Please Pray for Webster County

Webster County advertises itself as West Virginias "Mountain Playground." But no one is going to want to play there if two large mountaintop removal proposals move forward. International Coal Group has 8,000 acres slated for mining in the Grassy Creek, Jumbo, and Diana area.

This will take out the entire Elk Mountain range and be visible all along the now beautiful Holly River Road (Route 15).

This is a location where many people have vacation cabins as well as 100-year-old homes. In addition, Massey Energy has plans to mine 12,000 acres in the northern end of the county, which will be visible from Hodam Mountain and parts of Holly River State Park.

In early April, OVEC placed an ad in the Webster Echo, including a photograph of what people can expect to see if these sites fall victim to mountaintop removal. Members of the community are upset that the County Commission would encourage the ruin of Websters tourism industry the only long-term business interest in the county at present.

People have been sending e-mails to Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, protesting these permits and the huge scale of destruction they would cause.

Please help us oppose these permits by e-mailing her at jackson.lisa@epa.gov.

Agnes Insley, a woman in her eighties and member of St. Anne Church in Webster Springs, sent the following letter to the Webster Echo:

"Jesus loved the mountains. Before dawn, he would go up to the mountains and pray. Now the coal companies are trying to get permits for Mountain Top Removal, which means they will take out all the trees and ruin the soil so nothing will ever grow there again. When the rains come the soil will wash down and fill our streams and ruin our drinking water. I just know God isnt going to let that happen and it wont if we all pray and do the right thing."