Winds of Change Newsletter, September 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

MOUNTAIN JUSTICE SUMMER

Coal River Residents Win Major Victory; Proposed Coal Silo Was Too Close to Elementary School

After months of increased agitation and pressure led by community-based volunteers from Coal River Mountain Watch, the WV Department of Environmental Protection has revoked a Massey Energy permit. The permit would have allowed the Goals Coal prep plant to build a second towering coal silo just 260 feet from the Marsh Fork Elementary School in Raleigh County.  (article continues below)

On May 31, more than 150 people rallied outside Massey Energy’s Goals Coal facility to protest the proposed expansion near an elementary school. Massey security asked the state police to arrest some protesters for trespassing after several tried to present a list of demands to Goals Coal.   photo by Viv Stockman

Area residents claim the plant is a looming danger to the health and safety of school kids and teachers, because of the coal dust, the toxic chemicals used in coal-prepping, the leaking coal sludge impoundment and blasting at the mountaintop removal site above the school.

	At the request of Massey Energy officials, Mary Ellen O'Farrell, with Christians for the Mountains, and Larry Gibson, an OVEC board member, are cuffed and arrested for trespassing at Massey's coal processing plant by apologetic West Virginia State Police.

The 1977 mining laws prohibit surface mining activity within 300 feet of schools, but the DEP originally granted the silo permit, despite heated opposition from residents, saying that the coal plant was grandfathered out of the applicable law. Massey had even started building the silo before the permit was issued.

After some good old-fashioned investigative reporting by the Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward, DEP was forced to acknowledge that permit boundary maps Goals Coal submitted (as part of its permit request) somehow encompassed more area than earlier versions of the map. DEP had no choice but to revoke its recently-granted permit. Massey is appealing DEP’s decision.

Congratulations to Coal River Mountain Watch, Coalfield Sustainability Project, Mountain Justice Summer participants and OVEC staff and volunteers who helped with this amazing, locally-led effort! Your efforts have exposed major problems within DEP. You’ve also made Governor Manchin highly aware of the situation - he has set up a committee to look into this particular case.

Massey evidently feared some kind of trouble on May 24, hence the large State Police presence, but the protesters kept things peaceful, in line with Mountain Justice Summer guidelines.

The attention on this specific facility has increased awareness about the toxic chemicals used at coal prep plants, the danger of coal sludge impoundments and the overall questionable legality of mountaintop removal. Excellent work!

Here's how it all unfolded:

May 24 – About 100 people rallied outside Massey Energy’s Goals Coal facility. After Coal River Mountain Watch’s Bo Webb and Judy Bonds tried to deliver a list of demands to the foreman, Massey security asked the state police to arrest them for trespassing. After the crowd dispersed, the pair were ticketed for trespassing and released, with an apology from the state police for having to arrest them.

May 26 – About 100 people attend a DEP hearing asking the agency to please not grant Massey Energy’s request for another silo at its Goals Coal plant.

	At the May 31 protest at the Goals Coal preparation plant, it was the grandmothers who were arrested first. Altogether, 16 people were arrested by the state police during the peaceful event.

May 31 – Three grandmothers were the first of 16 people arrested out of a crowd of 150 assembled to once again try to deliver the list of demands to Massey. Parents, grandparents and concerned citizens worry that the toxic chemicals used at the plant are endangering the health of school children and teachers. Several men who worked at the plant are very ill from chemical poisoning and some have died. In addition to the chemicals, people are worried because they believe the coal sludge impoundment built above the school is shoddily constructed and leaking.

“For the past one and a half years we have appealed to the WV DEP, the Raleigh County School Board, the WV Dept. of Health and Human Resources, the Governors office, the county health department, many state politicians, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency,” said Bo Webb of Naoma, WV. Until the citizen pressure greatly intensified this summer, no one was listening.

You know that we are going to win in the end, because our signs are better! Here Betty Ross makes her feelings very plain about one coal company- MASSEY: Making Appalachia Steadily Sicker Every Year.

June 21 – Several people met with Governor Manchin to discuss concerns about the prep plant, the coal sludge impoundment and the mountaintop removal operation above Marsh Fork Elementary. The governor said he will contact the group in five to seven days. He did not.

June 30 – DEP approved Goals Coal second silo.

June 30 – A contingent of concerned parents and others traveled from West Virginia to Massey Energy headquarters in Richmond, Va. to try to deliver the list of demands about the Goals Coal prep plant. Two were arrested.

July 5 – Ed Wiley, a Rock Creek resident and grandfather of one of the 230 students at Marsh Fork Elementary, staged a sit-in on the State Capitol steps, refusing to leave until Governor Manchin came out to meet with him. The governor did come out and agreed to examine the situation at the school.

July 8 – More concerned residents, joined by coal sludge impoundment expert Jack Spadaro, met with the governor’s aides. Spadaro said that Massey is adding to the impoundment by building on top of slurry that was previously dumped and has hardened. He said such a foundation is not stable and could cause the dam to collapse.

	From “Bringing Down The Mountain Killers: Fighting King Coal in W.Va.,” by Rahul Chadha, New York City IndyMedia, June 20, 2005.

July 8 – Over 200 people converged on Massey headquarters in Richmond, Va. People again attempted to deliver the list of demands. Someone did snatch the list and scurried with it into the Massey building. No one came out to speak with the protesters.

July 13 – The Charleston Gazette reported that DEP allowed Massey Energy to start building the new coal silo more than two months before permits for the project were approved.

July 15 – After Charleston Gazette investigative reporter Ken Ward pointed out errors on permit boundary maps that DEP used to grant Goals Coal its permit, DEP suspended the permit pending investigations.

July 19, 20 and 21 – Coal River Mountain Watch and Coalfield Sustainability Project led a series of “You Are Not Alone” marches near Marsh Fork Elementary. On the 19th, people marched barefoot through the school’s playground so they could see first hand how much dangerous coal dust settles there.

July 22 – Mountain Justice Summer and CRMW hosted the Living Community Fair on the grounds of Marsh Fork Elementary to explore and envision a sustainable, locally-based economy on Coal River.

July 24 – The federal Office of Surface Mining announced it will investigate how West Virginia regulators review coal company proposals for mine permit revisions. (Don’t hold your breath. Keep fighting, because the second you relax, OSM will forget all about this!)

July 26 – DEP rescinded the Goals Coal permit.

July 28 – Massey announced it will appeal DEP’s ruling.

Right Now – We know what a difference the people united can make! Let’s keep at it. Remember, sustained, positive social and environmental change only comes about through active community involvement.

And that's not all - we are getting lots of national attention in the news media, as this story shows:

Taking their cue from Southern civil rights movements of the ’60s, a group of green-minded individuals have declared this season Mountain Justice Summer. In late May the group hosted a five-day camp, which netted about 100 people, aimed at gathering activists together and teaching them about non-violent strategies and skills to oppose the mining.

“We have a real solid core of people that are all interested in learning and doing whatever they can to work on this issue,” said Sarah, one of the organizers of the Mountain Justice Summer.

Participants have already held several rallies at permit hearings, and 16 activists were arrested on May 31 while attempting to deliver their demands for the cessation of strip mining to Massey Energy, a company that produced 41 million tons of coal in 2003, according to their own website.

Local press have picked up on the issue, providing supportive coverage to activists’ efforts, said Sarah, who credits the resulting attention for the recent outreach by the West Virginia governor’s office to Coal River Mountain Watch. “The facts just aren’t on [the coal companies] side,” she argued. “It just seems ridiculous to me that one of their biggest defenses is that we’re just being emotional. I mean, how can you listen to some of these stories and not be horrified?”