Appalachia

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/09/27-4

Coal

What is hidden inside the Appalachia mountains ? Coal that is easy to get. Coal is the most important resource in Appalachia. Even though coal extraction produces jobs for people in the region, mining coal has produced many environmental problems. The coal from Appalachia supplies most of America's electricity. "Coal remains the most polluting, most profitable, and most inexpensive way to generate electricity" (Mayda 194). 

In California, there are four coal plants that provide electricity to the California's Department of Water and Power. The coal comes from coal plants from Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico. The coal from these states provide 40% of the electricity in California(blogs.kqed.org).

"The dependence on coal creates the unintended consequences of acid rain respiratory disease, soil erosion and landslide, flooding, destruction of native habitats, damage to resident's property, and water pollution" (Mayda 196).  Acid rain is caused by the burning of coal, and the burning of coal also causes respiratory disease because the toxic air is inhaled by workers of people living near these coal plants.

 The  Appalachia community is divided in regards to coal plants. Yes, the coal industry  provides its residents with high paying jobs, but the coal burning causes environmental problems and health problems. "Families are torn when on one hand the father is working in a coal processing plant, and on the other hand the mother watches daily as her child returns home from the only school in the valley with headaches or a bloody nose caused by the polluted and contaminated location" (Mayda 186). The coal plants are causing health problems. Yet, the coal plants are providing the income for the family. Do you stop working? If you do,how will you feed your family?

In West Virginia Coal River Valley, Marsh Fork Elementary School was located directly behind a coal plant. The students were getting sick because of the exposure to the toxins. "The coal company has refused to rebuild the school at an appropriate site that is nearby but out of the way of the coal sludge. A grant from the Annenberg Foundations in 2010 will allow a new school to be built at a new site" (Mayda 186). I've never been to the Appalachian region, but I'm a mother. I definitely would be upset if there was a coal plant build behind my child's school.


In America, coal is still used for electrical power. But, the community that live in Appalachia are being affected by the coal plants. There has to be a better solution than coal plants.


References
http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2011/10/19/californias-dirty-secret-the-five-coal-plants-supplying-our-electricity/

Mayda, Chris. A Regional Geography of the United States and Canada: Toward a Sustainable Future. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. Print.