This LTE originally published by The Charleston Daily Mail

March 14, 2007

Some in W.Va. do find coal filthy

Maybe the Daily Mail's next articles regarding coal mining should be more balanced.

The truth is that coal is filthy. The coalfield residents I know are offended by the statements that "coal is clean." My father and coal miner relatives always came home with a coal tattoo, even after a shower.

As long as coal is extracted by blowing up people's homes, poisoning our water, flooding us out, using sludge dams, using unsafe mines, then coal will never be clean. Scrubbers won't wash the blood off the coal mined here in Appalachia.

We are offended by the fact that 3 million pounds of explosives a day are used to bomb us here in the mountains of southern West Virginia. We are offended by the polluted water and sludge that is injected into our water sources. It seems the coal industry is running out of room to store the nasty coal waste.

If coal is so good for us, then why are our mining communities so poor and why do they look like ghost towns?

Coal is a finite resource and when it is gone, it's gone. There is a green revolution going on, and we can watch the train go by and continue to wallow in coal waste or we can diversify this state by bringing solar panel factories, wind turbine factories and other businesses here.

I am disappointed in Chesapeake Energy's role in Roane County royalties, but I commend Chesapeake Energy for the advertising campaign in Texas.

Julia Bonds
Rock Creek

Bonds is co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch.