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November 17, 2005: Rape of natural world doesn't justify energy production

U.S.

Rape of natural world doesn't justify energy production

 

November 17th, 2005 Megan McGowan, regular columnist

COLLEGIATE TIMES

Online Edition Blacksburg, Virginia November 17th, 2005

 

This past weekend I witnessed something that will haunt me for years to come. Destruction and violence and disregard for all forms of life was what I saw when I took that short drive to the beautiful state of West Virginia. I saw where majestic mountains were replaced by vast expanses of emptiness. I heard a grandfather moved to tears when he told us about the elementary school that his granddaughter attends and the danger she is in. I saw the massive machines as they decimated a beautiful land, while at the same time destroying a unique culture.

What I saw this weekend in West Virginia is the destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. This practice is exactly what it sounds like.

In the effort to get to thin seams of coal, sometimes only inches thick, the coal companies blow up the top of the mountain. Before the blasts, which are often as large as 100 times of the size of the Oklahoma City bombing, the companies clear-cut the entire area to be destroyed. They then push all the trees, soil and overburden into the valleys.

These valley fills are not only extremely unstable, but they also bury the streams. Over 1,400 miles of streams have been permanently buried while at least 400,000 acres of mountains have been destroyed in West Virginia alone. These Appalachian forests are the most ecologically diverse temperate forests in the world and are some of the oldest mountains, yet they are undergoing a vicious assault.

There are many consequences for this irresponsible method of mining coal. First of all, when all the trees, vegetation and soil are removed from the land, there is nothing to absorb the water. So, when the rain comes the water rushes down the barren land and dangerous floods result. Many people have been killed in these flash floods.

Maria Gunnoe, who lives in the W.Va. coalfields, explained how in one particular flood five acres of her land completely washed away, and her and her family barely escaped with their lives. She says that her daughter gets so scared when it rains now that she sleeps fully clothed so that she can escape quicker if necessary. This is not the only way that the residents' lives are put in danger. Before the coal can be shipped it must be washed of the heavy metals and other toxic substances. This toxic sludge is stored in hundreds of facilities throughout Appalachia. One example of this is the sludge dam that sits a few hundred yards above the Marsh Fork Elementary School. This particular dam holds 2.8 billion gallons of this sludge, which contains arsenic, mercury, lead, copper and chromium. It has been shown that this dam is seeping and is poisoning the water. People can"t go into the creeks or eat the fish. Additionally, numerous engineers have deemed these dams extremely unstable, and they have been known to break.

In 2000 in Martin County, Ky., one of these dams broke, spewing 300 million gallons of this sludge in what the EPA called the worst environmental disaster in the United States to date. Yet, even without the very real threat of the large dam breaking, every day the kids have to breathe the toxic chemicals from the nearby plant. It is no wonder that many of the children suffer from respiratory problems and headaches.

Another problem with this practice is that with three million pounds of explosives used every day, there is no way to control the debris. Flyrock as big as cars have been known to fly through the air and land on people’s property. Just last year a three-year-old boy was killed in Appalachia, Va., when a boulder rolled through his house and crushed him in his sleep.

Yet with all this cheap coal provided and all these sacrifices made, West Virginia is still one of the poorest states in the country. McDowell County, which has produced more coal than any other county in the nation, has a 37 percent poverty rate. Not only are these companies destroying land and culture; they are not giving anything back. In 1950 there were almost 150,000 mining jobs. Today there are a little over 2,000 mountaintop removal jobs, consisting of less than 0.5 percent of all state jobs. The tourism industry, from which West Virginia gets much of its money, is also at stake. Nobody wants to see what remains after the coal companies leave.

This weekend I saw what remains on a man named Larry Gibson’s property. This inspiring native of W.Va. has been fighting this battle for years. The coal companies are trying to get his land, but Gibson is determined to keep it. Because of this he and his dogs have been shot at, his cabin burned and his security system destroyed. While Gibson used to look up at towering mountains, he now is the peak looking down upon desolation. Yet his family cemetery of over 200 years resides on that land, and even though the graves have sunk because of the mining going on beneath them, Gibson’s family land is more important than the money they offer or the danger he is in.

It is because of Gibson and others like him that something must be done. This used to be illegal under the Clean Water Act, but it was gutted by the Bush administration to serve the coal industry. There is now a bipartisan piece of legislation that has been introduced to again make it illegal to bury the nation’s waterways. Write your representatives and urge them to support the Shays-Pallone bill HR 2719 so that our water can be protected again. Write the governor of West Virginia and let him know how irresponsible it is to put the children at Marsh Fork Elementary at risk for the sake of his buddies in coal.

Conserve. Mountaintop removal coal accounts for about 4-5 percent of the nation’s coal energy, yet with conservation alone we could save about 20 percent of our current energy demands. Finally, get involved. Mountain Justice on campus is devoted entirely to this effort, while the Environmental Coalition works hard on numerous environmental causes.

Support the proposed green fee that would help make our campus more efficient. The tragedy that is occurring throughout the coalfields of Appalachia is everyone’s responsibility. We must act now to make sure this abuse of a people, land and culture does not continue.

 

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/2/ARTICLE/6144/2005-11-17.html?sid=65afc66cf236c6262faf4aac817c0180

 

Topic(s): mining news, More Enviro News, Poor Performers, Toxics and Health News

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