Mountain Holler
Massey Gets $20 Million Fine
February 4th, 2008
Related Links
Lexington Herald-Leader
US Department of Justice
Coal Sludge in and around a Martin County, KY stream after the failure of a Massey Sludge Dam in 2000.
Mickey McCoy, former Mayor of Inez, KY, where one of Massey's Toxic Sludge Dams failed in October 2000 sending over 300 gallons of sludge down two small streams and into the Ohio River, says it best:
The report of Massey receiving the largest fine ever levied against a coal company for its repeated (4,500 times) violations of the Clean Water Act might strike the non-Appalachian, "head in the sand" news reader as a job well done by the Environmental Protection Agency.
But the crimes against nature and humankind that Massey has committed over the years, while extracting billions of dollars of coal from these hills and crippling the future of this area, far exceed the token fine of $20 million.
...
But to those who have suffered from the externalized cost of Massey's mining practices, to those who believe that Appalachia should not be sacrificed for the sheer greedy profit for the few, the assessment against Massey fell terribly short.
Massey has cost the land and its people dearly: poisoned water supplies, increased flooding, the loss of streams and farmland, shattered house foundations, the transformation of our mountain ridges to moonscapes and the clear-cutting of one of the most biologically diverse forests on the planet.
What price do you put on the inability to drink from your water tap without fear of ingesting heavy metals? Name the cost of being able to sleep at night not knowing whether the morning may wake you with a flood of toxic sludge at your doorstep?
...When a corporation can go into any part of the United States, commit gross violations against its people and its land and receive protection from government agencies that were established to protect that land and its people, it better concern us all.
Twenty million dollars? It does nothing to deter corporations from destroying a different part of our country. Twenty million dollars? It only proves that Massey Energy is the poster child for American-backed industrial terrorism.
Read the whole article here.
In accordance with the law, there is a comment period where you can kindly tell the EPA that you appreciate that action is finally being taken against an outlaw coal company, but that $20 million will not come close to the amount it will cost to clean up Massey's mess in West Virginia and Kentucky. The difference will most likely end up being made up by the people of those states who are already suffering the most at the hands of these companies and the politicians they've bought.
Comments should be addressed to the Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division, and either emailed to pubcomment-ees.enrd@usdoj.gov or mailed to
P.O. Box 7611
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, DC 20044-7611
and should refer to United States v. Massey Energy Company, et. al., D.J. Ref. 90-5-1-1-08470.