Posted on 06/19/2008 10:14:00 AM PDT by Abathar
KAYFORD, West Virginia (AFP) - The traditional lifestyle of the Appalachian peaks of West Virginia is under threat from mining companies who blow the summits off mountains to reach the coal deposits that lie beneath the surface.
"They are killing off the culture of the mountain people," said Maria Gunnoe, who lives on a hillside which has had its insides dug out to expose a huge mine called Jupiter.
"We are fighting not only for right now but also for yesterday and tomorrow," she said.
Mountaintop removal mining, or MTR, is not only affecting traditions, but also polluting drinking water and air in the region.
In 2003, Gunnoe's home was smothered by a muddy landslide caused by Jupiter.
The well water she drinks has been rendered unpotable after being polluted by the mineral selenium, she says.
"They put profit above all -- above jobs and above people's health," said Larry Gibson, 62, an activist against MTR who lives in Kayford.
"Sometimes they blast 10 times a day and bury the waste and chemical products," said Gibson, who has been waging war against MTR for more than 20 years.
"Twenty years ago, I couldn't get two people to listen. Now people are listening," Gibson said.
He has transformed the 50 acres of land that belong to his family into a park, which is surrounded by 13 mountaintop mines.
"They told me once: you are an island; we will be the ocean," he said.
In the tiny town of Sylvester, 78-year-old Pauline Canterberry has opened another battlefront against the mining companies.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I was wondering how these French reporters would work a good gun violence reference in to a coal mining story, they didn't disappoint. I also loved what they used in the link as the name of the article:
/afp/20080619/sc_afp/usenvironmentminingenergypollution_
Nope, no bias here by the French, none at all.
/afp/20080619/sc_afp/usenvironmentminingenergypollution_
Daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg county,
Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay.
I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in askin’,
Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.
We have generations of folks with blacklung and other mining injuries. Just looking at the honeycomb of mining shafts uncovered in strip mining suggests how very dangerous and inefficient the process was.
In any case, the French rely on nuke power, so they can feel smarter than us if they want to. They are smarter in using clean nuke power.
But the important question is whether the mountain folk are bitter and cling to religion and guns.
I was pretty impressed with the episode of 30 Days that Morgan Spurlock did on coal mining. For the most part it was about miners, their families and the dangers they face in the mines.
There was a short segment on the mountaintop removal mining but it was pretty even handed. They gave the anti miners and mining companies equal time. I was most impressed that he gave the miners themselves a chance to voice their opinions on it. The miners don’t appear to like the strip mining much but realize that the coal is a needed resource.
I agree, I believe they even reprocess their fuel, something we don’t do here currently.
It’s a lot safer too, something that this article kind of forgot to mention.
Myself, I’m disappointed that wind generators cannot be installed on these mountaintops so as to kill loads of birds.
Carolyn
Let's see, Nationalize big oil, rationing it and instituting price controls. Ban strip mining and even the burning of coal. A massive tax increase, initially doubling capital gains taxes (Only affects the rich, don't you know). Institute a confiscatory tax on "excessive profits". Ban SUV's and control the food intake of the commoners.
Don't you love it?? Vote Democrat this fall.
Where do the French dump their nuclear waste?
Belgium
(laugh) That just seems so right...
Actually, they dump it into the oceans as trace element contamination.
Nowadays, it seems to be in their wine.
These two French hussies don't know what they're talking about. I'm from a coal mining family in Southwest Virginia. My dad was a coal miner and heavy equipment operator. My uncles were coal miners and coal truck drivers. And my granddaddy was a coal miner.
Was strip mining a a big problem 40 years ago? Yes. But in 1977 Congress passed a little law called the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which compels mining companies to put the mountains back in the same shape as they found them after all the coal is mined. Both federal and state mine inspectors keep the companies on their toes, and fine the hell out of them if they don't. Before he retired, my dad made a second career out of reclamation work. Although many of the pre-1977 strip mines are still there (grandfathered in when the law took affect), the environmental impacts of modern-day coal mining are now negligible.
I HATE stories like this!
When I was a curly-headed baby
My Daddy sat me down upon his knee
Son you go to school and learn your letters
Don’t you be no dusty miner, boy like me
I was born and raised at the mouth of a Hazzard holler
With the coal carts rumblin’ past my door
Now they stand in a rusty row all empty
‘Cause the L&N don’t stop here anymore
“The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore”
Jean Ritchie
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