“We All Live in the Coal Fields”: West Virginians Step Up Protests as EPA OKs New Mountaintop Removal
Archive for May, 2009
Democracy Now: We All Live in the Coalfields
Friday, May 29th, 2009posted by antrim
Media Advisory: Climate Ground Zero Gets Day in Court, 9:30am JUNE 1-2
Friday, May 29th, 2009posted by antrim
Media Advisory
Contact: Mike Roselle, 304 854 7372
Climate Ground Zero Gets Day in Court
Jordan Freeman, Will Wickham, Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, Charles Livingston Suggs, IV and Joe Gorman in West Virginia's Raleigh County Circuit Court, on May 1, 2009, where they and others were charged with contempt for allegedly violating a February 27, 2009 Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued by Richmond, VA-based Massey Energy against activists with ClimateGroundZero and Mountain Justice. photograph (c) antrim caskey, 2009
At 9:30 am, Monday, June 1st, in the Raleigh County Circuit Court of West Virginia, Judge Robert Burnside will hear motions to vacate a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued by Richmond, Va.-based coal company Massey Energy in February, 2009, barring members of Climate Ground Zero from taking part in anti-mountaintop removal protests that have been held in Raleigh County, WV since the beginning of the year. So far, the TRO has failed to stop the protests at Massey’s mine sites and over twenty additional protesters have been arrested in six separate actions since the TRO was issued.
“On Monday, we will put Massey Energy on trial for crimes against the State of West Virginia,” said Climate Ground Zero campaign director Mike Roselle, of Rock Creek, WV.
“The scope of their illegal operations, the damage it has done to the mountain communities of Appalachia and the threat it poses to all of the people who live down stream and down wind will be exposed in court. For too long, Massey has been getting away with what amounts to murder. They are killing Appalachia with their blasting and draglines and they are breaking the law. We hope Judge Burnside will hear our arguments that our actions were necessary in order to prevent a far more serious crime.”
Climate Ground Zero is calling for its supporters to attend the two day hearing, and to wear a red railroad bandana to show solidarity with the demonstrators who are named in the Massey lawsuit.
Slideshow: Final Four Released
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009posted by antrim
Beckley, WV — The final four of seventeen people who were arrested this Memorial Day weekend after three separate acts of non violent civil disobedience on Massey Energy and Patriot Coal mine sites in southern West Virginia were released at 1:08pm today from the Raleigh County Southern Regional Jail.
Final Four Released - Images by antrim caskey
Media Contact: Charles Suggs
Number: 304-854-7372
BECKLEY, W.Va.—Seventeen mountaintop removal activists had no choice but to enforce the laws since all administrative remedies have been exhausted, said some of the activists and supporters at a press conference today. The four still-jailed activists were released on their own recognizance by Judge Burnside shortly after the press conference, which was held on the Raleigh County Courthouse steps.
“I’ve lived in West Virginia most of my life. I’m sick and tired of big business and the corrupt government telling us what to do,” began Sid Moye of Mercer County, who participated in the Picket at Pettus. “They come in and they can take our land, they can ruin our water and they can take our resources. It’s not right and somebody has to do something about it so we do the little things that we can.”
Eric Blevins, also arrested in the Pettus action, said, “I asked the officer arresting me if Massey is going to be allowed to blast near the dam and he didn’t want to talk about it. I asked him, doesn’t he have a responsibility to enforce the law, and he said ‘Not those laws.’”
“We locked down on the Kayford mountaintop removal site with mud from Mingo County on our boots,” Ashlee Henderson said in a statement from the Kayford 8, “After we were arrested we had the dust remains from Kayford Mountain added to that mud.”
“Just because a mining permit is applied for,” Debbie Jarrell of Rock Creek, Raleigh County asked the crowd, “Is there a law that states that it has to be granted? If there’s a cleaner way to develop energy, such as the Coal River Wind Project, should we not take advantage of it?”
Mat Louis-Rosenberg pointed out the absurdity of the littering charges for the two individuals on the Brushy Fork Dam and the $2,000 bail for each of the protesters. He contrasted the bail rate with the $1,800 fine Massey paid in 1999, when 14.5 miles of the Coal River were blackened with slurry and the $15,000 A & G Coal paid for the death of three year old Jeremy Davidson outside of Appalachia, Virginia in 2004.
“It was extremely unjust that the magistrate illegally posted such a high bail, when our maximum fine was only one hundred dollars,” said Laura Steepleton of the Pettus 7, who was released this afternoon. “He justified his statement by telling us that we had no ties to the area. As a human being and a citizen of this country I do not only have a tie to this area, but a responsibility to ensure security for these mountains and the safety for the people of this beautiful community. “
There is a video of the press conference available at www.mountainjustice.org.
Breaking News: Final Four Released
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009posted by antrim
Jessica Eley joyfully reunites with her beloved pup Penny when she was released from West Virginia's Southern Regional Jail, May 26, 2009 at 1:08pm. Eley and three others were released from confinement today after participating in acts of non violent civil disobedience on active coal mining sites in southern West Virginia operated by Massey Energy and Patriot Coal. The activists were confined over the Memorial Day weekend--their bail was set at an uprecedented and illegal, according to West Virginia code, $2000 cash only per person. In total, 17 people were arrested on Saturday, May 23, while engaging in three separate acts of non violent civil disobedience on Kayford Mountain, where six people locked down to a giant dump truck; at Brushy Fork Sludge Dump, where two were arrested while deploying a banner on the pond; and seven who crossed the line at the gates of Massey Energy's Marfork complex. All have now been released. photograph (c) antrim caskey, 2009
Press Conference for Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero’s Anti-Mountaintop Removal Actions on May 23rd, 2009
Monday, May 25th, 2009posted by antrim
Will Wickham, Glenn Collins, Jared Story, Willie Dodson, Kim Kirkbride, Ash-Lee Henderson, Tanya Turner and Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, activists with Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero, are taken into custody after a 5 hour lock down to machinery on Patriot Coal's mountaintop removal coal operation on Kayford Mountain. Three state authorities arrived on the scene: 6 Kanawha Sheriffs, 2 Boone County sheriffs and 2 WV state troopers. The protestors were taken to the Boone County seat at Madison and released on their own recognizances. photograph (c) antrim caskey, 2009
Press Conference for Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero’s Anti-Mountaintop Removal Actions on May 23rd, 2009
Contact: Mike Roselle 304 854-7372
BECKLEY, W.Va.— Mountain Justice will be holding a press conference Tuesday, May 26, about last Saturday’s 17 arrests, which occurred in three separate actions. Residents of West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia – four Appalachian states affected by mountaintop removal – were among the arrestees. All are charged with trespassing. Two of them floated a banner reading “No More Sludge” in seven billion gallons of toxic coal slurry at the Brushy Fork sludge impoundment. They are also charged with littering. Four remain incarcerated, unable to meet the $2000 cash-only bail. It is anticipated that they will be released on Tuesday.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has approved permits, submitted by Massey Energy, for the 6,450-acre surface mine around the impoundment. This plan includes blasting on top of one of the ridges of the dam, which sits above a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines. The emergency evacuation plan for the Brushy Fork sludge dam states that should it fail, a wall of water 50 feet high would hit Whitesville and result in the deaths of at least 998 people. An alternative to the surface mine is the installation of a wind farm on Coal River Mountain, which will provide jobs and energy without increasing the risk of catastrophe associated with the Brushy Fork dam.
Who: Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero
What: Press Conference where recently released activists and their supporters will speak
When: Tuesday, May 26th, 12 pm.
Where: Raleigh County Courthouse Steps on Prince Street.
Rain Location: Gazebo at Raleigh County Courthouse on Prince Street.
Rep. Hechler: Keep Hellraising!
Sunday, May 24th, 2009posted by deaexmachina
17 arrested in anti-mountaintop removal civil disobedience
Please donate to our legal fund at mountainjustice.org.
Seventeen courageous Mountain Justice volunteers were arrested Saturday, May 23 in a three-part civil disobedience action in our continuing movement to end mountaintop removal. Six are still in jail with bogus, unprecedented, $2,000 cash-only bail amounts, slowing their release. Many of them were arrested for the first time with clean records, and all they did was cross a line onto coal company property. We are raising $18,000 to get them out of jail as we move closer to defeating King Coal. Fundraising has bailed out three others since this morning. Thank you all!
The Kayford Eight were charged with trespass and conspiracy for walking onto the 12,000-acre-plus Kayford Mountain mine and locking themselves to a giant dump truck. Placing U-locks around their necks, they attached themselves to guardrails and the driveshaft of the truck after hanging a banner on the truck’s grill that read “Never Again!” Here is a statement from the Kayford Eight:
We locked down at the Kayford mountaintop removal site with mud from the Mingo County flood on our boots and now, with the dusty remains of Kayford Mountain on our boots, we stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers jailed for their actions to oppose mountaintop removal coal mining.
Also before dawn, two brave women, donning hazmat suits and respirators, boated onto the eight-billion-gallon Brushy Fork toxic coal slurry lake and launched a 60-foot floating banner that read “No more toxic sludge!” They were charged with trespass and littering. How can you litter on a giant toxic waste dump? Massey Energy has a permit to blast within 100 feet of this impoundment, which sits atop a honeycomb of abandoned deep mines. In 2000, more than 300 million gallons of coal slurry broke through the bottom of Massey’s Martin Co., Ky., impoundment, and into the deep mines beneath, then exploding into two watersheds, smothering aquatic life over 100 miles of streams. “Someone in jail said something to the effect of ‘I actually work there, yeah that dam’s gonna break,’” Ethan, one of the 17, said. A Brushy Fork failure would be over 23 times larger than Martin County.
Saturday’s two backcountry actions were followed by a picket at the mouth of Massey Energy’s Marfork mining complex, which includes the Brushy Fork dam, where more than 75 Coal River Valley residents and supporters emphasized the deadly danger of that impoundment: the 72-foot peak depth of the sludge at the Head Start facility there should the dam break. Seven people crossed the line onto Marfork’s property and were arrested for trespass.
While the Kayford Eight were released the same day, the other nine fared differently. The two Brushy Paddlers and four of the Pettus Seven are being held for $2,000 each, cash only. We know you love and care about the people of Appalachia! Now is the time to demonstrate your support through a donation to help bail out these committed and passionate activists. We really need your support more than ever at this crucial juncture in the movement to end mountaintop removal mining!
To donate by paypal and get more information, please go to www.mountainjustice.org.
If donating by mail, make out a check or money order to Mountain Justice at: P.O. Box 86, Naoma, WV, 25140.
For donations that have a much-needed immediate impact, call 304-854-1937. Thank you!
Seventeen Arrested Saturday; Six Remain in Jail for Opposition to Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining and Coal Sludge Impoundments; $2000 Cash Bail ‘Unprecedented”
Sunday, May 24th, 2009posted by deaexmachina
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 24, 2009
CONTACT: Sludge Watch Collective 
304-854-7372
Rep. Hechler: Keep Hellraising!
Seventeen Arrested Saturday; Six Remain in Jail for Opposition to Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining and Coal Sludge Impoundments; $2000 Cash Bail ‘Unprecedented”
COAL RIVER VALLEY, W.Va.— Seventeen volunteers were arrested Saturday in a three-part civil disobedience action in the continuing movement to end mountaintop removal. Six are still in the Southern Regional Jail as their supporters try to raise the $2,000 cash-only bail a Raleigh County magistrate says is needed for their release.
“This is an unprecedented and extremely punitive bail situation,” Mountain Justice volunteer Ivan Stiefel said. “We can’t even use a bondsman. We need $18,000 cash, on a holiday weekend, to get everyone out of jail. We are asking everyone to go to mountainjustice.org and respond to this outrage by donating to our legal fund.”
Allies of those arrested plan to hold vigils outside the magistrate’s office until they are all released.
The civil disobedience actions were carried out by community members, Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero volunteers, and others. Former Congressman Ken Hechler, 94, was among those protesting at noon yesterday at the gate to the Massey Energy’s Marfork Coal facility, where the massive Brushy Fork coal sludge dam is built. He tried to cross onto Massey Energy property in solidarity, but the West Virginia State Police refused to arrest him. They did, however, arrest seven others who crossed onto Massey property. Four remain in the Southern Regional Jail.
In the week leading up to these actions, many of the same volunteers helped people in Mingo County clear their homes of debris from the recent floods. In one of the first actions Saturday, before dawn, eight people walked onto the Patriot Coal-owned section of the 12,000-acre-plus Kayford Mountain mountaintop removal site. After hanging a banner reading “Never Again!” on the grill of a giant dump truck, they locked themselves to guardrails and the driveshaft of the truck. State Police took the eight to the Madison County Courthouse, where they were charged with trespass and conspiracy and released for future court appearances.
“We locked down at the Kayford mountaintop removal site with mud from the Mingo County floods on our boots, and now, with the dusty remains of Kayford Mountain on our boots, we stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers still jailed for their actions to oppose mountaintop removal” the Kayford Eight Mountain Justice volunteers said.
Also before dawn Saturday, two women donned hazmat suits and respirators and boated onto the 8-billion-gallon Brushy Fork toxic coal slurry lake to unfurl a 60-foot floating banner reading, “No more toxic sludge!” They were charged with trespass and littering, and both remain in the Southern Regional Jail, with $2000 cash needed for their release.
“This is absurd. How can you litter on a giant toxic waste dump?” asked volunteer Cente Rosa. “Massey Energy has a permit to blast within 100 feet of this impoundment, which sits atop a honeycomb of abandoned deep mines. That’s the criminal activity!”
Photo Essay: Kayford Mountain Lock Down
Sunday, May 24th, 2009posted by antrim
8 Activists Arrested at Kayford Mountain Lock Down
Antrim Caskey
Kayford, WV — Eight activists with a coalition of groups including Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero walked on to the Patriot Coal mountaintop removal coal operation on Larry Gibson’s Kayford mountain in the early morning hours of March 23, 2009. Six of the protestors locked themselves, in groups of three, to a piece of massive earth moving equipment–referred to as a Yuke–with tires 24′ tall and hung a banner reading “Never Again” on the machine. The activists locked down for five hours. Ten officers from three different state and county authorities responded to the protest on Kayford, the largest number of people to be arrested during this sustained campaign of non violent civil disobedience that began in February, 2009.
The eight activists arrested include Kim Kirkbride, Ash-Lee Henderson, Tanya Turner, Jared Story, Willie Dodson, Will Wickham, Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, and Glenn Collins.
The activists were arrested and taken to Boone County seat at Madison, were processed and released on their own recognizances.
Kayford Mountain Action, May 23, 2009 - Images by antrim caskey
8 activists arrested on Kayford Mountain
Sunday, May 24th, 2009posted by antrim
Will Wickham, Glenn Collins, Jared Story, Willie Dodson, Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, Kim Kirkbride, Ash-Lee Henderson and Tanya Turner, activists with Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero, are taken into custody after a 5 hour lock down to machinery on Patriot Coal's operation on Kayford Mountain. Three state authorities arrived on the scene: 6 Kanawha Sheriffs, 2 Boone County sheriffs and 2 WV state troopers. The protestors were taken to the Boone County seat at Madison and released on their own recognizances. photograph (c) Antrim Caskey, 2009
11 Removed During Raleigh County, W.Va. Protests of Coal Sludge Dams and Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining; More Protestors Expected This Afternoon
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009posted by whiskers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 23, 2009
CONTACT: Sludge Watch Collective 304-854-7372
Five locked down to equipment on Kayford Mountain mine.
COAL RIVER VALLEY, W.Va.—This morning, eleven activists in two civil disobedience actions were removed by state police. As part of the continuing campaign to end mountaintop removal, six people locked themselves to mining equipment on a Patriot Coal-owned mountaintop removal mine on Kayford Mountain and another group floated a 20-by-60-foot banner on the surface of Massey Energy’s Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment near Pettus, W.Va. The activists are part of a coalition that includes Mountain Justice, Climate Ground Zero and concerned individuals.
The two activists on the Brushy Fork slurry lake are being charged with misdemeanor trespass and littering, with bail set at $2,000 each.
At noon today, more protesters are expected to converge at the gate to the Brushy Fork dam with hundreds of pairs of shoes to represent the number of immediate deaths should the dam fail.
“The toxic lake at Brushy Fork dam sits atop a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines,” said Chuck Nelson, from Raleigh County, W.Va. “Massey wants to blast within 100 feet of that dam. The company’s own filings with the state Department of Environmental Protection project a minimum death toll of 998 should the seven-billion-gallon dam break. EPA should override the DEP and revoke this blasting permit for the safety of the community.” Nelson did not participate in the civil disobedience actions this morning, but is expected to speak at the Brushy Fork gate this afternoon.
The floating banner unfurled this morning atop Brushy Fork read, “West Virginia Says No More Toxic Sludge.”
20-by-60-foot banner dwarfed by enormity of 7 billion gallons of coal toxin concentrate.
“If the dam fails, 7.2 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry will flood to 38 feet deep, 26 miles down the Marsh Fork of the Coal River, from Pettus, past Whitesville,” Mike Roselle of Climate Ground Zero said. “These coal companies, the land companies and their corrupt politicians are destroying the headwater streams that supply drinking water to millions of Americans downstream.”
In the Kayford action, independent photojournalist and Rock Creek, W.Va. resident Antrim Caskey was removed by police from the direct action site. She was released, while eight others were still in police custody. Caskey previously had been cited three times for trespassing while embedded with Climate Ground Zero.
A closeup of the banner, which says "NO MORE SLUDGE."
“About 12,000-acres of Kayford Mountain has been destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining,” said Maria Gunnoe, Boone County resident and winner of the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize. “Not another family should be forced to move because a coal company is going to blow up the mountain above them, then bury and poison their streams.” Gunnoe did not participate in the civil disobedience actions.
The people who locked down on Kayford Mountain unveiled a banner reading, “Never Again.”
“The regulatory agencies that are supposed to be the people’s watchdogs are acting instead as the industry’s guard dogs,” said Willie Dodson of Mountain Justice, one of the Kayford protesters. “Neither Governor Manchin, the DEP, President Obama, nor the EPA are enforcing the law, so we have no choice but to come out here and do it ourselves.”
On Feb 3, five people chained themselves to mining equipment and eight others were cited for trespassing while attempting to deliver a letter to Massey Energy insisting that the company cease all mountaintop removal operations on Coal River Mountain. Since then, four related actions have occurred in the Coal River Valley.
“We are forced to take action today because we have exhausted our legislative and litigatory options,” activist Charles Suggs of Raleigh County said. “We have walked the halls and pounded the doors of our state and national capitols, asked the DEP to complete studies, met with the EPA, filed lawsuits, and what happens? Our West Virginia legislature passes bills to let the destruction continue, and opposes bills that would stop poisoning our water and bring permanent, sustainable economic development to the state.”
NOTE: Massey’s filing with the WVDEP that indicate sludge depth and distance are available upon request.
Video, still images and breaking news will be posted continually to www.mountainjustice.org.