The People Comment Passionately On
Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

July 24, 2003

Comments by Bob Gates, Charleston filmmaker

My name is Bob Gates, I live in Charleston, my daughter was born in Logan County.

As a filmmaker I went to the flooded areas and talked with coalfield residents, discussed with them where they thought these flash floods came from. I have looked at some of these sites, flown over them. Scrabble Creek, Seng Creek, Bulgher Hollow at Dorothy, White Oak Creek, and the Lyburn Disaster a year ago: the incredible flash floods, the walls of water, came specifically from Mountaintop Removal valley fills.

The flash floods caused by Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining and Steep Slope Timbering in southern West Virginia have damaged or destroyed 47 communities, damaged or destroyed 12,000 homes and businesses.