In West Virginia

I would have to say that from the reading that it can be very harmful for the coal mining chemicals to seep into the ground into our drinking water.

Eventually, the workers of American Coal, who were once the landowners of the very area they were mining, formed a labor union to fight for better working conditions. The union was met with great opposition by the company’s secret police. As time went on, the coal miners continued to fight for their rights, only to be put down violently by the coal company’s strikebreakers. Union leaders were also fired and blacklisted from the company as a means to put a stop to union activity.

The Mine owners had connived the perspective miners that it was in the best interest of the miners and their families that the company provided housing and the company store seeing that the mines had been open in “remote inaccessible areas”. But the miners began to see that this “convenience developed into methods of control” as the miner owners could control how much everything cost, from the beans to the rent of the shacked that the miners was using. Along with controlling the cost, the company could also raise prices as the felt and this was keeping the miners in the red, always owing the company. Many times, all of the money was taken out of the miners’ paycheck, leaving the miner and his family a balance of zero. According to one miner, “Because they take your car buy, they take your potter, they take your grocery for whatever you bought. Everything came out of there. Lights and all and everything. House rent, everything if you rented a house. They take everything before you’ve seen your statement.” When the miners were no longer in the red with the company, they would be paid in script. As described in “A Colorado History”, “Scrip is paper currency valid only at the company store” Thus further the need to go into debt with the company stores because they could not take the monies earned and buy foodstuff from outside of the camp. Since scrip was unusable out side of the company, miners were

Tens of business closed up, which directly affected a large number of households. The coal mining operations companies also left environmental contaminants in the environment. Pollutions from coal mining have a direct effect on water, land air. Some of the pollutants contaminate ground water, surface water and impact on other land-uses. Besides the slope failure and explosion, environmental impact from coal mining causes erosion; leachates production, which seeping into ground water, and dust pollution. Heavy metals compound like lead, cadmium and arsenic dominates coal mining sites (Bhuiyan, Parvez, Islam, & Dampare, 2010). These metals are toxic to plant and animal. Some absorb some of these dissolved metals and introduce them into the food circle. When rainwater mixes with coal waste, the runoffs becomes acidic, which reduce PH of surface waters. (Komitas, 2001) Population inhaling coal dust suffers black lung disease and other complication like lung cancer, and heart failure (Finkelman & Orem, 2002). Coal mining in uranium mines is another source of radioactive exposure. Another environmental impact from coal mined lands includes emission of greenhouse gasses. Future land redevelopment in grand Cache, must deal with this issues before development could take

To understand the nature of the West Virginia labor movement, one must understand the unique sociopolitical and economic conditions in which it was born. Regardless of race or creed, all West Virginian miners had the same basic common experience at the turn of the 19th century: they worked in company owned mines, used company owned tools and equipment, wore and ate clothing bought from the company store, worshiped in company churches, and lived in company owned housing located in company built towns. The cost of their rent and all purchased items, whose prices were wildly inflated as the company store exercised a complete monopoly on all consumer goods, were deducted from their pay. Miners were rendered further economically dependent on

In the early 20th Century, West Virginia was a place where coal barons held immense power. Coal companies owned towns, mayors and governors. Miners were forced to live on coal camps and rent houses from them, as well as purchase all of their coal and other items required to survive from the companies. With this control, mining families where forced to live and work in brutal conditions. In 1921, after a generation of violent suppression, miners erupted in the largest class war in US history. For 5 days miners fought the coal barons, over 1 million rounds of ammunition were fired, this is known as the Battle of Blair Mountain.

In January of 1920, John L. Lewis, the president of the UMWA announced a campaign to unionize the Appalachian coalfields. In southern West Virginia,

As aforementioned, with each house in Coalwood came a miner in that household. Sonny’s father was among one of the many miners in Coalwood, but in fact held a higher authority. He was the mine superintendent. Therefore, naturally everyone in the town of Coalwood assumed that Sonny would grow up to be a miner just like his father. Nevertheless, that was not the case as Sonny’s

West Virginia was the 35th state in the United States on June 20, 1863 and it’s the mountain state. This state usually ranks up to the top ten apple production. The states bird is the Northern Cardinal, Flower Rhododendron, animal black bear, tree sugar maple, colors old gold, blue and song is Carry me back to old Virginia. West Virginia is home to More than 1.85 people. In West Virginia about 82% is livestock and 18% is crops. This state was separated from Virginia State during the civil war. West Virginia is located in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains.

The discovery of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania in the late 1700s led to the development of a robust coal industry in the eastern part of Pennsylvania that grew rapidly and contributed greatly to the history and the economy of Pennsylvania. The book The Face of Decline written by Thomas Dublin, Walter Licht, provides a well written historical and personal account of the discovery, growth, and finally the collapse of the anthracite coal industry in Pennsylvania in a chronological format. Half way through the book one starts to notice some changes in the authors format to cause and effect. The change occurs in order to discuss the cause and resulting effect of events in the region and the solutions. The story is one of great growth and opportunity in the early years which are highlighted by the documented economic growth experienced and supported through testimony within the eastern Pennsylvania coal region. After a period of economic prosperity and community growth from 1900 through 1940 challenges began to erode and occur that created problems for the community and the economy that the coal industry provided. Finally the region’s economy suffered horrendous losses as described by interviews of local residents and families who lived and experienced the rise of the region’s economy. Many of the scars are still evident by the blight and decaying scenes one would experience by traveling through the region’s communities that once fueled the American economy with the energy

In his book, “Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War”, Thomas G. Andrews construes the trajectory of a unique labor movement of the southern Colorado coal workers. The labor movement is unique as it integrates the social, ecological and industrial context of the strike for a captivating narration of the Ludlow massacre. Andrew’s account is valuable as he insists that credible conclusions must be grounded in complete and sophisticated provenance as opposed to oversimplified explanations. The intent of this response paper is to analyze the burdensome nature of obtaining coal, substandard pay and the treacherous working conditions. Secondly, the paper discusses the ways which helped employees to achieve autonomy and solidarity.

“Blasting itself produced immense quantities of mineral particles. The common practice of returning to the work face soon after the detonation of charges meant entering an area filled with particulate matter. (Derickson 3)” Also, as labors transported, unloaded, and cleaned the extracted material dust was inhaled even though they were away from the mine. So no matter what technique used the coal dust still made it in the air and into the miners’ lungs. There were no safety regulations in place about how long to wait after blowing up coal, no regulations about how many particulates in the air were safe, no mask or safety precautions and no mandatory venting. Although some of these things were easily usable to the safety the company felt it was too costly. “An elaborate system of fans and blowers was ‘too costly’, so the miner had to pay for the bad ventilating by ‘miners’ asthma’ and other ailments caused by bad air. (Derickson 4)” Basically the coal operators did not care enough about the miners safety to provide vents and things that could have helped the air quality.

In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.

Last but not least, another indirect cost is the health of humans as coal contains toxic and cancer causing chemicals.

The major drawback of industrial, mining is the damage mining operations cause to the environment. Removal of large areas of topsoil can destroy habitats, and the chemicals used in mining operations can leach into the groundwater and pollute the area. Air pollution and radioactive pollution are other possible downsides.