God’s Creation: Coal Industry Does Not Practice Good Stewardship

by Allen Johnson,
excerpted from an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette,March 7, 2006

“An act of God” is how Massey-owned Martin Coal Co. refers to the 300 million gallons of coal sludge that gushed into Coldwater Creek and Wolf Creek in October 2000. God should have known better, having been similarly chastised by Pittston Coal for the lethal Buffalo Creek coal dam burst in 1972…

On Feb. 1, about 20 residents of Mingo, Boone and Raleigh counties convened at the Capitol to meet with a dozen state legislators. They had one message articulated in tearful personal stories and heartfelt pleas: “Our wells are poisoned.”

Their message was visual, too. Several canning jars held blackish water from home spigots. Two-day-old water filters were clogged with muck.

Their stories were depressingly similar. Once pure well water now runs black several times a week. Cancer, kidney stones and miscarriages are common in their communities. Property values have plummeted. They live in omnipresent fear as billion-gallon sludge ponds loom over their homes and uncounted volumes of toxic sludge seep through aquifers…

In sharp contrast to blaming God for their contaminated water these ordinary folks cry out pleas to God. “I’ve been praying for 20 years that something be done about this contaminated water,” said one middle-aged woman who described even bathing as a health risk.

…What is God’s intent for the Earth? Our God-believing coal companies must figure that mining and selling large volumes of coal with the lowest possible overhead is within God’s equation. Blasting mountains to smithereens then dumping their coal-stripped carcasses of rock and debris into valleys is in that equation. That future generations of people, animals and plants will find such land worthless or of greatly diminished quality is in that equation. That regulatory officials, politicians, churches, and neighbors silenced by economic pressure is in that equation. That disaster-prone sludge dams, forever-contaminated aquifers, and ruined health of neighbors are in that equation.

…Yet God has created humankind with the capacity to mitigate natural disasters, so-called “acts of God.” With an understanding of all creation being in interdependent relationship, we humans can act as responsible agents of healing, restoration, and sustainable life for all God’s creatures. As a saying goes, we are God’s hands, feet, voice and love in this world. Let us then truly be in this way “an act of God.”

Johnson, of Dunmore, is with Christians For The Mountains, www.christiansforthemountains.org.