Is Coal Mining Increasing East Kentucky’s Flood Risk?

The story was originally published on Grist.

The history of coal and mountaintop removal in Kentucky is long and turbulent. Researchers have warned about the potential for flooding due to the lack of vegetation caused by mountaintop removal. Without trees to buffer the rain and soil to absorb it, water pools together and heads for the hill.

An analysis of flood-prone communities in the region for Inside Climate News identified the most damaged areas. Many of the same Eastern Kentucky communities saw river levels rise by 25 feet in a single day.

The findings suggest that the legacy of coal mining could continue to exact a price on residents who live downstream from the hundreds of mountains that have been leveled to produce electricity.

The findings feel prescient now. The flooding has killed at least 37 people so far.

Nicolas Zégre is the director of West Virginia University's Mountain Hydrology Laboratory. While it is too early to know how much the area's history of mining contributed to this year's flooding, he thinks of Appalachia as "climate zero," a region built on the coal industry which contributed to rising global temperatures and increased carbon in the atmosphere.

The recent floods in Kentucky and the 2016 flood in West Virginia were both caused by warmer temperatures and the removal of forest cover.

Strip mining isn't the only factor that contributes to flooding. The study looked at how mountaintop removal mining might help store precipitation. There are areas known as valley fills when a mountaintop is hit by an explosion. Watersheds with valley fills seem to store precipitation for a long time.

Toxic chemicals and heavy metals can be found in the valley fills, according to the study. The compounds are washed into streams during heavy rain. A 2012 study by Environmental Science and Technology states that 22 percent of all streams in central Appalachia have been polluted by alkaline mine drainage.