CHARLESTON — Opponents of mountaintop removal coal mining are taking their cause to the nation's capital with plans for a Sept. 27 demonstration, organizers said Tuesday.

A coalition of groups will demand that elected officials and government agencies bring an end to the destruction of mountaintops in Appalachia and promote other forms of energy use in the state such as wind, solar and hydroelectricity.

"We can see the finish line that will bring an end to the destruction we have lived with for so long," disabled coal miner Chuck Nelson of Sylvester said at a news conference. "We are going to stop the disappearing of our communities and we are sending a message to all fossil 'fools' that we won't stop until we take back what belongs to us — our history, our heritage, and our way of life as we know it."

Organizers said they aren't sure what type of turnout they'll get in Washington, D.C. But they plan to get the word out.

"We have 3 months to organize," said Bo Webb, whose Naoma home sits below a mountaintop mine and within 10 miles of three coal-waste dams. "It's time that this type of stuff stops."

Under President Barack Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency has adopted a policy designed to curtail surface mining by sharply reducing mountaintop removal in six states.

The Appalachian form of strip mining blasts mountains apart at the top to expose multiple seams of coal. Excess rock and rubble are dumped into nearby valleys. The mining practice is both highly efficient and highly destructive, but mine operators say it supports thousands of high-paying jobs in Appalachia.

The EPA has said it intends to rescind a previously granted permit for St. Louis-based Arch Coal's Spruce No. 1 mine in Logan County because valley fills would bury 7 miles of streams, hurt water quality and affect nearly 2,300 acres of forest. The project at West Virginia's largest mountaintop removal mine was permitted in 2007 but has been delayed by lawsuits.

Lorelei Scarbro of Rock Creek lives along Coal River Mountain, where Massey Energy plans to blast and mine thousands of acres. Organizations including Coal River Mountain Watch and Climate Ground Zero want Massey to stick with underground mining and allow the ridges to be turned into a 200-turbine wind farm.

"The trend seems to be that they want to regulate mountaintop removal," Scarbro said. "We believe living at ground zero that you certainly can't regulate it. You have to stop it."

Maria Gunnoe, a member of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, said mountaintop mining operations have contributed to nine floods on her property in Bob White since 2001 and are polluting the area's water.

"We cannot continue to trade jobs for water in this state," Gunnoe said. "The expense is too great. And we can't unpollute this water."