Aerial view of Mountaintop Removal, approaching Racine

Event: Helicopter tour of Mountaintop Removal and Reclamation on Big Coal River watershed.
"To better understand the method of mining known as "mountaintop removal and reclamation," Lyntha Eiler and I visited the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection. There we interviewed Roger Hall, the assistant director, who invited us to view by helicopter the mountaintop removal and reclamation in progress on the Marsh and Clear Forks of the Big Coal River. Benny Campbell, a mining inspector from the Logan County office of the DEP, accompanied us on our helicopter tour.
Campbell termed this site "a mom and pop operation."
Note the "valley fill" in the foreground. Valley fills are created as a way to dispose of excess rocks and dirt displaced through blasting and excavation."