OVEC Buys Land in the Path of MTR

A New Tactic in the Struggle to Protect Mountains

Coal may have taken one more thing from 62-year-old Frankie Mooney this past January his life. Frankie died of a blood clot to his one good lung (the other was crushed years ago in an underground mining accident).

Day in and day out, he breathed the inescapable, chemical-laden dust contaminating the air in his hometown of Twilight. Frankie said that sometimes the dust was so thick he could taste it. The three MTR operations creeping closer to Twilight have long been causing dust problems for all the people living in this 50-home town in Boone County.

	Frankie Mooney enters a graveyard in Twilight while, behind him, people wrap up the picnic with EPA officials who came to see firsthand the environmental justice issues.

A few months before his tragic passing, thanks to Frankies original vision, OVEC bought a small portion of the nine-acre Mooney property that sits between Twilight and an encroaching Massey MTR mine, along with a building and the almost 20-feet of coal that lies beneath.

Frankie had witnessed the annihilation of Lindytown and other southern West Virginia communities wiped out from MTR and knew that Twilight was next. "I am selling a portion of my land to OVEC because we cannot fight the battle to save Twilight alone.　We must take this stand together to protect our land, culture and heritage," he said.

Frankie, whose ancestors were among the original settlers of Twilight, loved the land, his community and the mountains; and his goal was to help save Twilight.

In his words, "The coal companies are being allowed by the regulatory agencies to run over top of us. We, as citizens, cannot fight these companies and corruption alone. Its only right to fight what these companies are doing to our people. We must take this stand together and protect who we are and where we are from. These peaks are being reduced to rubble and MTR is responsible. This has to stop. Its killing people and impacting our culture so greatly that our culture is being lost."

Because of Frankie and the efforts of many others involved, OVEC is now a stakeholder in the Twilight community; and we are with both them and Frankie in spirit for the long haul in the fight to save the community. OVECs land purchase stands as a firm challenge to the abominable practice of MTR.

Frankie recently bought wood siding and was planning to put it on OVECs building, which sits above the community and will serve as a place for residents to gather in case of severe flooding.

Risks of flooding are higher living downstream of scraped-away mountains and forests that dont hold rainwater the way they used to. There are community-based plans underway to store emergency supplies at the site. Other possibilities for the buildings use will depend on what folks want.

Looking to the future, it wont be an easy task to save Twilight; but OVEC bought this land because we want Twilight to be the example that leads other communities to refuse to be annihilated by MTR.

Because of mountain range removal, horrible human tragedy has spread all over southern West Virginia. With gratitude to Frankie, though, we stand together; and we will act together in hope. We hope for a future where the next generations will live here in peace and can continue living the cultural heritage passed onto them by their elders, surrounded by the majestic beauty, abundant wildlife and God-given bounty of these forests and mountains.