Every year, Larry Gibson, CNN Hero and founder of The Keepers of the Mountains Foundation, welcomes community members to a peaceful, alcohol-free weekend of fellowship, camping, live music, good food and great company at what remains of his family’s homeplace on Kayford Mountain. Sponsored by The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OHVEC) and the West Virginia chapter of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC), it is traditionally a time for families, friends and neighbors who stand on both sides of the mountaintop removal mining issue to come together to celebrate and give thanks for the beauty of the Appalachian mountains and those who call them home.

However, the 27th Annual 4th of July Music Festival, or “Mountain Keepers Festival” as it’s come to be known by many locals in southern West Virginia, was interrupted this year by a small group of seemingly-intoxicated, angry people wearing miner stripes, the standard uniform for employees on Massey Energy mountaintop removal coal mine sites. Before finally leaving the mountain, they shouted obscenities and threats of violence and death to festival-goers. You can watch the video here. [Please note that this video is not suitable for children and contains obscenities and death threats].

Despite reported threats that the celebration would be disturbed and an article in the Charleston Gazette addressing these fears on Friday, Gibson said he was unable to get protection from law enforcement. In fact, it took police over two hours to respond to calls when the belligerent group showed up and started making threats to the crowd, which included several miners who had put aside differences for the day and were attending the festival in peace. “Not all of the mountaintop removal supporters exhibited such vile and immature behavior. Some ran interference and even kicked the worst of them off the mountain,” festival goer Jen Osha said.

“Out of the twenty people who disrupted our event, only two were actually miners. Other than that they were just people who wanted to interrupt a peaceful gathering to try and cause violence. I’m glad they didn’t succeed,” said Gibson. “The only thing they did was to make the miners of West Virginia look bad; I’m confident that real miners would not have come up with such an irresponsible action,” he added, noting that the point of their antics was to scare people away. “The whole intent of this thing was to intimidate the people who came to my place and the fact that if they intimidate them, they won’t come back and support what I’m trying to do here.”

Fighting to save his land from mountaintop removal since 1986, Larry has become a hero to thousands of local citizens and families who are forced to live with the impacts of mountaintop removal on their homes, the air they breathe and water they drink.

Luckily, violence was avoided and no one was hurt. “We’ll hold steady and we’ll hold back and the violence will not come from the keepers of the mountains and the people who live in them,” said Gibson. “We will win this war. We fought a battle this weekend and we won because they didn’t get any violence from us.”

Gibson was also quick to point out that this behavior is not representative of all miners in southern West Virginia. “I really don’t think this is a mindset at all of people who work in the mining industry as far as working people,” he said. “I think it’s just a handful of rogue miners who refuse to understand that there’s a better way to do this.”

Dana Kuhnline of Charleston, WV said, “Overall I was impressed with the dignity and bravery of those getting harassed. I know that some people felt unsafe and headed home — but it was also pouring rain by this point and it was during the last act of the day, so people were able to enjoy the whole day and probably would have headed out because of the weather.”

This threatening act is not the first attempt of intimidation by mountaintop removal supporters. The June 23rd Protest at Marsh Fork Elementary saw hundreds of mountaintop removal supporters shout obscenities and threats of violence at local families and saw one peaceful protester slapped in the face by a woman in miner’s stripes. A number of personal threats have also been made to local community members who want to see an end to stop mountaintop removal mining.

The big question for many residents in Southern West Virginia, is whether or not their government officials will address the escalating harassment and threats.

“We call upon Governor Manchin to take action and immediately stop the threats and harassment now. This is the second time that we have asked the coal companies and our government to tone it down,” said Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch. “This behavior makes all miners look bad.”

Once again the people of “Wild and Wonderful West Virginia” turn to their Governor for help. Will Joe Manchin take immediate action to bring people together for a peaceful dialogue about what is truly best for the future and prosperity of the families living in the coalfields, as well as “outsiders” who like to visit the region for its beautiful land and people? Or, as Ken Ward wrote on July 6th, will he sit back and let this be fought out in the street, as it was during the coal wars at the beginning of the 20th Century?

Former Appalachian Voices’ executive director Mary Anne Hitt recently received the University of Tennessee’s Notable Woman award.

The award, given every year since 1995 by the University of Tennessee Commission for Women, honors “a woman whose accomplisments bring distinction to the university.” Margaret Crawford, who serves as chair of the commission, says they were drawn to Hitt, because she “exemplified a person who was committed to the type of work that she was doing as an undergraduate.”

Hitt’s thesis for UT’s College Scholars program, entitled “The Greening of the Big Orange,” examined campus policies concerning recycling, energy use and waste disposal, and has since become the framework for the campus’ sustainability agenda. She also founded the campus’ first environmental group, SPEAK, or Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville. The group continues to make an impact on the campus today.

Since graduating from UT in 1997, Hitt has worked tirelessly to end mountaintop removal in Appalachia. She served as the Executive Director for Appalachian Voices until 2008, while there she partnered with Google Earth Outreach to use satellite images to show the devastating effects of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. She now serves as the deputy director of the National Coal Campaign for the Sierra Club.

Our fellow organizers in West Virginia have an opening for a community organizer! The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, or OVEC, is one of the oldest grassroots environmental groups in the region, and was the first to organize against mountaintop removal.

Job Announcement: OVEC Coalfield Organizer/Project Coordinator

The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), based in Huntington, WV seeks a full-time, highly reliable and experienced community organizer to coordinate our Sludge Safety Project and to continue building momentum for justice in the southern coalfields of West Virginia.

OVEC’s mission is to organize and maintain a diverse grassroots organization dedicated to the improvement and preservation of the environment through education, grassroots organizing and coalition building, leadership development and media outreach. We are a non-profit group.

The Sludge Safety Project is a coalition of OVEC, Coal River Mountain Watch and communities throughout West Virginia working for clean water and community safety near toxic coal waste sludge impoundments and underground injections.

We have already made significant strides in our local community organizing and our coalition efforts for community health and access to clean water. We are looking for a coordinator who can take Sludge Safety Project to the next level and build on our effectiveness locally and at the state legislature.

Responsibilities:
• Build the capacity of the Sludge Safety Project Committee, and carry out the strategy and decisions of the committee
• Support local organizing for clean water and other issues that may arise. As a coalfield organizer, community efforts will include community wind, fighting mountaintop removal permits, and seeding and maintaining local groups.
• Plan and facilitate strategy meetings
• Coordinate legislative efforts, including citizen lobby days
• Facilitate communication and relationships between community groups to build a stronger coalition
• Identify and build the capacity of community leaders and organizers
• Identify needs and coordinate trainings and other opportunities for leadership development
• Bring media attention to SSP issues, which includes writing press releases, updates to website and OVEC newsletter, maintaining email list, holding press conferences, etc.
• Pursue, nurture and maintain coalition partnerships
• Develop personal work plan, work reports, timesheets, expense forms, etc.

Qualifications:
• Strong commitment to social and environmental justice
• Strong commitment to group decision-making
• Highly motivated, self-starter and able to motivate others to act
• Strong people skills: Willing to make “cold calls” and strike up conversation
• Well-organized
• Goal oriented
• Able to work on multiple projects in a focused manner
• Keep groups of people well informed and engaged in decision-making
• Experience working for an environmental and social justice organization
• Experience in community organizing
• Basic computer skills such as Word, Excel, g-mail and a publishing program
• Willing to work nights and weekends
• Willing to learn and create an atmosphere of learning
• Excellent, active listener
• Good at problem-solving; able to deal with conflict in a skilled, respectful manner
• Able and willing to ask hard questions
• Creativity a plus
• Science background useful but not required

Location:
Our work is based in southern West Virginia. One-on-one, face-to-face conversations with impacted residents living near sludge sites and mountaintop removal is fundamental to the work we do. The position is significantly based in Mingo County and the surrounding area. Willingness to live in the coalfields is a strong plus.

The position requires a significant amount of driving, and owning a reliable car is essential.

Salary and Benefits:
Salary commensurate with experience; competitive benefits package includes health insurance, travel reimbursement, retirement, compensation time, professional development and generous vacation.

To Apply:
Please submit 1 personal and 2 professional references along with your resume and cover letter to ovec.personnel@gmail.com by May 22.

To learn more about our work, please visit www.ohvec.org and www.sludgesafety.org

OVEC is an equal opportunity employer.

Not One More Mile! Over 700 people joined Kentuckians for the Commonwealth for I Love Mountains Day in Frankfort, KY. The group marched over a half mile from downtown Frankfort near the Kentucky River, the headwaters of which have been severely damaged by coal company pollution. “Not One More Mile!” was the chant for the day as the defenders of Kentucky’s precious people and places said that 1,400 miles of streams buried or severely damaged by this practice is already way too many. Find more coverage of the event at the KFTC website

Better Know a CWPA Co-Sponsor: Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA-14) has served in the House for eight years, and currently sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as well as the Water Resources and Development subcommittee, so we are thrilled to have his support on the CWPA! According to a 2008 editorial released by his office, Platts believes that “further development of traditional domestic sources of energy” is an important step in our energy policy but that it needs to be done in an “environmentally-protective manner.” Protecting mountain streams from being buried in toxic overburden sounds like it fits that criteria!!

Better Know a CWPA Target: Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA-04) is currently serving his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Altmire serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure committee, which makes him an important target for co-sponsorship of the CWPA. The electricity in Altmire’s district, which covers all or part of six counties in western Pennsylvania, is supplied by Pennsylvania Electric and Duquesne Light Company, both of which purchase coal coming from mountaintop removal mine sites. In Altmire’s issue statements on his website, he comes out in support of “additional funding for clean coal technologies.” Well, even if “clean coal technology” was here today, mountaintop removal mining would still be poisoning mountain headwater streams in Appalachia. That’s anything but clean, just ask the residents of Rawl, WV, whose well water was contaminated by toxic heavy metals thanks to a nearby mountaintop removal mine site.
Want to get to know Rep. Altmire better? Check out his appearance on the Colbert Report’s Better Know a District!

Dirty and dangerous may be desirable qualities when you’re looking to date a biker, but are less so when you’re talking about the source of approximately half the energy for electricity in the country.

The report from The Star Tribune of a coal dust explosion in suburban Milwaukee definitely put an emphasis on the coal’s dangerous side, and not in a sexy James-Dean-Rebel-Without-a-Cause kind of way. The explosion, which happened early Tuesday at a We Energies plant in Oak Creek, WI injured six workers.

Says the article:

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates industrial accidents, said the government has ignored repeated calls from safety officials for tougher standards to prevent dust explosions.

Irresponsible use and too lax regulations have been a theme for the last 8 years, but also, promisingly, in recent media coverage of coal from the Coal River Mountain protests to Clean Air Act lawsuits. Check out this great post from New York Times blogger Tom Zeller, Jr. entitled “A Tough Week for Coal”.

Residents have lost faith in their state government, long known to be friendly to coal interests, and have taken their plea nationally. Climate expert James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the man who first testified to the existence of global warming, asked President Obama to “please look at Coal River Mountain, your strongest supporters are counting on you to stop this madness.”

Their concerns about their safety and the reality of the alternatives are well documented. A 2008 report by the federal Office of Surface Mining revealed serious deficiencies in the WVDEP’s regulation of coal waste dams (www.wvgazette.com/News/200901110512?page=1&build=cache). The Coal River Wind Project relies on wind studies, and economic analyses of the benefits of wind vs. mountaintop removal for the community. The project received the 2008 Building Economic Alternatives Award from Co-op America.

“We can’t sit by while Massey jeopardizes the lives and homes of thousands of people,” said Vernon Haltom of Naoma. “Governor Manchin and the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection have proven that they are unwilling to protect the citizens. What do they expect us to do? Will they wait until we’re in body bags to take this threat seriously?” In November, WVDEP approved a permit revision allowing Massey to begin the mountaintop removal operation. Despite citizens’ objections, DEP denied public participation in its decision process.

“We need to stop the madness and stop Massey from blowing up our beautiful mountain,” resident Gary Andersen adds. “We need to go with the better energy option, and that’s a wind farm, which is perfect for Coal River Mountain. We could have a green energy future for the country, starting right here.”

For updates, photos and video footage, go to https://climategroundzero.org

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin’s office can be reached at 1-888-438-2731, or you can contact his office online using our simple web form to email the governor.

Official call participants were:

Jeff Stant, Director of the Coal Combustion Waste Initiative for the Environmental Integrity Project. In this position and for the past 21 years as the Executive Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council in Indiana, Director of the Power Plant Waste Program for the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force and consultant to other organizations, he has researched, advocated and negotiated for local, state and national regulations to stop contamination of water supplies and harm to people and the environment from coal combustion waste. He is based in Indianapolis.


Chris Irwin, Staff Attorney for United Mountain Defense and a sixth-generation Tennessean. Irwin worked for a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer doing watershed preservation work; and for the World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development as a Peace Corps volunteer, where he saw the U.S. spend millions to protect watersheds overseas. Protection of Tennessee’s water has been a focus of his work in his current position.



Sarah McCoin, a resident of Harriman, Tenn., and member of the Tennessee Coal Ash Survivor Network. Sarah resides at Adkisson Farm, a 40-acre Emory riverfront property that has been in the family since the early 1800’s. She is the fifth generation to live on the farm. Sarah moved back to Tennessee last summer after a career in employee benefits consulting in Saint Louis, Mo. She plans to finish out her career in Tennessee and retire on the farm to raise Irish sport horses. Most recently, Sarah has become a community advocate for federal coal ash regulation. She is joining the call as a representative of the Tennessee Coal Ash Survivor Network, a new community organization which aims to publicize the harsh realities of the coal ash disaster and the need for federal regulation to prevent similar disasters in some 152 communities nationwide.

OVEC first learned of mountaintop removal in 1997, when directly-impacted residents came to us to tell us about the issue and ask for our help. OVEC organized and hosted the first-ever public forum on mountaintop removal, and has been organizing in the West Virginia coalfields since then. The Coalition works with state, national and international media* to raise awareness about and ultimately hopes to end this extremely damaging form of coal mining. So far, OVEC has held back 90 valley fill permits at proposed mountaintop removal operations through litigation. Besides a host of newspaper and magazine articles, our work has been featured in music, books and films.

OVEC and its sister group, Coal River Mountain Watch, collaborate on the Sludge Safety Project (SSP), which works to protect clean water and promote human health and safety near coal waste storage sites. The recent coal ash disaster in Tennessee underscores how dirty and deadly the rear-end of the coal-use cycle is. SSP’s work examines and exposes the dirty and deadly front-end of that cycle. We encourage everyone reading this blog to learn more about coal slurry impoundments and underground coal slurry injection by exploring the SSP website and, if possible, attending our Jan. 31 SSP Legislative Kick-Off event–details here.

In addition, you can learn more about SSP volunteers work by listening to this West Virginia Public Radio news story.

As it stands right now, with the new permits I saw last week, they’re gonna blast off the mountain I look at when I look off my front porch. And I get to set and watch that happen, and I’m not supposed to react. Don’t react, just set there and take it. They’re gonna blast away my horizon, and I’m expected to say, “It’s OK. It’s for the good of all.”

OVEC’s work also focuses on solutions to the energy crisis. We’re a founding member of CLEAN , a grassroots collaboration of state and local organizations. CLEAN, a project of the Civil Society Institute, seeks policies that will protect our environment, cease and reverse global warming, disentangle the U.S. from unstable regions of the world, and create a new energy economy that promises jobs and a sustainable and equitable economic prosperity.

To address a root cause of all the issues OVEC has worked on, we lead the West Virginia Citizens for Clean Elections with the West Virginia Citizen Action Group . This upcoming legislative season (Feb. 11 to April 11, 2009), we’ll be working at the West Virginia State Capitol to advance on Clean Elections, Sludge Safety Project concerns and on cemetery protection issues. Join OVEC’s Action Alert e-mail list (two to four e-mails a month, usually) to stay current with our work and/or check out daily news updates.

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* Newspapers that have quoted our members or staff or used our photos include New York Times, Los Angles Times, Washington Post, Toronto Star and scores more. Radio and TV outlets that have aired news of our work include National Public Radio, Bill Moyers of Public Broadcasting, British Broadcasting Company, Danish, Norwegian, Australian and Canadian Broadcasting, and more. Magazines that have featured are work include Smithsonian, National Geographic, People,
E-magazine, O (Oprah Winfrey’s magazine), and dozens more.

Thanks to Vivian Stockman of OVEC for helping put together this post. Check back next week for more news from the mountains, a new edition of Better Know a CWPA Sponsor & Target, and more!

January 19, 2009
(Sorry for the late crosspost, as I’m sure you all know the beginning of this week was very exciting!!
With the opening of the Congressional session last week, and the inauguration on Tuesday all eyes are on capitol hill.

This, thought the folks here at iLoveMountains, makes it the perfect time to roll out a new weekly feature. We’re taking a page from the great Stephen Colbert and using each Mountain Mondays post as a vehicle to spotlight one of our valued co-sponsors for the Clean Water Protection Act, and a representative from a nearby district we would love to see add their John Hancock.

In the future, we’ll have a regular post along with this new feature, but for this, the inaugural post, it will stand on its own.

Better Know a CWPA Sponsor: Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06)
Frank Pallone, Jr. is the lead sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act bill. He introduced the bill in the 110th congress, and will again in the 111th. Rep. Pallone has a strong history with water issues in his home district, successfully working to stop ocean dumping and offshore oil and gas drilling. Check out his great blog about the CWPA on Daily Kos.

Better Know a CWPA Target: Rep. Frank Lobiondo (R-NJ-02)
Congressman Lobiondo represents New Jersey’s second district. He serves on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its subcommittee, Water Resources and the Environment. According to his official biography, he “has worked to protect fragile wildlife and wetlands areas,” meaning he knows some about threatened ecosystems, and the importance of maintaining water resources.
Rep. Lobiondo has also shown firm support for the broad implementation of sustainable alternative energy sources in an effort to both achieve energy independence and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Promisingly, though energy independence is his ultimate focus, he did not see coal as key in the achievement of that goal, presumably because of its know impact on the environment and place at the top of the pile when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.

If you’d like to get involved, send a letter to your congressperson asking them to co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act in the 111th congress. You can do it easily with our online tool.
And, if you want to get up close and personal with your congresspeople, register for the End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, March 14-18, 2009. Registration ends February 25, so sign up now!

January, 13th 2009

2009 promises to be a good year for clean water.

The TVA coal ash spill in Harriman, TN, though devastating, has given citizens a new insight into the dirty side of coal. It has served to remind many of us that the interests of coal companies do not align with what is best for the people of Appalachia or the environment.

As the new session of Congress begins this week, and a new administration to enter office early next week, there is more attention than ever before on the energy crisis and the need for a green economy.

The time is right to pass the Clean Water Protection Act, and with that dramatically curb the instance and impact of mountain top removal mining. Last session closed with the broadest support we’ve ever had for the measure:

The Clean Water Protection Act can be passed this session. You can help make it happen.

By attending the 4th annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, you can join us in lobbying our legislators to pass the CWPA. Past lobby week participants have come from all across the United States to join with other activists and impacted citizens in speaking with their congressional Representatives about MTR and the CWPA.

At last year’s lobby week, people like you helped us gain 8 new co-sponsors!

Registration is open now and will continue until February 25th. Scholarships are available on a limited basis; scholarship deadline is Feb 20th. Get the answers to more of your questions at our FAQ page.

If you are antsy to get started appealing to your elected representatives, here is another initiative to tell the new administration clean energy is a priority:

CLEAN- a collaborative movement of state and local organizations working, at all levels of government, to implement new energy policies – has launched a campaign to let President-elect Obama know that there is strong grassroots support for bold action on our clean energy future. The next step in the campaign is a national call-in day to the White House on Wednesday, January 21st* in order to make our voices heard on Obama’s first day in office. We want to make it known that the American people are saying YES to renewables, YES to energy efficiency, NO to coal and nuclear! It will take people calling from all across the country and all walks of life to make an impact. We need your voice, too! Please click here to make your pledge to call the White House on Wednesday, January 21st. It will only take a few minutes to take part in this national movement to ensure a clean energy future for America!

Though the T.V.A. told residents of Harriman, TN that their drinking water was safe following the December 22nd spill, and backed up their claim with the results of water quality testing conducted at the Kingston water facility intake (a site six miles from the spill site, and approximately half a mile upstream of the ash flow on the Tennessee River), the results of preliminary tests conducted by the Upper Watauga Riverkeeper and partners from Appalachian State University indicate TVA’s data does not tell the whole story.

United Mountain Defense volunteers, who have been working with affected community members since the disaster occurred, have reported talking with several people who have become ill since the spill. Many residents reportedly drank potentially contaminated groundwater out of wells and springs for days following the spill.

The widespread reports of sickness are not necessarily surprising in light of the recently released data from Appalachian Voices, which showed arsenic levels at 30 to 300 times maximum drinking water limit in samples taken near the spill site. In addition to arsenic, eight other heavy metals were found at raised levels in all samples.

50 residents, concerned about their health, wish to be screened for heavy metal exposure.

Though essential to determining whether exposure to heavy metals has occurred since the spill, these tests are unfortunately very costly, and must be done within a short window of time. After only 27 days, evidence of heavy metals leaves the system.

Faced with damaged homes and lost property values, many residents cannot afford the $500 of up front costs the clinic requires to conduct a full screening. To cover the cost of these tests, a total of $25,000 needs to be raised in a matter of days.

On behalf of the residents of Harriman, and the work of United Mountain Defense, we ask that you consider donating to help subsidize the cost of these tests. The money is needed NOW, so that these tests can be done for as many affected people as possible as soon as possible, before the window closes.

Donations can be sent to United Mountain Defense through their PayPal account

When investment bank FBR Capital Markets looks into their crystal ball, they don’t see the recent stream buffer zone rule change lasting very long under the incoming Obama administration.

According to Platts, an energy markets blog, research analyst Kevin Book of FBR sees the eleventh-hour regulation by the Bush administration forces action by the Obama administration to “propose and finalize a rule to reverse it.”

However, Book doesn’t pretend that this will be easy, especially as the rule, which hit the federal register last week, cannot be overturned by a simple executive order.

Book noted that “midnight rules,” or those rules issued at the eleventh hour by most outgoing administrations, are difficult and time-consuming to reverse.

At the same time, Book offered caution to investors who might consider this rule as a signal to proceed with investing in mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia.

Tell the Obama administration to repeal the stream buffer zone rule change and end mountain top removal using our online tool.