City of Redemption

OPPORTUNITY

Go to Google Maps, and in Satellite mode, zoom in on southern West Virginia and/or eastern Kentucky. You'll find some odd grey patches. Zoom in closer and you may be puzzled by these features, until you realize they are the result of a mining practice known as mountaintop removal -- at which point you may become quite horrified.

You might even be brought to tears. The Appalachians are the oldest mountains on Earth, but the coal companies (and by extension, government) show them no respect.

Protest as we might, they keep blasting. One of the reasons they manage to get away with it is that the mountains in question are in remote, sparsely-populated areas. Even with acreage akin to that of small cities in some cases, the sites are visited by almost no one except mine employees.




One oft-repeated placation about the practice is that it leaves behind flat land, in areas where flat land is at a premium. This much is true, certainly, and one can imagine a mine company executive looking around at one of these places after the coal is gone, thinking of all the things that could be done with the reshaped land...

Well, sure -- except that the sites are all fairly remote, with only very small towns nearby.

You'd have to build a whole community to take advantage of such a place.




...And there's the opportunity.


How nice would it be to be able to build something in the Appalachian Mountains, knowing you cannot possibly do any damage? These places are already ruined; You can't make them worse. Anything you do will be an improvement.

I know of at least one small airport, Big Sandy Regional, that was built on such remains. In the past, it has been necessary to use cut-and-fill to build and expand airports in West Virginia...

In general, these beautiful mountains have indeed been an obstacle. There is only room for so much -- so yeah, the coal companies have that part right. Someone could build a resort -- or an entire resort town. A corporation could theoretically move its headquarters to one of these places, relocating hundreds of employees...

Or, if there was backing for such a project, a nearly self-sustaining planned community could be built. There is room for all of these things and more, and there is the architectural opportunity of a lifetime attached to any one of them...

In this setting, with still-untouched mountains all around, imagine architecture that looks like it came from science fiction, surrounded by lush vegetation. Imagine having everything you need close by, even though you're living in a place that was previously 'far from civilization'. Imagine thumbing your nose at the 'Friends of Coal' by powering everything with solar and wind.

Imagine the satisfaction of being part of the reclamation of land torn asunder by greed. The coal companies are required to 'restore' the land to a certain extent, and Mother Nature would take over in full force eventually, but in the right hands...


Mountaintop removal is an abomination. It should be stopped. However there is no reason not to take full advantage of the sites left behind.




Phil Smith
April 18, 2008

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