Tuesday, March 09, 2010
by Juliana Williams from It’s Getting Hot In Here
I’m here at the 5th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, joining residents from the coalfields of Appalachia in meetings with our Congressmen, gathering support for the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696). This may be the 5th year, but the momentum is tangible. We have 166 co-sponsors for the CWPA, bi-partisan support in both Houses and committee chairmen who are receptive to moving this forward. To build even more momentum, today is a National Call-In Day to urge your Congresspeople to support these bills. Their offices are hearing from us in person and need to hear from even more constituents.
I’ve been familiar with mountaintop removal for years now. But this week it became personal.
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Monday, March 08, 2010
By Marsha Johnston
A citizen participant in the Alliance for Appalachia’s annual Week in Washington
Over 200 citizen lobbyists from as far away as California and Oregon converged on Washington, DC this weekend to push Congress to pass legislation in 2010 that will put an end to mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. Our excitement built throughout the day as a series of passionate, well-organized presentations from staff members and coalfield residents inspired, shocked, informed and amused us into readiness for tackling Capitol Hill.
Deftly ironic, Mickey McCoy from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth made us laugh while presenting the horrific facts of mountaintop removal. “They have a lot of soft words for what they’re doing. Like `pond’ for slurry. We’re talkin’ 72 acres! That’s a lake. And `spill’. `Spill’ is what happens when your son reaches over the table and spills his sister’s milk. These are floods. Even mountaintop removal doesn’t sound too bad if you say it real fast. They should really be calling it `mountain bombing’.”
As new citizen lobbyists, we began doing just that.
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Monday, March 01, 2010
This posted courtesy of our friends at the Southern Appalachian mountain Stewards
Hello friends,
I’m writing to ask you to take a step today that can help break King Coal’s economic stranglehold on coalfield communities in Southwest Virginia. By a few simple, digital steps, and three votes, you can help jump start grass roots efforts at sustainable economic development in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Heard enough? Great. Go here and vote for the Wise Energy and Sustainable Economic Development and Diversification Project. Need to know more? Read on.
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
The latest report detailing damages to water supplies by toxic coal ash. Click the link below to read more.
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Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Come have some fun with Appalachian Voices next week. On Monday, March 1st, musicians Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore are playing Boone (at the Boone Saloon) for the first time...and donating the artists’ proceeds of their new album,
Dear Companion, to Appalachian Voices and iLoveMountains.org.
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Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Martin County Kentucky is no stranger to the dangers posed by coal slurry dams. In 2000, a slurry dam broke inundating two forks of the Tug River with over 300 million gallons of toxic sludge. This spill as thirty times the size of the Exxon Valdez Spill, and was called one of the worst environmental disasters to occur in the Southeast by the EPA.
Early Tuesday morning, Martin County Coal Company reported to the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection that a spill had occurred in Coldwater Creek. An unknown amount of slurry has leached into the creek, and clean up crews are working to contain the spill. Water levels have not risen, but Martin County resident Mickey McCoy said “ we just got a mainline injection of toxic heavy metals into our creek”.
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Duke Energy has been ordered to take greater measures to test groundwater near coal ash ponds. The order comes from the North Carolina Division of Water Quality (NCDWQ) in the wake of an October report that found 13 ash ponds owned by Duke and Progress Energy to be leaking toxic waste.
Appalachian Voices’ Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby analyzed Duke’s self-reported data and found 681 instances in which heavy metals had accumulated around the ponds in levels exceeding North Carolina groundwater standards. Currently, the state itself does not test any ash ponds. Duke, in an agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency, has the authority to self-monitor its ponds.
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Monday, February 15, 2010
The first time I met Ben Sollee when he came to perform for us during our training in Washington DC at our Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington. There were close to 150 concerned citizens from California to the Carolinas, and many who were directly impacted by mountaintop removal. Armed only with his cello and soulful voice, Ben made many of us in the room cry with his awe-inspiring rendition of “A Change is Gonna Come”. It was definitely the highlight of the day.
So I am extremely excited to announce that Ben Sollee along with fellow Kentuckian, Daniel Martin Moore, will be donating their artist proceeds from their new album, Dear Companion, to Appalachian Voices in support our national campaign to end mountaintop removal mining. Ben Sollee says that “Appalachian Voices is doing all they can to catalyze the national conversation about mountaintop removal coal mining and we’re awfully proud to help contribute to their efforts.”
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Thursday, February 11, 2010
On February 11, Virginia citizens convene at 4 p.m. to participate in a public hearing on the Stream Saver Bill (S. 564), before the Senate Agriculture, Conservation and National Resources Committee held in Richmond, Va. This is the first time ever Virginia has had a state bill to address mountaintop removal! The Stream Saver bill would stop the burial of headwater streams with strip mining spoil and curtail the destruction of the mountains.
Proponents of the bill are hosting a “A Rally for the Mountains” before the hearing at 3pm at Bell Tower on 101 N 9th St.
According to the Stream Saver Bill, introduced by Senator Patricia Ticer, “No spoil, refuse, silt, slurry, tailings, or other waste materials from coal surface mining and reclamation operations will be disposed of in any intermittent, perennial, or ephemeral stream.”
To learn more read Debra McCown’s article, “Virginia Lawmakers to Consider ‘Stream Saver’ Fill Ban.”
It is not just the waste that raises environmental and human concern over mountaintop removal mining, a practice deemed efficient by the coal industry--a practice that southwest Virginia is no stranger to, particularly in Wise County, Va.
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