laws require that dust and water runoff from areas affected by coal mining operations must be controlled, and the area must be reclaimed close to its original condition. Although mountaintop mining has existed since the 1970s, its use became more widespread and controversial beginning in the 1990s. The water draining from these filled valleys may contain pollutants that can harm aquatic wildlife downstream. This technique changes the landscape, and streams are sometimes covered with rock and dirt. In this form of coal extraction, the tops of mountains are removed using explosives. Mountaintop removal and valley fill mining has affected large areas of the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia and Kentucky. The largest surface mines in the United States are in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, where coal deposits are close to the surface and are up to 70 feet thick. These mining operations remove the soil and rock above coal deposits, or seams. Surface mines (sometimes called strip mines) were the source of about 62% of the coal mined in the United States in 2021. However, producing and using coal affects the environment. Coal is an abundant fuel source that is relatively inexpensive to produce and convert to useful energy.
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