This news story originally provided by The Herald-Dispatch

July 29, 2005

Rally to fight mountaintop removal

By DAVE LAVENDER - The Herald-Dispatch

Although the sun has subsided with temperatures falling into the 80s, the heat will still be on at West Virginia’s State Capitol at noon Saturday as The Friends of the Mountains hope to rally thousands of concerned citizens to demand an end to the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal.

Oh yeah, and they are going to have a good time doing it.

To be held at The Capitol Circle, on the north side of the State Capitol, the "Stop Mountaintop Removal" rally will feature entertainment including environmentally conscience artists such as Two Picking Fools from Virginia, Tonya Adkins, a singer who teaches at Marshall University, singer/songwriter T. Paige Delporto, some chants urged on by The Radical Cheerleaders, Ms. Mountaintop Removal Beauty Contest and the main course: strong words from coalfield resident Maria Gunnoe, Janet Fout of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition speaking about "Coal Money Exposed," author, activist and former gubernatorial candidate Denise Giardinia, the Rev. Jim Lewis and others.

"What we want to do is call for the abolishment of mountaintop removal and have some fun while we are doing it," said Bo Webb, a volunteer from Naoma, W.Va., in Raleigh County, with the internationally recognized group, Coal River Mountain Watch. "It should be a nice big rally with some fun to go along with it."

Webb, whose group consists of a handful of concerned residents, said it’s great to gather with other common people from the state, the country and even the world, who believe that mountaintop removal is destroying the culture and environment of Southern West Virginia and other parts of the Appalachians.

Friends of the Mountains is a coalition of groups and individuals committed to ending mountaintop removal. Members include Coal River Mountain Watch, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coalfield Sustainability Project, Keepers of the Mountains Foundation, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and West Virginia Chapter Sierra Club.

The event will also feature Ed Wiley, a concerned grandfather of a child who attends Marsh Fork Elementary School. Wiley sat on the steps of West Virginia’s Capitol in early July refusing to eat until Gov. Joe Manchin came out to speak to him about additional coal operation permits near the school, which sits 400 yards beneath a coal waste dam.

Manchin did, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection rescinded Massey Energy’s permit to build a second loading silo at its Goal’s Coal processing plant, located near the school. The DEP also ordered Massey to dismantle the foundation that has been poured and to reclaim the disturbed land after discrepancies in the boundary lines between original maps and Massey’s permit applications were discovered.

Webb said the fact that Manchin listened, had the DEP take another look, and then took action speaks volumes.

"We met with the governor, and he promised us he would look into our concerns, and he did," Webb said. "You know my hat’s off to him. It appears to me that this is the first governor that we have had that is taking a look at the mining permits as a legal issue and as regulations require. He said he would continue to do his job, and I am encouraged by that."

Webb said he feels like the rally comes at a great time as mountaintop removal has been taken to the national stage this summer with the release of Mari-Lynn Evans’ powerful documentary "The Appalachians," which shows the practice of mountaintop removal, and with the influx of volunteers from as close as Virginia and as far away as Poland that are here in West Virginia for Mountain Justice Summer, a campaign that seeks to add to the growing anti-mountaintop- removal citizens’ movement.

"I think the movement is growing and picking up new people," Webb said. "I think people are joining together to make a difference and to let people know that we have rights. Before it’s been drummed into the coalfield residents’ heads that our voices and lives do not count, just do what the coal baron says. But this is our community that they are destroying."