Winds of Change Newsletter, September 2007     See sidebar for table of contents

Mattea, Kennedy Stunned by Scope of Devastation

	A crew films Larry Gibson, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Jack Spadaro talking on the devastated slopes of Kayford Mountain, WV.

by Scott Finn
(Excerpted from a July 11, 2007, WV Public Radio story)

One of West Virginia’s most famous musicians is taking center stage in the fight over mountaintop removal mining. Yesterday, two-time Grammy winner and Cross Lanes native Kathy Mattea came home to see firsthand the impact of mountaintop removal mining. What she saw upset and disturbed her. Scott Finn reports.

Everything there is coated by a thin layer of rock dust, and you can’t escape the sound of dozers and rock trucks at work. This is where Kathy Mattea spent most of a hot, sticky afternoon – sitting on a picnic table, listening to the families affected by mountaintop removal. They showed her picture albums of the dirty water, cracked foundations and flooded homeplaces that they blame on mining. She listened, hugged them, and more than once, cried with them.

…Mattea was invited to see it for herself by filmmaker Mari-Lynn Evans, who is working on one of at least three new documentaries on mountaintop removal. Evans says the time was right for Mattea to get involved.

…The visit also was hosted by most of West Virginia’s environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, which also is helping to sponsor the mountaintop removal documentary. Mattea started her day in the air, flying over mountaintop removal sites. As the flight went on, her questions to the pilot became more and more pointed.

…By the end of the flight, she stopped asking questions and just stared out the tiny window, tears streaming down her face. Then, it was on to Gibson’s homeplace, up a dusty, steep road from Cabin Creek in Kanawha County to the top of Kayford Mountain.

…Gibson led her up to an overlook where a mountaintop removal site filled the view from left to right. On the left, four bulldozers were pushing rock and dirt up and down a barren mountainside. In the middle, a huge truck, like a dump truck on steroids, hauled rock away from a dragline. On the right was an area that apparently has been reclaimed. Rocks and boulders were sticking out of the hard-packed earth. The grass and weeds grew in isolated clumps. It looked more like the deserts of the West than West Virginia.

. . .Then came the stories. People like Maria Gunnoe of Bob White, who lives in the shadow of a valley fill and blames mining for a flooding her homeplace. Gunnoe has become an outspoken critic of mountaintop removal, at a cost to both her and her family.

Kennedy:

Just one week after Kathy Mattea wept upon seeing mountaintop removal, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. came here for three days to film for his "Crimes Against Nature" documentary, based on his book of the same name.

The film crew shot footage of Kennedy in conversation with several OVEC members.

Like Mattea, Kennedy saw mountaintop removal from Kayford Mountain and also from the air, taking a flyover with SouthWings.

"This is the worst stuff I’ve seen anywhere," Kennedy said. And, as an environmental attorney, Kennedy has seen far too many human-perpetrated environmental disasters. "If the American people could see it, it would cause a revolution. If a foreign enemy had done to this country what this industry has done to West Virginia, it would be

regarded as an act of war."

As part of his visit, Kennedy addressed a crowd of about 100 folks at the Rebecca Chapel in Rock Creek, Raleigh County. After dining the night before with WV Coal Association President Bill Raney, Kennedy had questions for Raney he shared with the crowd.

"If these are your people, and you care so deeply about these people and these jobs – these 15,000 jobs – where were you when they brought the draglines into the state and fired another 100,000?

"(Raney) is willing to stand up to environmentalists, he’s willing to stand up to the communities who are impoverished or alienated, or powerless, . . .but he does not have the guts to stand up to these companies that are employing him and paying his salary – who are the real culprits in depriving this state of all those jobs."

Kennedy noted that the mountaintop removal is not just erosion of the mountains – it’s erosion of democracy.

"When the EPA tries to stop (the coal industry) with 59,000 . . . violations, they are breaking the law every single day… This is criminal racketeering. It is a conspiracy to break the law, and the only way that they can get away with it is because they have corrupted the political process…they’ve bought themselves a system where the law is not enforced."

Julia Sendor, A Mountain Justice Summer volunteer working with Coal River Mountain Watch, described the question and answer session following Kennedy’s speech:

When Kennedy handed over the mike to the public the question pressed: What will it take for the law to give mountaintop removal its true conviction?

Maria Gunnoe asked if Kennedy supported an Appalachian uprising (He said yes!)

Kennedy acknowledged the difficulty of the task ahead, citing media corruption and campaign finance reform as two of the key issues impacting the fight for justice in West Virginia.

He added, "This is the most important fight that’s going on in America, because if these companies steal West Virginia, they’re gonna steal the country next."