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This news story originally provided by WKYT
July 31, 2005
Groups rally against mountaintop mining at Capitol
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Musicians played, speakers preached and cheerleaders caroused on the state Capitol steps Saturday. Others wore costumes or handed out pamphlets and sold T-shirts. The gathering had a festival feel, but the message was serious _ bring an end to mountaintop mining.
A few hundred people attended the rally organized by a coalition called Friends of the Mountains, which wants Gov. Joe Manchin to eliminate the industry's practice of clearing forests, blasting off entire hilltops to uncover coal seams and depositing leftover rock and dirt into nearby valleys, burying streams."You guys are preaching the gospel of justice," the Rev. Jim Lewis, a retired Episcopal priest, told the crowd. "This greed will not buy us off. Greed will not deliver us into wholeness and healthiness and happiness, particularly for the children of our state. What they're doing is wrong."
Singers and other entertainers offset the strong speeches with humorous messages against the coal industry.A group called the Radical Cheer Leaders brought laughter with anti-industry chants that included "save the mountaintops" and "this is how you spell resist."
Among those milling about were Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. She was dressed up as "King Coal" in a dark suit and top hat tattered with stickers that mocked coal companies.She carried a marionette puppet in the likeness of Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer, whose agency is in charge of the state mine permitting process. A sign on the puppet read, "I Obey King Coal."
Last week, state regulators canceled a Massey Energy Co. permit for a new coal silo near a Raleigh County school and ordered the company to demolish work done on the silo."That's a first step. We need to examine every permit," Stockman said.
Speaker Bo Webb, a volunteer organizer for the group Coal River Valley, called on Manchin to "bring an end to the terror in the coalfields.""Why is the DEP allowing our mountains to be destroyed for the short-term economic gain of a few?" he said. "We hope we now have a governor in place that has a vision for the future of all West Virginia, one who has the courage to break the chains of the coal barons who continue to rape our mountains and destroy our communities."
Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg did not immediately return a telephone message Saturday.Sandy Cress of Morgantown wore a black dress and a sign that read "Ms. Blind Greed." She got involved in the mountaintop fight after a friend introduced her to Larry Gibson. Gibson's land on Kayford Mountain is surrounded by 7,538 acres of various mountaintop mining operations in Boone, Kanawha and Raleigh counties.
Gibson, whose 50-acre property includes campsites, a park and a family cemetery, set up a booth with pamphlets, photos and a miniature model of the mountain. The model was sliced into horizontal pieces to show the various levels of layers and coal seams that have been removed."There's nothing there, except my 50 acres," Gibson said. "For me, it's a moral issue. It's not a monetary issue. Everything doesn't have a price on it. Some things you can't buy."
Some of the loudest cheers were for speaker Maria Gunnoe, who lives on Island Creek Mountain in Boone County.Her property, which includes various orchards and gardens, has seen seven floods in the five years since a 1,183-acre mountaintop mining operation began in a nearby hollow.
"Our once-peaceful community has become a war zone," she said. "On (State) Route 85, everywhere you look, it's active, abandoned, reclaimed, permitted mine sites. The coal industry has said that there's only 2 percent of our mountains being mined. If this is true, the entire 2 percent must be in my front and back yard."Gunnoe said the coal industry is creating more activists every day.
"With each permit approved, there will be more and more people fighting the destruction caused by the practice of mountaintop removal mining," she said.
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