Communities, Welcome to Kirk, West Virginia
Laurel Creek residents have vowed to stop the new Consol mine.
Friday, October 19th, 2007
It’s hard to say which problem has caused the most concern among the residents of Laurel Creek, like Johnnie Bailey and Esau Canterbury. Was it the rocks – some more than three-feet high -that sailed off the mine site, the dozens of dead fish in the stream, the silt runoff that filled in one end of Laurel Lake, the half-mile wide coal sludge lake looming over the valley, the well water that turned orange, the loss of access to the mountain land, or the mere sight of their mountains being chopped off?
Marrowbone Development/Triad Mining Company has been mining the mountains along the west side of Laurel Creek for nearly a decade. Much of the mountaintop portion of those mines finished a couple of years ago. But deep mining continues.
However, mountaintop mining is far from gone in Laurel Creek. Marrowbone is starting another mine about three miles north of Laurel Lake. And Consol Coal has applied for a permit to mine the mountains on the east side. Laurel Creek residents protested and halted another mine’s plans for those mountains a few years ago. Some have vowed to stop the new Consol mine.
Click here to learn more about Kirk, WV and the communities that live nearby.
Story and photo contributed by distinguished author Penny Loeb, www.wvcoalfield.com.
