Eco Groups Use Online Maps in Mine Fight

Benny Campbell, foreground, holds up a photo of damages caused by mountaintop mining, while McKinley Sumner, background, explains the problems the process has caused in their community near Vicco, Ky., Oct. 30, 2006. An Internet campaign, dubbed "I Love Mountains," is using Google Earth to illustrate the extent of the mountaintop removal in Appalachian communities. (AP Photo/Samira Jafari) (Samira Jafari - AP)

Chester Stevens of Hazard, one of the most heavily mined areas in eastern Kentucky, said mountaintop removal allowed him to build the home in which he lived for 15 years.

"We in Hazard had no place to build," said Stevens, 58. "Mining looks bad when it's going on, but then you have some beautiful land after that and that can be used by people."

Hitt said the harm to the environment should be of greater concern than development. "We're eliminating mountains off the face of the Earth," she said, adding, "The reclaimed sites look nothing more than anemic golf courses."

Folks living near Campbell's hollow also say there's no good side to mountaintop mining and that their small community values the natural beauty of the mountains over new buildings and resorts. To them, mountaintop removal ends in polluted water, noise and depressing views.

Truman Hurt has seen the once densely wooded mountains around him stripped of timber, giving way to mudslides and floods during heavy rainfall.

"You don't get it until you get up in the air and see what it's doing to us," said Hurt, 65. Supporters of mountaintop mining "really think there's not that much, but they're not getting the real view."

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On the Net:

Kentucky Coal Association: http://www.kentuckycoal.com/

National Mining Association: http://www.nma.org/