Marshfork Elementary—Demanding a New, Safe School
March 16, 2007
Additional text below the photos. (I don't know about you, but if someone
picked me up like that it would dislocate my shoulders or tear muscles,
not to mention being extremely painful in several ways).
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| Coal River resident Hilary Hosta is painfully hauled away by the State Cops. Photo by Graham Boyle |
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| Coal River resident Hilary Hosta is painfully hauled away by the State Cops. Photo by Graham Boyle |
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| OVEC board member and Keeper of the Mountain
Larry Gibson arrested.
Photo by
Dave Cooper. |
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| Ed Wiley, in red jacket, and Larry Gibson,
escorted to the paddy wagon.
Photo by Dave Cooper. |
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| OVEC organizer Abe Mwaura dragged off by police
(Abe had taken that day off). Photo by Dave Cooper. |
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| About 75 people crowded into the governor's
office. Photo by Dave Cooper. |
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| One of the officers in the action.
Photo by Dave Cooper. |
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| OVEC board member Michael Morrision is dragged
away by the cops.
Photo by Dave Cooper. |
Marsh Fork Elementary School has become a
touchstone in the fight against mountaintop removal. The Raleigh County
school sits 400 yards directly below a sludge impoundment permitted to
hold 2.8 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge. The dam is slowly
leaking. (Massey Energy says it’s just “controlled drainage.”)
Directly above the impoundment, Massey has a permit for an 1849-acre
mountaintop removal mine, where repeated blasting shakes the ground.
Residents worry about the effects of the blasting on the impoundment and
dam. We’ve heard workers testify that some safety measures were not
followed when they built the earthen dam.
A 185-foot coal silo is directly adjacent to the
school, spewing toxic coal dust and chemicals from the adjoining coal
preparation plant. Last year Massey decided to build a second coal silo
less than 300 feet away from the school. Citizens fought that plan and
the Division of Environmental Protection denied the permit, even though
Massey had already started to build the second silo. But, as Bo Webb of
Coal River Mountain Watch said about Marsh Fork school, “even when we
win, we lose.”
In early March, the WV Surface Mine Board
overturned the DEP’s permit denial, giving their approval to Massey’s
second coal silo. The school was there before any of the coal
operations were. For three years, residents and friends have been
fighting for a new school in their own community. The Board approval of
the second coal silo was the last straw for citizens who have followed
EVERY available means to be heard by their government. Meetings with the
governor proved futile. Over and over again, folks say that we’ve
listened too long to false promises and outright lies.
In sheer desperation, about a hundred people
occupied Governor Manchin’s reception area and inner office hallway.
At the Capitol, OVEC board member Winnie Fox
said, “They’ve ruined lives and we’re not going to take it anymore.”
Non-violent civil disobedience is never a step
that is taken lightly. But we've tried so many possible avenues of
redress without success. People’s very lives are at stake. This is our
latest effort to be heard. Anyone present at the protest couldn’t help
but come away with a sense of awed horror at the extent to which Coal’s
minions in the State Capitol are willing to go to protect Coal’s
profits. The pictures here and the three YouTube videos (see links in
left column) tell the story best. Shame! Shame! Shame!
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