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

	Trying to shed the “light of truth” on the dangers that coal sludge “ponds” pose to Appalachians, protesters rally outside the Coal Quality Expo (there’s an oxymoron for you!) in Huntington.

Coal Expo Exposed - Sludge is Not Safe

In October, members of the Sludge Safety Project (coordinated by OVEC, Coal River Mountain Watch and concerned residents of Mingo County) got a big boost when students and Mountain Justice Summer folks took the lead in organizing protests around the Coal Quality Expo ’05 in Huntington. The expo focused on equipment and chemicals used at coal processing plants.

To store the waste created when coal is processed, coal companies build chemical-laden sludge impoundments. Many worry that the sludge spills, leaks or is purposely injected underground, contaminating streams, groundwater and well water. They worry that the impoundments could fail catastrophically, as did a Massey Energy impoundment on Oct. 11, 2000.

The first protest was an Oct. 19 candlelight vigil, held outside the hotel where many expo attendees stayed.

Highlighted by the glimmer of his candle, Michael Morrison, a resident of Salt Rock, and one of OVEC’s hardest working volunteers, said, “I’m here to protest the destruction of our mountains. There is no such thing as clean coal!”

Tom Jones gets ready for the march through Huntington to protest the ever-increasing number and size of coal sludge impoundments in West Virginia.

On Oct. 20, as the Expo wrapped up, about 40 people took to the Huntington streets to put coal industry apologists on notice that the people will not tolerate mountaintop removal and coal sludge impoundments. There is no quality of life, Coal Quality or other, when our forested mountains, our freshwater streams, our communities and our futures are destroyed by mountaintop removal /valley fills and coal sludge impoundments.

The march began at Pullman Square, proceeded to the convention center (where the expo was held) and made its way to the Huntington District office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – the federal agency most responsible for doling out rubber-stamped permits for valley fills and coal sludge impoundments.

Coal River Mountain Watch members reminded everyone of the situation at Marsh Fork Elementary School in Raleigh County, WV, where Massey Energy has built a coal processing plant and sludge impoundment above the school. The proximity of Massey’s Goals Coal processing facility to the school underscores the problems with the industry’s chosen methods of washing coal and storing the waste.

	Ralliers crowd the sidewalks outside the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters in downtown Huntington, WV, ground zero for the abomination known as mountaintop removal/valley fill strip mining.

Protesters cheered as passing motorists honked in support. Energy was upbeat as the march proceeded to the civic arena. Protesters lined the sidewalk in front of the arena; some handed out literature to cars stopped at traffic lights.

A security guard who said we had to be 100 feet from the arena enlisted the aid of a Huntington police officer, but the officer agreed that no laws were being broken and that peaceful protestors had the Constitutional right to assemble.

We won’t stop the protests until they stop the destruction perpetrated upon the land and people by the mountain-destroying coal industry.
Please join the Sludge Safety Project. We will need your help during the legislative session, which starts in January. Go to www.sludgesafety.org for more information and to join our action alert list. Or call the OVEC office, (304) 522-0246.