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Press Release |
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October 22, 2007
Contact: Abraham Mwaura, abe@ohvec.org, 304-633-6976
Vivian Stockman, vivian@ohvec.org, 304-522-0246
Prayer Vigil Highlights Need for Stewardship
and Protection of Land and People of West Virginia
Over 100 gathered to pray for an end to
devastation from mountaintop removal mining
CABIN CREEK, W.VA. -- Over 100 people of all ages and faiths
gathered on Kayford Mountain Saturday (Oct. 20) at a prayer vigil
for the mountains and people of Appalachia affected by mountaintop
removal mining. Religious leaders representing a range of
denominations and backgrounds led prayers and hymns honoring the
state’s mountains and asking for the healing of people harmed by
surface mining.
The vigil, hosted by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, a West
Virginia group fighting mountaintop removal, brought together
families, college students and faith-based groups from across the
state and region with attendees from as far as Michigan and South
Carolina. The gathering came on the heels of last week’s Council of
Churches statement condemning mountaintop removal as “unprecedented
and permanent.”
(See: www.wvcc.org/?content=news07&article=110)
“We organized this event to help connect religious communities in
the region and hope it will compel people of faith to tell the story
of what mountaintop removal is doing to our people,” said Rev. Robin
Blakeman, a Presbyterian minister and OVEC volunteer who organized
the event.
Throughout the vigil, people directly inmpacted by this extreme form
of mining shared their experiences, including Pauline Canterberry of
Sylvester, one of the famed “Sylvester DustBusters.” She explained
how coal dust covers the inside of Sylvester residents’ homes,
clogging indoor air filters and in some cases causing black lung
disease in people who have never entered a mine.
Brenda McCoy of Mingo County held up jars of dark red and black
water from people’s homes in her community and explained how their
water was poisoned by the underground injection of coal sludge, a
waste product from coal preparation plants. People in Mingo County
just recently won access to city water from the state after their
water was declared toxic. Other communities with similar water
issues are also facing unusually high levels of cancer and organ
trouble, according to OVEC.
“I think we are looking for a transformation of the heart, to care
and weep for God’s creation, and become instruments of healing for
the earth and justice for people,” said Allen Johnson, coordinator
of Christians for the Mountains, an organization working to rally
Christians for solutions to mountaintop removal.
After prayers led by Presbyterian, Unitarian, Episcopal and United
Methodist pastors, and testimonies from directly impacted residents
from all over southern West Virginia, the group walked to a spot on
Kayford Mountain from which they could overlook part of the 12,000
acres of mountaintop removal operations that are consuming the
mountain.
“I was blown away that something like this could happen in the
United States. It looked like a scar on the land, like a huge bomb
had been dropped in the mountains,” said Briana McElfish, a Marshall
University student from Putnam County. “We have to look for
different ways to get energy. Our country’s coal dependence affects
us the most, so we, more than anyone else, should be looking at
alternatives. We should be leading the way in renewable energy and
efficient technologies, creating jobs and protecting our people.”
“So many children and families are harmed by mountaintop removal in
this state. I hope the faith community gets more organized and aware
and acts from a deep theological place making this one of the
primary moral and ethical concerns for people of faith in our area,”
said Blakeman.
In mountaintop removal, coal companies raze forests, then use
explosives and giant machines to scalp hundreds of feet off the tops
of mountains, in order to get to thin seams of coal. Central
Appalachia’s forests are some of the most biologically diverse
temperate forests on earth, and studies show
mountaintops-removal-mined forests may not recover for centuries.
Hundreds of millions of tons of rubble from the blasted mountaintops
is pushed into nearby valleys, burying streams and creating valley
fills. In West Virginia, over 1,200 miles of biologically crucial
headwaters streams have already been buried or impacted by valley
fills.
Concerned citizens say mountaintop removal not only destroys water
and forests, but that it also erodes mountain culture. Some people
are driven away, and those who do stay see their property devalued
and their water wells ruined. The noise and silica-laden dust from
blasting at the mine sites adversely impacts people’s health.
Studies have shown that valley fills mountaintop removal exacerbates
flooding during storm events.
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See photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/92595718@N00/sets/72157602563389672/.
If you use the photos, please credit Liz Veazy. Call Abe at
304-633-6976 for caption information.
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