Mountain Holler
Anti-mountaintop removal arrestees need your help!
July 2nd, 2009
We desperately need your donations to help out some climate heroes in need. As you probably know, 30 people -- including NASA Scientist James Hansen, Actress Daryl Hannah and former Congressman Ken Hechler -- were arrested last Tuesday opposing mountaintop removal and a second coal silo at Marsh Fork Elementary school in southern West Virginia. To learn more, see some of the incredible coverage below. You may also know that the brave citizens were charged with block traffic and obstructing an officer. We were forced to block traffic by the Fiends of Coal who had blocked our access to the road -- but no one came near obstructing an officer. We are trying to get the outrageous charges dropped, but as it stands, these trumped up charges may cost each person $500-600!
Most of the 30 were average citizens -- including students, grandmas and grandpas, teachers, and many, many local heroes to the movement-- each fed up enough with the destruction of our mountains and endangerment of children to put their foot down and say, "No More!" No more coal plant dumping toxic dust onto an elementary school, no more blasting apart our mountains and our heritage, and no more fueling climate change.
Marsh Fork Elementary School with 2.8 Billion gallons of toxic coal sludge behind it.
However, taking a stand In these tough economic times - and any time - $600 is a lot of money! Especially when you're working night and day just to save your home from mountaintop removal. Please donate to help cover the costs of these citations -- and help out local heroes like Larry Gibson, Goldman Award Winner Judy Bonds, Bo Webb, Lorelei Scarbro, Winnie Fox and many, many more.
Every little bit helps! Even $5 or $10 will add up!
Here is a round up of the more than 600 blogs and articles about the action last Tuesday. Be sure to check out Daryl Hannah's account of why she got arrested.
To Donate: Make checks to "Mountain Justice" Clearly mark checks or online payments 23 or June 23 Protest or donate online at www.mountainjustice.org or click the pay pal button below.
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Donate by mail:
Mountain Justice
PO Box 86
Naoma, WV 25140
Two Great Studies Released Last Week
June 30th, 2009
Related Links
Coal Tattoo
MACED
The study found that, after adjusting for age, there are between 3,975 to 10,932 excess annual deaths in coal mining counties in Appalachia depending on what year you look at and what group you compare Coal Mining Appalachia to. For example, there are fewer excess deaths when coal mining Appalachia is compared to non-coal mining Appalachia than the rest of the country because non-coal mining Appalachia, while better off socio-economically than coal mining Appalachia is still below the national average. When adjusting for other variables, like smoking, poverty, education, etc. the excess deaths goes down to 1,736 to 2,889 per year.
The report then went on to apply the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) to see how much these deaths cost Appalachia economically speaking. There are different VSL estimates out there ranging from $3.8 million per life to $6.3 million per life, and Hendryx and Ahern ran a bunch of different test cases with different VSL estimates to determine how much the excess deaths cost Appalachia. The researchers put there point estimate at $41.846 Billion per year. The amount the coal industry gives to Appalachia is $8.088 Billion per year, 5 times less than the estimated cost incurred by the people.
If that all sounds too confusing, read the actual report or Ken Ward's much more well written take on it or the transcript of online chat with Dr. Hendryx.
The second study was done by the great Kentucky based Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED). This study, "The Impact of Coal On the Kentucky State Budget," looked specifically at the amount of money that goes into the Kentucky State Revenue Fund vs how much the state of Kentucky gives to the coal industry in in the form of road work, education, regulatory agencies and outright subsidies and tax breaks.
It turns out that Kentucky loses $114,831,474 every year to the coal industry. And that doesn't include health costs or anything like that, it is simply money in vs. money out from the state's piggy bank.
State Supreme Court Approves Second Silo Behind Marsh Fork Elementary
June 12th, 2009
The State Supreme Court ruled in a 5 to 0 decision to allow Massey Energy build a second silo within 300 feet of Marsh Fork Elementary School. The associated Air Quality Permit will allow for an increase of 3.49 tons of particulate matter per year to be released into the air next to the school.The court case was complicated with hours or arguing about maps and markers, but the fact remains that kids will be breathing in that extra 7000 pounds of coal dust every year.
The solution is much easier to understand than the lawsuit: Build a new school in the community. Marsh Fork Elementary is the last school left in the Marsh Fork of the Coal River. The middle and high schools have been consolidated and moved up river taking leaving MFE as the last community space. We can't let that go.
What we can do is call Senator Byrd. HR 2187, the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act, or the more simply the Green School Act, which provides $6.4 Billion for new schools and green school renovations, recently passed through the House of Representatives and is now in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. If you've ever driven through West Virginia, you would surely notice that there are a lot of things named after Robert C. Byrd: the roads, the entire highway system, the largest moveable radio telescope in the world, etc. The point being that Robert C. Byrd can do nothing if not get federal money to come in to West Virginia for infrastructure projects and he should have no problem secures $5 million of that money for a new Marsh Fork Elementary.
So Give him a call at: (202) 224-3954
Or write him a letter at:
Robert C. Byrd
311 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Or email him at: Web Form: byrd.senate.gov/contacts/
Three years ago he promised to leave no stone unturned to try and find money for a new school. Let him know you want him to keep that promise.
As a side note this silo issue illustrates just how much the system doesn't work. The Surface Mine Control and Reclaimation Act of 1977, the law that most of the regulations around mountaintop removal come from, says that no mining operation is allowed within 300 feet of a school. The existing silo and the one in the court case are both within 300 feet of the school.
They got around the law because the land the silos are on were part of a mining operation before SMCRA was passed in 1977, though at the time there was nothing near the school and there wasn't until 2003 when the first silo was built.
The DEP, Surface Mine Board, circuit court and now the Supreme court all approved it. The verdict was given during another SMB hearing (which we lost), and you should have seen the smile on the DEP lawyers face when he found out that those kids would be exposed to an additional 7000 pounds of coal dust every year.
17 Arrested Protesting Mountaintop Removal
May 27th, 2009
On May 23rd, 17 people were arrested in the Coal River Area in protest of mountaintop removal and coal slurry impoundments in three separate actions. This is the start of Mountain Justice Summer 2009 and the sixth in a series of Nonviolent Direct Actions against the surface mining taken by the Climate Ground Zero MovementTwo very brave young women kayaked out onto the Brushy Fork Slurry Impoundment and floated a large banner that read "No More Sludge." They were charged with trespassing and amazingly enough littering for leaving that banner floating on top of at least 7 Billion gallons of Toxic Sludge.
While those two folks were splashing around in a lake of toxic "water," 8 other people walked out onto the massive mountaintop removal mine on the remains of Kayford Mountain and 6 of them chained them locked themselves to a giant rock truck hanging a banner reading "Never Again" on the front of the truck.
Later in the day, 75 people gathered in Pettus, WV at the mouth of Marfork Hollow to rally against the existing Brushy Fork Slurry Impoundment and the planned 6450 acre mountaintop removal mine on Coal River Mountain. Seven of those people "crossed the line" onto Marfork property and were arrested for trespassing.
Those seven people and the two arrested on the Impoundment were taken to Beckley and put in jail on $2000 cash only bail, for trespassing which holds only a maximum $100 fine and no jail time. Some were bailed out, but $18000 is more than could be raised and the last 4 were let out with no bail after lawyers filed a motion on Tuesday morning.
Legendary congressman and Secretary of State, Ken Hechler came to the rally in Pettus and gave an incredible speech. He then, at age 94, walked accross the line onto Massey property, but the police refused to arrest him.
This is a song written by the grandson of Sid Moye, one of the folks arrested at Pettus, the morning after Sid was arrested:
End of the road for Coal Slurry Ban Bill
April 14th, 2009
After weeks of a strong citizen lobbying effort our bills to ban slurry injection, SB 568 in the Senate and HB 3279 in the House of Delegates, were introduced, however they will not become law. In the Senate, Sen. Randy White introduced the bill in fiery fashion complete with a toast to the Senate and impacted communities before taking a big drink of "Coal slurry." However, Sen. Mike Green, the chair of the Energy, Industry, and mining committee refused to bring the bill up for discussion. Sen. Green met with citizen activists several times and said he wanted to wait for the DEP to report back their findings of SCR 15, which is now 16 months late. The data from the report is available and shows that coal slurry is toxic, but Sen. Green is waiting on the full report and in the meantime forcing the ban to wait another year as the legislative session runs out.
In the House, Del. Manypenny introduced a bill to ban all coal slurry production, however it was introduced late in the session and assigned to a committee that was not meeting any more, effectively killing it.
In response to the lack of the DEP's report, Sludge Safety Project put together a citizens' report (download the pdf) which compiled the findings of the slurry samples the DEP had analyzed for SCR 15 along with the few other samples of slurry that exist and came to the conclusion that coal slurry contains many toxic substances that will cause a illness and death if consumed. Taking that into consideration, the recommendation from the report was to ban slurry injection.
Despite the bills not turning into laws, the citizen lobbying effort had many successes. The push forced DEP Secretary Randy Huffman to report before the senate committee twice on the progress of the unfinished slurry injection study and he will continue to be brought before the legislature during every interim until they actually finish the report. And with the knowledge we have given the legislature and the pressure we put on them this session, we'll be ready to get a ban passed first thing next year.
EPA Puts a Hold On MTR Permits!!!
March 24th, 2009
Correction: The EPA did not really put a hold on permits. The EPA's statement was misinterpreted by everyone from the environmentalists to lawyers to the coal industry and the media. What the EPA did say was that they will review valley fill permits before they are approved.After the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Chambers' 2007 ban on new valley fill permits, the EPA announced they were putting the valley fill permits that were being held up by that case on hold. This is huge news for us and especially for the chances of getting a wind farm on Coal River Mountain.
Please call the Whitehouse Comment Line at (202) 456-1111 and tell them thank you for putting them on hold, now let's make the hold permanent!
From the AP:
EPA halts hundreds of mountaintop mining permits
By DINA CAPPIELLO -- WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is putting on hold hundreds of mountaintop coal-mining permits until it can evaluate the projects' impacts on streams and wetlands.
The decision was announced Tuesday by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson. It targets a controversial practice by coal mining companies that dump waste from mountaintop mining into streams and wetlands.
It could delay more than a hundred permits being sought by companies wanting to begin blasting mountaintops to access coal.