Coal Catastrophe: The Majestic Mine Story

A heavily beaten gravel path usually spells that the wrong direction has been chosen at the fork in the road. A once prosperous and exceedingly profitable shanty town dominated by the extraction and transfer of coal has been reduced to relative ruins by the substance that once led to economic prosperity. As I entered the area known as the majestic mine (quite an anomoly of a name), my eyes are instantly struck by what seems like a scene from a scary movie. As our 1999 Camry, rustic after over 250,000 miles of travel, overcame some directional obstacles and misleading gravel roads, we entered a narrow seemingly abandoned road leading to an environmental disaster. When looking at the students present this eye-opening day, it was apparent that a sense of uneasiness swept through our conscious as a deep orange bog appeared just past a display of oak and maple trees.

The site that I walked into is the aftermath of a coal mining site abandoned after substance holes led to the abrupt end to a era of natural resource manipulation. Brian Blair, a wild-life aficianado that treats nature as the magnificent wonder it is meant to be, is hell-bent on controlling the devestation that a coal mine mineral runoff can do to a micro eco-system. Brian Blair works for EPA, an environmental preservation group whose goals is to help save the creeks that have been mutilated by the coal mines that existed in this rural, Ohio area in the early 1900's. While conversing with Brian, it isclear to me that his intentions were truly sincere, and the beard he sports reminded me of the color of the creek that he is trying to control.

The creek is a virtual hodge-podge of minerals such as manganese, iron, and sulfate that, when mixed with oxygen that makes up our air, turns acidic enough to allow absolutely no wildlife to exist. It is sad to think that this creek, a creek that once was teaming with fishes, crawlfish and other marine wildlife, is now reduced to containing only bacteria and paramecium that contaminate the Hocking River in which it leads to. The creek's horrendous state is a direct product of the water oozing out of the wood fencing that blocks off the old entrance to the mine that was once populated by locals trying to provide sustinence for an area that is doomed for poverty.

After experiencing just how destructive a human operation can be to the future outlook of an environmental area, it occured to me that I must look at the bigger picture. Human's being the ultimate product of millions upon millions of years of evolution should have the mental capacity to realize how self-centered we are. The animals that populated the earth prior to our ultimate dominance of every landscape are affected by our thirst for money and social standing.

I imagined the earth prior to intelligent life, and could only think that such natural beauty and wonder is a thing of the distant past. Man in its current state of mind is gradually destroying the universal paradox we call earth at an increasingly rapid pace. If it wasn't for people like Brian Blair and EPA, this obvious path of destruction would probably go unnoticed by most individuals only worried about their own species. I for one am very thankful for people such as Brian who are conscious about our influence over nature. I have always enjoyed the impossibly complex world we currently dwell in, and applaud anyone willing to strive for an improved ecosystem. Chopping down tree's, sending carbon dioxide smog through our atmosphere, and contaminating the water that led to the spark of life billions of years ago are all travesty's in their own right. I can only hope that one small look at pollution as I experienced at the Majestic Mine site will allow for more nature activists to realize this detrimental problem and join the fight for the preservation of our wonderous planet.