Across Country Coalition of Environmental Groups Call for EPA to Stop Recent Blasting on Coal River Mountain, WV; Site of Proposed Wind Farm

More than Fifty Stage Sit-In and Rally at EPA Headquarters in DC

What you can do right now: Call EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and ask her to stop the blasting at Coal River Mountain

Hundreds participated today with Mountain Justice, Rainforest Action Network and other environmental groups in nationwide protests demanding an end to mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. As part of the national day of, 14 people staged a sit-in at the EPA headquarters in Washington, DC. They were joined by approximately 50 coalfield residents and allies who held a rally in front of the building.

Those in attendance represent a coalition of environmental groups and Appalachian community members who are asking the EPA to take immediate action to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. In particular, the group is asking the EPA to intervene in the destruction of Coal River Mountain, WV, the site of a potential 328-megawatt wind farm, which Massey Energy began blasting this week.

While President Obama spent the week trumpeting his administration’s support for clean energy, Massey Energy began dynamiting Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, a national flashpoint in the battle to replace destructive mountaintop removal coal mining practices with clean energy and green jobs.

“The fate of Coal River Mountain and our clean energy future is in the EPA’s hands,” said Kate Rooth of the Rainforest Action Network who took part in the sit-in. “By intervening to stop the blasting of Coal River Mountain and to protect our nation’s clean energy resources, the Obama Administration has a chance to show that it will stand up for the nation’s new energy priorities and green jobs even against persistent dirty coal interests; this is how we protect the economy and the planet.”

Coal River Mountain gained national notoriety after a study showed that its peaks and ridges have enough wind potential to provide 70,000 households with electricity, support 700 long-term green jobs and give back $1.7 million in annual county taxes. Over the objections of the local community, the site has been granted permits for mountaintop removal. Massey Energy began dynamiting peaks this week, which will destroy any hope for the proposed wind farm unless the EPA intervenes.

“Every day, more than 3 million pounds of explosives are detonated in our state to remove our mountains and expose the thin seams of coal beneath,” said Bo Webb, a resident of Coal River Valley WV and a participant in today’s rally. “President Obama, I beg you to re-light our flame of hope and honor and immediately stop the coal companies from blasting so near our homes and endangering our lives. As you have said, we must find another way than blowing off the tops of our mountains. We must end mountaintop removal.”

If the blasting at Coal River Mountain is allowed to continue, mountaintop removal coal mining will destroy one of the last intact mountains in Appalachia. In the process, it will endanger hundreds of people living in the valley below, as the project requires blasting dynamite less than 100 yards from the largest coal sludge impoundment in the country. Massey Energy’s own assessment indicates that if the impoundment, an earthen dam, is breached more than eight billion gallons of coal slurry will spill out endangering hundreds of people who would have less than five minutes to evacuate.

Massey Energy Company, one of the largest coal producers in the country, began blasting at Coal River Mountain last Friday, in Coal River, West Virginia. Last year the state issued permits to conduct mountain top removal on the site, despite protest by local residents. Witnesses saw blasts and smoke on Friday near the Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment.

Slurry is the by-product of coal washing and processing and contains high levels of toxic heavy metals. The Brushy Fork impoundment, the largest slurry dam in Appalachia, has the capacity to hold 8.2 billion gallons. Critics of mountaintop removal argue that an estimated 1,000 lives are at risk if the dam at Brushy Fork were to fail. Last December, a containment pond in Kingston, Tennessee burst, flooding the area with over one billion gallons of coal ash sludge, producing the largest environmental disaster in United States history.

“As world leaders are looking for solutions to climate change and economic crisis, we are presented with an incredible opportunity to develop green, sustainable technologies,” said one activist, who asked to be identified only as Hannah. “Coal is a fuel of the past. We need to be looking to long term, sustainable solutions such as wind and solar for our energy needs.”

For the last two years, local residents have campaigned for a commercial-scale wind farm on Coal River Mountain. The Coal River Wind campaign has asked West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin to rescind the mining permits for Coal River Mountain. So far, Governor Manchin has denied the group’s request. A wind resources assessment and economic study commissioned by Coal River Mountain Watch in 2008 revealed that Coal River Mountain has enough wind potential to provide electricity for over 85,000 homes and would create more jobs over the expected life of the turbines than the proposed mountaintop removal mine.
Tomorrow is a national day of action to end mountaintop removal, with 25 actions planned around the country. In Philadelphia, environmentalists will rally outside the EPA offices on 17th St & JFK Blvd. The protest runs from 11am-1pm and demands that the EPA cease approving permits for mountaintop removal sites.

We called this protest a “Carnival of Destruction” because JPMC’s investments in dirty coal truly are the Most Shocking Show on Earth. Check out pictures below:

-Annie

Update: Watch this video from the action!

We had the great fortune of meeting with four equally impressive people in the area.  Each works with a different non-profit group that is fighting to stop this insane large scale devastation.  Mike Roselle from Climate Ground Zero talked about the campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience work that this new and emerging organization is doing where local and non-local volunteers are putting themselves at great risk for trying to stop MTR.  Mike is great.  He is truly a leader in the national and international environmental movement.  I know I want him on my side to stand up for a worthy cause.  It’s tough work, but thanks to Mike and the people at Climate Ground Zero, they’re bringing national attention to this horrid practice of MTR.

Mike Roselle (at right)

Judy Bonds from Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW) comes from a family that has lived in Coal River Valley for 10 generations.  She clearly and powerfully talked to us about the rich history and culture of the people there and the mountains they live in.  But now, medicinal herbs such as ginseng, black cohosh and goldenseal are disappearing due to MTR.  Wild boars are almost extinct and the survival of 150 species of trees is being threatened.  People are being forced to move from their homes where they have lived for generations.  Where people were once connected to their land, they are now getting denied their culture.  It’s becoming a cultural genocide.  Gratefully, Judy and CRMW are both working to stop this environmental and cultural destruction and doing what they can to save and rebuild their communities.

Judy Bonds

Maria Gunnoe from Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) has family roots in the region dating back to the early 1800s.  She still lives on her family land, even though mountaintops around her have disappeared and the polluted river running by her house has flooded many times due to the lack of vegetation.

Maria Gunnoe

She took us on a tour of the area where we saw yet another town, Lindytown, turning into a deserted and destroyed ghost town because Massey Coal is taking over.  We heard about the polluted rivers and polluted air and the fact that more people including young children are getting cancer and dying from the toxins.  We heard about all the violence coming from Massey Coal to the local people there who are standing up against MTR.  Death threats, homes burned, dogs poisoned and delivered to bus stops for children to see, horses poisoned, verbal harassments, conflicts in stores, and attempts to run cars off the road are all now happening.  Are these acts necessary?  Is this really America?  This is very hard for me to understand.  It saddens and angers me to hear such stories.  I respect Maria and her values and thank her and OVEC for speaking up and educating communities about the environmental dangers of MTR.

Larry Gibson - Keeper of Kayford Mountain

Larry Gibson from Keeper of the Mountains Foundation is an impressive man who is also standing up against MTR.  His family has lived on or near Kayford Mountain since the late 1700s.  We walked a very short distance from his home there to the edge of one of the coal strip mining projects.  We looked down to see a 12,000 acre flattened gravel yard…an area that was once Kayford Mountain.  No picture can adequately convey what I saw and what it must feel like to live in an area that was once a beautiful, rich and secluded mountain, but has now been turned into a massive, ugly and barren open-pit dirt yard.  It’s mind boggling.  It’s beyond destructive.  It’s beyond unconsciousness.  Larry isn’t a brave man, he’s just a man standing up and speaking up for what is right.  And it’s right to save the mountains, preserve the values of the mountain culture and stop coal strip mining from destroying the history of these people and the glory of these mountains.  Many thanks to Larry for risking his life and telling his unbelievably sad story.

From above the destruction is extreme

It was a pleasure and honor to meet such passionate, concerned, authentic and caring people.  Against personal threats and other acts of hate crimes, these people are standing up not only for their land, culture, heritage, families, health and lives, but they are standing up for the health of the planet by dealing with the serious problem of coal contributing to climate change.  They all need support in whatever ways we can give them.  For information on the above non-profits and how to help, visit:

www.climategroundzero.org
www.crmw.net
www.ohvec.org
www.mountainkeeper.org

Finally, many thanks to Rainforest Action Network (RAN) for allowing me to join them on this valuable yet difficult trip.  RAN is a phenomenal non-profit group that affectively takes aggressive action to protect environments throughout the entire world.  RAN is supporting these groups in WV by actively fighting for a coal-free energy future.  According to Judy Bonds, RAN’s corporate campaigns to stop major banks from funding coal, logging, and tar sands are making a big difference.  RAN is also offering training, fundraising support and general advice to these smaller WV groups.

For everyone involved in standing up against MTR….I deeply thank you.

Sue Thompson
Boulder, CO

In response to this announcement, concerned DC residents went to the EPA headquarters to show their support for this decision, but to also remind the EPA that much more needs to be done to abolish mountaintop removal. Many passersby stopped to learn more about the issue and many of whom work within the Agency noticed our presence. Employees were even opening their windows to lean out and ask what we were up to.

While this decision was an important one, many coalfield residents and organizers like myself, question whether this announcement will hold its course. In a post by Jeff Biggers in the Nation entitled “Coalfield Uprising“, he explains how this decision has only strengthened activists resolve.

 “While we appreciate the EPA making this step to bring back enforcement of the Clean Water Act,” says Lorelei Scarbro, an organizer with Coal River Mountain Watch and a coal miner’s widow whose garden and hillside orchards border a proposed mountaintop removal site in West Virginia, “we will continue to come to Washington, DC, until mountaintop removal’s irreversible devastation to our communities and waterways is halted.”

It is hard for those who live under active blasting to see this as a sign of hope, as I mentioned before, this decision does nothing to address the destruction that is taking place daily throughout West Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, Tennesee and Virginia.

Earlier this spring, Bo Webb, a coal miner’s son and Vietnam veteran sent an open letter to Obama in which he wrote “My family and I, like many American citizens in Appalachia, are living in a state of terror. Like sitting ducks waiting to be buried in an avalanche of mountain waste, or crushed by a falling boulder, we are trapped in a war zone within our own country.”

In response to the EPA’s decision Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth remarked, “This is great news, but it will take more than regulations to end the destruction. Mountaintop removal and valley fills should be banned.”

 EPA has the authority to veto the permits, but only time will tell if they will use the full extent of their oversight to block this destructive practice and put an end to Mountaintop removal once and for all.

Today the EPA made another important step forward in protecting the communities of Appalachia from the disastrous impacts of mountaintop removal mining. Under a process called “Enhanced Coordination Procedures” the EPA has put a temporary hold on 79 permits, which will now undergo further review before their fate is determined.

So did the EPA stop any MTR permits today? No, and Ken Ward gives a good explanation on his blog:

“But as the EPA statement said, EPA officials have determined that all 79 of these permits as they are currently proposed would not comply with the Clean Water Act. EPA is not denying the permits (though under some circumstances, EPA has the authority to override Corps of Engineers decisions to issue permits). Instead, EPA is saying that all 79 of these permits need to be more closely reviewed and perhaps changed so that they would comply with the law.”

You can read more about the Obama administration’s “enhanced coordination procedures” for reviewing these permits on EPA’s Web site here.  The list of 79 permits is here.

So what now you ask? Well we watch with extreme scrutiny during the next 2 months as the permits go under review. Last week during the finalization of this list I went out with other RAN activists and flyered the EPA office in DC during employees lunch break. We spoke with hundreds of employees, many of whom commented that they work on this issue. Its important that they know we are watching.

I’ll keep you updated and if you are ever in the DC area come down to the East Building of the EPA Headquarters at the corner of 12th and Constitution. You’ll likely find me there, with a tireless team of activists until mountaintop removal is ended once and for all.

And just last year I saw her accept a Goldman Environmental Prize for her efforts as an organizer working to save the mountains and the communities she’s from and committed to. As a result of efforts and this attention Maria is gaining some notoriety, and with it there are pros and cons. On the one hand the issue is certainly gaining awareness which is critical if we are going to then raise the consciousness that will lead to an end to this terrible, destructive assault – on the other, those that support Coal (or more likely, the few that benefit the most from it) see Maria as more of a strident agitator than ever.

She’s an 8^th generation “mountain holler girl” who lives where her forebears made their home. She’s encircled by mountains – or their remains – and is just at the back of the town of Bobwhite, West Virginia. She has a teenage son and daughter, and a bunch of baby kittens, and two dogs – one her pet, the other for security.

One of Maria's new kittens

There is also a big, shiny chain link fence around her house. You don’t see many of these in this part of the world. This is for protection – something most folks here don’t need as much as Maria and her family does, though there are several who can very much relate to this necessity.

There used to be two mountains here in front of Maria's house

But it hasn’t always been this way. Only since the death threats, the killing of her daughter’s dog that she raised from a pup delivered to her school bus stop, the trucks trying to run her off the road, and more. Recently the coal trains that pass by her house have photographers at the back, cameras pointed her way.

Maria is one of many West Virginians who has deep roots in this part of the world. The old barn has GUNNOE painted on the side – her grandfather built the barn and her Brother painted on the name. And she and her forebears were baptized in the river that runs nearby – though now the water is polluted with chemical waste, part of the “coal washing” process, so the baptisms take place in the church.

The incidence of cancer is on the rise, and given that the water tests show the presence of the same chemicals that you get from processing coal, it’s obvious there is a link between the two. And this link is killing people.

And it was when the mountains around her home began to disappear, when the flooding started as a direct result of the valley fill behind her house, when what were the Twin mountains in front of her home became one mountain, and the frogs disappeared – these were all some of the signs that the coal companies were damaging her world, and she stood up to them.

Maria isn’t one to run from a fight, and she’s not backing down from this one.

“The people around me are my friends, I’m not so worried about them. It’s the ones who come from outside to work for Massey – they’re the ones who are causing us all trouble.”

Lindytown and Twilight from Above - this gives you some idea of where and how big this is

Maria took us to visit her friend, Laura Webb, after driving us through the remains of Lindytown and Twilight – the latest community that Massey has been intimidating and buying out in an effort to depopulate what stands in the way of cheap, easy coal. Laura was one of the last to agree to a buyout – and there wasn’t much reason to stay. Her neighbors had all moved away. The coal operations around her home were literally right above her – and across from her – and behind her. There was no safe place for her or her family anymore here.

The view from Laura's front yard - one of two MTR sites and the entrance to the Twilight Mine

And even after she signed the agreement to sell her property, she was given more messages to get out. One day a truck drove up and a man on the back used a boom to pull down her phone and power lines.

And in an example of how cruel the actors behind the intimidation are, while she was out looking for a place to move her mobile home, her horse was poisoned – she returned home to find it lying on its side in distress, its water trough empty and overturned.

“I stayed up all night with him, but there was nothing I could do to save him.”

Laura Webb was intimidated by Massey Coal

When I saw her she was two days over the agreement date and had a bunch of belongings as well as her house that needed to be moved. Massey could come along at any time and claim whatever is there, even have her arrested for trespassing. For some reason – small blessings – she hadn’t been bothered further as she scrambled to get out of what’s left of her town.

We wished Laura and her family well and Maria then took us up a rough road into the holler. We were going to visit one of three ancient cemeteries that were under threat from mining.

(CGZ blog post http://climategroundzero.org/2009/08/protecting-the-cook-family-cemeteries/)

The company builds fences and erects gates, using public safety as the justification for keeping people out of what had once been their common ground. In fact, for people to now visit any of these burial grounds, if they want to go lay some flowers on their grandparents’ grave or visit an ancestor’s final resting place, they must first undertake a safety training course (on their own dime), engage a company security guard to escort them (on their own dime), and wear hard hats and steel-toed boots which they must provide for themselves.

The cemetery we were heading for today was not available for visitation anymore and its future was in serious doubt. By law the company must provide a 100-ft buffer around such areas, but when Maria and others marked that off they found that their makers had been moved further inwards.

We made it up some treacherous road only to find that the company had moved the line once again, and before we could get to the site we had to turn around or risk arrest and the impoundment of Maria’s jeep. Something she said was assured and not something she could afford. So we turned around.

She took us through what was left of Lindytown – rows of empty houses, many of which had been looted and vandalized. Maria asserts that the coal company, Massey, that purchased the properties, opened up the materials to employees if “there was anything they would find useful.

Lindytown home that was vandalized

She showed us where less than a year ago children played and families made their home. She showed us where a woman died of a heart attack on the very day she was set to move from her home – her only home, where she had been born. She showed us the failed union hall – a sad statement in an industry-controlled area where unions have no presence, where workers get paid low wages and receive no benefits.

Used to be an underground coal mine would support up to 500 miners – which was good for the community, good for families, and better for the mountains. Non-union MTR employs as few as 19 miners per operation, and once the mountain has been dropped 800 or so feet, the operation closes up and moves on to the next site.

Maria then took us back to her house, passing a “We Support Coal” sign on the local grocery – a business she says serves many more miners than it does locals. Most locals aren’t coal supporters – most locals don’t work the mines. Most locals are suffering from poverty, poisoned water, and constant blasting and would be happy to see King Coal unseated. Maria has many friends locally.

Bob White Grocery - "We Support Coal"

Sometimes she gets chased by mine company employees trying to keep her from making her rounds of visiting sites and people affected by coal mining, and working to protect what’s under threat. She’s had to stop in at friends to switch cars so many times to throw off pursuit she can’t count how many its been. So far she’s been lucky – but she’s afraid of what would happen if she got caught out where there were no witnesses, where she was alone. But she doesn’t dwell on it.

Maria is a bright spirit who has a smile for everyone she meets. She’s gregarious and friendly and she tends to elicit smiles even from the coal miners she comes across at the gas station or convenience stores. Once at the grocery store a Massey employee, dressed in his work uniform, called out above the shoppers to affirm, “I work for Massey and I support Maria Gunnoe 110%!”

These are the kinds of things that show her that this battle can be won. Appalachia can support all sorts of economies, all kinds of industry, from tourism to herbalism to alternative energy. But it’s not going to happen until our government stops issuing the permits that allow the destruction to continue. It’s not going to happen until the Appalachian Restoration Act is made into law.

And it’s not going to happen while Don Blankenship and his ilk continue to hold sway in matters of politics and law enforcement in West Virginia.

But the day is coming when the blasting will stop and the mountains will be peaceful again. That day must come – and soon. The mountains can survive only so long while this assault continues with the support of State and Federal government.

You can find out more about Maria from this Google search, or by visiting the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition site.

I didn’t have a clue.

Well, maybe that’s unfair.

I knew what was going on in the mountains of Appalachia, I knew that people were fighting a powerful company that is extracting coal and destroying mountains and communities, and I knew that Climate Ground Zero refers to where the main battle for our global climate is going on – here in the heart of Coal Country, in the US where we produce the lion’s share, per capita, of the world’s greenhouse gases and half of that comes from coal. I knew that this battle is seriously heating up. But I didn’t know how serious.

From Google Earth

Of course it’s serious that a company is mining coal with machines bigger than office buildings and tremendous amounts of explosives, carried daily in tankers that rip along these narrow two lane highways.

And of course it’s serious when people’s families are endangered, their homes destroyed by floods caused by the mining, and the mountains that sustain so much life, so much diversity, are being wiped out for corporate profit. In this area that is stunningly beautiful, terrible things are indeed happening.

Since 1991 Massey Energy has led the pack in the race to take all the coal available from the once-hallowed mountains of Appalachia. They have systematically led the charge and taken the lion’s share of profit in the most efficient form of coal mining available, Mountaintop Removal.

The EPA continues to grant the permits that allow this company to employ far fewer workers than ever before in the history of coal mining. An underground mine used to employ as many as 500 workers. Now these operations can employ as few as 19.

The West Va Department of Environmental Protection, the DEP or “Don’t Expect Protection” as they are known euphamistically, continues to allow this company to clearcut the forests in this incredibly rich biome, an area that has been identified as the oldest deciduous forest in North America and the literal source of the great diversity of forests North America once supported. The EPA continues to grant permits that allow the mountaintops to be pulverized with explosives, the coal seams gouged out and processed, and the remaining rubble to be pushed into the valleys, or “hollers”, which has so far led to the utter annihilation of 2000 miles of streams and waterways and countless plants and animals. Of the estimated 900 mountaintops in Appalachia, over half of them have been “dropped” and destroyed for the “cheap” coal that lies beneath.

Massive MTR Operation - thanks to Southwings for taking us up

It has also led to the deaths of residents through uncontrollable flooding as well as the tragic death of 3-year old Jeremy Davidson when a massive boulder dislodged during operations and crushed him to death when it rolled though his bed while he slept. http://www.ohvec.org/newsletters/woc_2005_02/article_15.html

As a parent this tragedy has extra meaning for me. As a citizen, one would expect greater accountability and protection. Not here and not now at least. Business continues as usual, although there is a case filed by the parents who hope their son’s tragic loss may amount to something more that will provide protection for residents.

Why is mining allowed so near residents? Because state and federal laws allow it. Laws prohibit surface mining within 300 feet of an occupied dwelling and within 100 feet of a public road. Otherwise, go for it.

Opposition has been growing, slowly over time, but that’s often how it goes with wars. And make no mistake, there is a war brewing in Appalachia’s mountains, and so far those who are stepping up do so to defend their homes, their families and the mountains that in many cases have been home to many generations of their families. This is a war that has the classic elements of a deeply oppressed people and a powerful overlord that has outright contempt for the people who have every right to continue making their homes here. And that contempt shows itself in many ways.

Clean, carbon neutral coal?

Depopulation, common here, is a practice that promotes an exodus of residents from an area by making life so hard, so dangerous, and so frightening, that they simply have no choice but to accept whatever offers they can manage on their properties, pack up and make way for the fences and the gates that follow them, constantly expanding the area under control of King Coal.

The “mining” operations bear the names of the communities that they displace: Twilight, Lindytown, Marsh Fork and others. Once the people are out of the way there is less threat of opposition, less risk of damage that could lead to lawsuits or other troubles, however unlikely. And once the people are gone there is no one to witness the filling of the “hollers”, the blackening of the streams, the absolute removal of mountains – no one to stand in the way or risk liability.

Climate Ground Zero is a name that has been given to a resistance movement of people who may not be displaced, for many of them aren’t from here, but they don’t have as much to lose as the locals and can operate more freely. People have come from local areas, yes, but also from all over the country in response to the pleas for assistance from some of the locals who have chosen to stay and fight for what is right, what is theirs, and what should be inviolate. Some have just come because they see the injustice and they feel they must do something. And so they come.

And it’s a good thing they have. Those who grow up in this area know that laws that apply in the rest of the country don’t apply here. Justice in the Appalachian sense implies that the company will get what it wants, and that those who resist will be made to suffer, and that eventually fighting will only hurt them and those they love. And when the economies that once supported thriving communities that bore the names of the operations I mentioned above have dried up because of lack of work, poor wages, ill health, and the stress of living with constant explosions and continual heavy machinery traffic, then there really is no reason to stick around.

I wish I could convey how very real this difference is between these beautiful mountains and the rest of the country, but honestly, you need to see it for yourself.

This helps: Check out the reality of MTR with this handy layer in Google Earth.

But there is every reason for those of us with the means and the passion for justice to come from without to help those who remain, and to stand up for the mountains and the voiceless life they support.

Under the direction, however casual but always effective, of RAN co-founder Mike Roselle, a staging area has been created that has seen a series of actions executed against the tyranny of King Coal’s reign. Non-Violent Direct Action has driven tyrants out all over the world; bringing peace and self-determination, gaining women the right to vote, saving species from commercial hunting, and so on. We have great leaders upon whose shoulders we stand; Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa and others.

James McGuinness and Mike Roselle of Climate Ground Zero were arrested on February 25, 2009, at Performance Coal's Edwight Mountaintop Removal site in southern West Virginia. The protesters chose to focus on the active mountaintop removal site above Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, WV on the eve of the 37th year anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Disaster. photograph by Antrim Caskey

And it will save these mountains and these communities. An action in Wise County on September 7th drew attention to the construction of an unnecessary coal-fired power plant with 11 arrests and led to the revocation of that building permit. A subsequent action that stopped work at the Twilight Mine saw 14 activists arrested and made national headlines. Following that a rally – unheard of in this area and bolstered by the participation of celebrities and scientists and saw dozens arrested and gained national attention for an elementary school that lies directly under a massive removal operation.

And most recently a couple of tree-sitters kept a mountain safe from Massey Energy for six days, increasing awareness of this issue. They endured significant abuse by mining company employees – sleep deprivation, threatened with chainsaws, verbally abused, etc. And when they came down, finally, for fear for their safety, they were arrested and held on $25,000 bail – a ludicrous amount for a non-federal charge that amounted to trespassing and littering. Here where the media is 95% controlled by King Coal, as is 98% of the law this is what one begins to expect – though I’ll never get used to it. Fortunately those figures were adjusted down to a rational $1000 each – a small blessing in a sea of darkness.

The treatment of the activists by Massey was so abusive that two security guards walked off the job, unwilling to be a party to such inhuman, criminal behavior. Check out this video of the guards talking about their experience.

And when the actions are over, the activists gather again to share knowledge gained and plan for the next peaceful salvo that will help grow this resistance until finally the mountains are safe, the communities can get back to living again, and King Coal fades into a past that should have been history long ago.

We are witnessing the death of a dinosaur and the birth of a new era, and it’s happening at Climate Ground Zero. Be a part of it – and do so with your support of the folks at CGZ and with your support of RAN. Strength in numbers, creativity and courage.

Activists shut down a dragline at the Twilight Mine, Boone County, West Virginia

Larry Gibson

Larry was preparing for a big Labor Day party, and he was fairly certain there would be violence. He had hung a “Coal keeps West Virginia poor” sign on the patio, right next to his “Friends of the Mountains” sign, and when we arrived he noticed it had been torn down. He was clearly shaken because he hadn’t noticed that anyone had entered his property. While we were there, he put in calls to try to arrange security for the upcoming event, but he didn’t sound hopeful that the police would be of any help. In fact, he has had no call backs for his request for state law enforcement support. Since the incident on the 4th the State Troopers came once to see what the fuss was about, didn’t take a statement and did not give Larry their names when he asked.

Because of his activism, Larry has experienced 136 acts of violence. His property and neighbors’ property has been shot up (we saw bullet holes), and his dog was hung on his porch and almost killed.

In June, Larry was arrested along with Daryl Hannah, climatologist Jim Hansen, RAN Executive Director Michael Brune and dozens of Coal River Valley residents in a protest to stop mountaintop removal. Larry plead not guilty and he’s looking forward to making his case before a jury and the public. He holds the state and law enforcement in contempt and wants to tell the world.

When I made a blog post earlier in my trip, somebody kindly suggested that I take a hike (I believe he recommended Afghanistan). Since I was in Appalachia, I went for brief hike with Larry and my friends. He took us up the hill past some his cousins’ homes to a mountaintop removal site. He told us about how he felt the blasts when they blew up the mountain (it’s more than 400 feet shorter than it used to be). And he told us that the 310 year old cemetery where his family is buried slid over a high wall, and he can’t get there anymore. At the time, he was negotiating with the company to try to save it. It was against the law to destroy it, “but who cares?”

MTR site near Larry's property

While below-ground mines used to employ more than 500 workers, the massive mine behind Larry’s property employs all of 19 people. And since Massey isn’t a union company, the miners make about $12/hour (union workers typically make twice that). Hardly the stuff you’d want to base an entire economy on. Larry also disputes claims that MTR is so much safer than underground mining. This year, they’ve already lost nine people in mining accidents, and six were from surface mining.

The biggest industries in West Virginia are mining, Walmart and tourism, in that order. Larry says that the Governor simply won’t pursue other industries because the coal company wants to keep wages down and have its pick of the workers.

Larry fully expects to lose his life in this battle, but he won’t stop. He says it’s not about being brave, it’s about being right. His message to the rest of us: If it can happen here with coal, it can happen anywhere else in this country where there’s something of value that somebody can make money from. It’s our fight too. We need to take a stand.

Judy told us about how she was the eighth generation of her family to live in Appalachia. She told us about how Appalachians have a tradition called “tending the commons,” which meant taking care of the hills and the hollers for the common good. It was a traditional practice for people to help spread ginseng seeds (and other medicinal herbs) so that the “’seng” would propagate on down the mountain. Someone had a question about this on my last blog post, and yes, according to Judy there were absentee landholders who did hold legal rights to these lands and ultimately sold them to the coal companies. When the coal companies put up fences everywhere, this practice (and the abundance of ginseng) was brought to a halt.

West Virginia still grows half of all of the ginseng currently sold in the world, but the incredibly lucrative plant isn’t nearly as prevalent as it used it be. Appalachia is also home to many other medicinal herbs, including black cohosh and goldenseal. There’s a real treasure trove of herbs that grow at higher altitudes on the mountains that are being destroyed. In addition, Appalachia has more than 150 different types of trees – it’s the seed source for many varieties of trees in North America.

Judy told us she was working as a waitress when they first started blowing the mountains up. She told us about Appalachians’ connection to the landscape and told us that walking through the holler makes you feel like you’re being hugged by the mountain. She described walking through the holler with daughter, while her grandson played in a nearby stream. Suddenly, her grandson called out “What’s wrong with these fish?” and held up a dead fish in each hand. Judy immediately started yelling “get out of the water!”

That’s when it clicked for her that, if the fish were being poisoned, the land and the people must also be experiencing some serious side effects. Since then, she’s been speaking out against the destruction of the Appalachian landscape and culture.

It hasn’t been easy for her. Since she started this work, her life has been threatened and she’s been run off the road so many times that she won’t drive with her kids in the car. Despite the incredibly stress and constant threats to her property, her family and her life, Judy isn’t going to quit. She’s fighting for everybody’s life and health, and for the culture they share.

I was also very moved when Judy told us how much she appreciated RAN’s work to stop mountaintop removal. She said that the corporate campaigning to cut off the financing, our support for local actions and our efforts to raise the profile of the issue beyond Appalachia were all helping. I was very glad to hear that, but I left feeling such a deep sense of awe and appreciation at everything this woman and Coal River Mountain Watch are doing to protect their homes, their communities and their culture.

The t-shirt I got at Coal River Mountain Watch sums it up so well: “Save the Endangered Hillbilly: Stop Mountaintop Removal.