Erin Savage is Central Appalachian Senior Program Manager for Appalachian Voices.
In this episode Erin explains the practice of mountaintop removal for coal mining, which has destroyed more than 500 mountaintops, 1.2 million acres of forest, and 2,000 miles of streams in the Appalachians. She discusses the harmful impacts to communities including contaminated drinking water, increased flooding, and higher rates of cancer and other health issues. Erin says the coal industry isn’t meeting its responsibility to restore these mountaintops and that local economies need to be restructured to give people alternatives to working in mining.
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