Today in Coal
The Cunctator
From: Morgan Goodwin <morgan....@gmail.com>
I know we're reeling from MA still, and things are murky in the senate, but today is looking like a big, or potentially really big, day for the fight to stop coal.
- There's a 3 person tree sit in progress, effectively halting blasting on coal river mountain
- 2 journalists were arrested in Tennesee while covering the TVA coal ash spill aftermath a year later (no link, but i was emailed the press release, and a youtube video - see below)
- A fairly high profile debate in Charleston between RFK jr and Don Blankenship. (abc news blog on it here, watch it here.)
Tree Sit Halts the Blasting on Coal River Mountain
Thursday, January 21st, 2010posted by sophie
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JANUARY 21, 2010
Contact: Kim Ellis – 304 854 7372
Email: ne...@climategroundzero.org
Note: www.climategroundzero.org and www.mountainjustice.org
“Coal River Mountain
was the last mountain around here that hasn’t been touched and they
could’ve been using it for windmills…But Massey wants to get that coal.
It seems like they just don’t care about the populace. Just the land
and their checkbook.”
– Richard Bradford
MARFORK, W.Va. – Protestors associated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice halted blasting on Coal River Mountain today with a three-person tree-sit. David Aaron Smith, 23, Amber Nitchman, 19 and Eric Blevins, 28 are on platforms approximately 60 feet up two tulip poplar trees and one oak tree. They are located next to where Massey Energy is blasting to build an access road to the Brushy Fork Impoundment on its Bee Tree Strip Mine. Their banners state: “Save Coal River Mtn.,” “EPA Stop the Blasting” and “Windmills Not Toxic Spills.”
“Massey Energy is a criminal corporation with over 4,500 documented violations of the Clean Water Act, yet the government has given them permission to blast next to a dam full of toxic coal waste that will kill 998 people if it fails.” said Blevins. This action comes at the heels of a rigorously peer-reviewed study published in Science Magazine which states “Mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that mitigation cannot compensate for the losses.”
The sitters are calling for the EPA to put an end to mountaintop removal and encourage the land-holding companies to develop clean energy production. The lack of EPA enforcement in mountaintop removal encouraged Josh Graupera, 19, member of the support team, to take part in this action “I knew that until I took an active role in the struggle to end MTR, I was passively condoning the poisoning and displacement of countless communities and in the obliteration of one of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on this continent.” Graupera said. Nitchman added, “I act out of personal concern for the safety of water from toxic sludge, air from smog, and mountains from annihilation.”
The Brushy Fork Impoundment is permitted to contain over nine billion gallons of the toxic coal waste, and currently contains 8.2 billion gallons. Brushy Fork’s foundation is built on a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines. If the foundation were to collapse the slurry would blow out from all sides of the mountain. According to Marfork Coal Co.’s emergency warning plan regarding the impoundment, in case of a frontal dam breach, a 40 ft wall of sludge, 72 ft at its peak height, would engulf communities as far as 14 miles away.
“Brushy Fork sludge dam places the downstream communities in imminent danger. The threat of being inundated by a wall of toxic sludge is always present. Blasting next to this dam increases the risk as well as destroying the opportunity for renewable wind energy,” said Coal River Mountain Watch’s Vernon Haltom. According to the Coal River Wind Project, the wind energy produced by a turbine farm on Coal River Mountain could power 70,000 homes, provide more permanent jobs for local residents and annually bring over a million more dollars in tax breaks revenue to Raleigh County than coal currently does.
The sitters plan to remain in the trees as long as it takes to stop blasting on Coal River Mountain. Climate Ground Zero’s action campaign, begun in February of last year, has kept up a sustained series of direct actions since that time continuing decades-long resistance to strip mining in Appalachia.
Press Release: January 21, 2010
United Mountain Defense
Bonnie Swinford
Journalists and Environmentalist Activist Arrested by TVA Police
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., January 21 – On Wednesday, January 20, 2010, United Mountain Defense (UMD) volunteer Matt Landon Jones and two journalists who were reporting on the current clean-up efforts of last year's Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal ash disaster where arrested by TVA police. Last year, a man-made earthen dam containing 50 years of contaminated coal ash erupted, forcing over 1 billion gallons of toxic ash into tributaries of the Tennessee River and devastated the surrounding community. Marking the event anniversary, the reporters were planning to report on the lives of the residents still living in the area as well as the communities receiving train loads of the toxic waste each week from the disaster site. Noticing the train cars filled with coal ash heading to Perry County, Alabama – a poor, predominately African American community where TVA is currently shipping large amounts of the coal ash for storage in a landfill. The journalists stopped to take photographs, at which point they were approached by TVA police. The TVA police detained all three individuals, confiscated their camera and searched their vehicle. The police officer was going to release the individual after writing up citations. The officer was nearly done writing up the citations when he received a phone call. Upon hanging up the phone, the officer told the three individuals that “things had changed.” Instead of issuing warning citations, the officer then arrested and charged all three individuals with criminal trespassing in what can only be described as a gross overreaction. Just prior to the arrest, Jones called fellow UMD volunteer Bonnie Swinford who heard Jones asking the officer if he was being arrested, to which the officer answered "yes". When Jones then asked the officer what he was being arrested for, the officer replied, "I'll get back to you," and took the cell phone away. All three were handcuffed and held on $2,000 bails.
"These arrests are part of a pattern of harassment of UMD volunteers by TVA," said Jones. "TVA has tried to prevent United Mountain Defense from conducting independent water testing, deploying air monitoring, and working with the community of Roane County and they have consistently harassed me while doing this work." In 2009, Jones helped a partially blind Roane County resident get home from a community meeting. Even though the resident explained to TVA police that Jones was simply driving her home, he was arrested, held in jail for 36 hours, and prevented from traveling near the disaster site for seven months before all charges were finally dropped. Other UMD volunteers, journalist, and scientist have experienced continued harassment from TVA officials as well.
TVA's Community Relations Senior Manager Katie Bell Kline was quick to report the incident online to the Roane County Community Advisory Board, erroneously claiming that "TVA Police found the three offenders in and on top of ash-loaded rail cars located on tracks adjacent to the middle road entrance to plant." Only one individual was anywhere near the train. The other two were in the car, as clearly indicated in both the TVA officer's report and in video footage recorded by Jones before his camera was roughly confiscated.
The pattern of harassment that concerned citizens and members of the media have experienced from TVA is unacceptable and has gone on for far too long.
For more information, please contact Bonnie Swinford at 865 689-2778 or Matt Landon Jones at 574 276-9681 or by email at umdvolun...@yahoo.com.
Video Footage of today’s arrest
TVA Arrests UMD volunteer and two reporters
Video Footage of past TVA harassment of UMD volunteers
Mountain Justice Spring Break Students Harassed by TVA Police - March 15, 2009
UMD volunteer arrested for helping grandmother - March 6, 2009
TVA police harass UMD volunteer while setting up air monitor –March 3, 2009
Hurricane Creekeepper John Wathen speaks about TVA disaster and TVA police repression.- Dec 28, 2008
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About United Mountain Defense
United Mountain Defense (UMD) is a Knoxville based non-profit dedicated to protecting Tennessee's watersheds, air, mountains and communities. We have many years of experience working on issues relating to surface mining and its impacts on communities. A primary focus of UMD has been in scientific data collection, community organizing, and data collection and analysis from federal and state agencies. www.unitedmountaindefense.org/
Morgan