Crimes Against Earth Decapitated Mountains Mountaintop removal is just what it sounds like: Explosives are used to blast away the tops of mountains to get at the coal reserves that power companies want for producing energy. The mountain is first deforested (since no vegetation will survive anyway), the topsoil removed, and the “overburden” is dumped into neighboring valleys, damaging nearby steams and rivers. Practiced mostly in the Appalachian Mountains, where at least one million acres have been devastated to date, mountaintop removal is controversial because of its often irreversible effects on the environment.