Indeed coal mining has done some damage! Maybe the only good that happened because of coal mining, was it helped bring about OSHA.
That's how it is in this area too Jess, you name it, they will mine it. There are even small oil wells on peoples farms.
There is an awful lot of natural gas in these mountains. Now that they know it is here, they are going to go after it. I'm not going to get into a debate about fracking, I just want to reiterate, it's not new....they've been doing it for one hundered years or so. Not enough conclusive evidence to make them stop. I found your three posts blaming the earthquake in Pennsylvania on fracking to be inflammatory.
Today is a new day, and life goes on.
. I'm a pssionate person too.