Mountains
Daymon Morgan
Huckleberry Ridge in Leslie County, KY
We made the biggest part of our living on that land. We planted vegetables, and we had apple orchards. And there was a lot of wild huckleberry back up on that mountain. Actually huckleberry is a wild blueberry. And wild berries, we picked them. And I’ve hunted in there, I’ve dug herbs. And now, that is all gone. It’s completely moved away.
Horizon Resources and International Coal Group, the coal companies that have worked near my home, have trespassed along one of my property lines. They have done damage to the land and to my personal property – trees, rock and dirt debris have been pushed onto my property and down the side of the mountain. This damage causes erosion and may even damage the creek at the bottom of the hollow.
The Coal Industry is an outlaw industry that does not consider the rights of its neighbors or the rights of the land and environment. The industry is out to make a profit and has no regard for the damages done to the citizens of this country.
This trespassing issue is just another example of the coal industry’s blatant disregard. Within the last five years two homes on my property have been damaged from the blasting. I believe that almost everyone up Bad Creek has sued the coal industry at least once for damages done to their property.
And my community is not the only community affected by this outlaw industry. Folks over in Raccoon Creek, in Greasy Creek, Viper and Vicco also are complaining.
This is not just a private property issue. It is everyone’s problem and something must be done. The coal industry and our state regulators need to have more respect for the mountains and people of this region.
The coal industry is leaving us destroyed, with no water, no trees, no wildlife habitats or any economic prospects for our future. This must stop.
You know, people have a tendency to not be interested in anything unless they are directly affected by it. Actually, what the coal industry does, it affects everybody. It affects air quality, the water quality, it affects the wildlife habitat, and certainly that’s everybody’s problem.
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Kentuckians For The Commonwealth – KFTC
P.O. Box 1450
London, Kentucky 40743
(606)-878-2161
To those who believe our mountains and streams are special, necessary and worth protecting:
Our names are Rully and Erica Urias and we live on Island Creek of Grapevine in Pike County. Our home and our community is surrounded by coal mining going on in every direction in the mountains around Island Creek. We want to tell you what life is like when coal mining takes over your community, and then tell you how you can help out.
There is no aspect of our lives that coal mining has not affected in some negative way. We used to live in a beautiful place. When you drove down the road it was like driving through a tunnel of trees. It was beautiful, like a fairy tale experience. Now it is a sad and ugly place. All the trees have been cut down along the road so the coal company could move in their giant equipment.
That was just the beginning. The road has now gotten so bad from the coal company’s use that school buses won’t even run up the gravel road to our community. And we hope no one up here ever needs an ambulance. We either eat the dust from the coal trucks or hope we don’t get bogged down in the muck on wet days. Our neighbor Doug Justice twice had to use his own equipment to remove a mud slide that came into the road off the coal company’s mining operation.
The coal company has even invaded the privacy our home. The blasts that the company uses to blow up the mountain also shake our house. It can be strong enough to knock pictures off walls and stuff off of shelves. One night about 7:45 p.m. the blast was so bad that it took 10 minutes to calm down our two-year old daughter, Makayla.
The water from our well has been ruined, too. We can’t drink it and now we’re even afraid to give Makayla a bath. She loves to take baths and like most children will try to drink the water. We can’t let her play with any toys that she can put water into and drink from because of the contamination of our water. We bought her a kiddie swimming pool last summer and filled it up and it had black specs floating all through it. Our daughter cannot even enjoy her own yard.
All the while the mountains that make this place so beautiful are disappearing so that the companies can get out the coal as cheaply as possible. They blast the tops off of the mountains and push it over into the valleys where we live. We’re sure the companies just want us to go away, but we’re not. Our family has been here for generations and we plan to stay. But we wonder what kind of future Makayla will have if something is not done to control the coal companies.
We are not without hope. Our outlook changed dramatically last year when we started working with Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. KFTC has been around for 25 years helping people like us and our neighbors take control of our future. Since we got involved with KFTC we’ve gotten the attention of the coal company and county officials. KFTC has been very supportive and has helped us find ways to educate and fight for ourselves. They teach us how to be leaders in our community.
It means a lot, knowing we’re not alone. Before we had KFTC we had nobody. I didn’t know there were other people with the same problems going through the same thing we were. Now we know that the problems we experience are faced by hundreds of families who live in the coalfields. KFTC helps us join together so that we speak and act with one voice. The more voices the better we can be heard.
You can help by joining us and becoming a member of KFTC or by making a donation to support KFTC’s work. It’s a great investment because you’re investing in Kentucky’s future. We can’t think of a better way to invest in the future than to preserve what we have now – like our homes, water and mountains. The more supporters, the stronger our voice and we want to add yours.
Thanks for listening to our story and for taking action to make Kentucky a better place for all of us.
Rully and Erica Urias
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Rully Urias Island Creek, Pike County
My name is Rully Urias. I have lived in the right hand fork of Island Creek 23 years of my 26 years of life.
I have never witnessed such blatant disregard for average hard working American people with such negligence towards environmental protection of some of this country’s most beautiful land.
Our county road drainage tiles are clogged up, TECO COAL have cut our trees down and left them lying piled up beside the road. Heavy rains will cause our road to wash out. The coal trucks go flying down the road without any regard for our resident’s safety. The over excessive blasting shakes the house and terrifies my 22-month-old daughter. Our water is unsuitable to bathe in but we have no choice but to use the contaminated water. Mistakes can be made and lessons can be learned but to stand by and let it happen time and time again is pure disregard for local, state and federal mining regulations that should be enforced by our elected officials.
Coal mining industry is a way of life in Eastern Kentucky and as much as we would want it to stop it’s not going to stop. I’ve worked underground and surface jobs and I’ve been forced to break laws and do poor jobs when jobs need to be done right. This needs to stop! If honest hard working American people want to earn a decent pay and honest living we have to step up and let the big coal corporations such as TECO COAL know that we are not going to stand by and let them rape our land, destroy our history and run our heritage into the ground.
I for one encourage everyone here today to take a step forward and take an initiative to contact your local, state, and federal government; write letters and make complaints. Make phone calls and speak your mind! Because until we band together the big steel toed boot of the coal industry will be right on our behind. Kicking us all the way into submission of their rules and destruction. We need your support we need TECO COAL to stop the destruction. Thank you.
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Anna Santo, AV Staff
As West Virginia’s tallest mountain west of the New River, Guyandotte Mountain, also known as Bolte Mountain and “Big Ugly,” stands at a magnificent 3600 feet. For the past 11,000 years, communities of hunters and gatherers, pioneers, and more recently, miners, have inhabited the area surrounding Guyandotte Mountain.
The habitat created by Guyandotte Mountain is largely forested, at a high elevation, steep, sloped terrain with gaps among mature forests- ideal for many rare avian species. As the Audobon Society describes it, Guyandotte Mountain “…harbor[s] the highest avian species diversity and density of any statewide point count.” The habitat on Guyandotte Mountain is unique because it is considered a “transition zone,” where high elevation avian species frequently overlap with low elevation species and old field or edge-dwelling species are almost equally abundant as species that prefer interior forest habitat.
Guyandotte Mountain harbors the Three Rivers Migration Observatory and the Southern West Virginia Bird Research Center. The Golden-Winged and Cerulean Warblers, both species of high conservation concern, have high-density populations on Guyandotte Mountain. With mountaintop removal coal operations fragmenting and destroying their habitat, these rare avian species will only become more rare.
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Pauline Canterberry and Mary Miller are known as the “Dustbuster Sisters,” due to their efforts to make the Massey Energy Corporation adequately control the emission of coal dust from Elk Run, a nearby mine.
The following is the text from a comment letter written by Pauline Canterberry to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection on November 3, 2005.
Re: Public Review Permit No. U5003-5
Haskel Boytek, Permit Supervisor
Comment:
For the past eight (8) years, life in the community of Sylvester West Virginia has been a living Hell of black coal dust, nerve shattering noises and broken promises, while we have watched our homes be destroyed, and respiratory illness invade our bodies, after the Department of Environmental Protection issued Elk Run Mining permit # D21-82, without considering the impact it would have on our community. Many of those problems still remain unsolved.
I sincerely pray the issuance of permit # U 5003-05 doesn’t start a chain reaction of the same problems, but instead the DEP has learned through their mistake and will make provisions in this permit to protect the Community of Sylvester. We do not oppose coal mining, but we do demand that it be done responsibly so as to protect our Town and its Citizens.
We request that all blasting to open the driftmouth for this mine be kept at a minimum to protect our homes from further damages.
We request warning lights or signs be placed at the entrance to this facility from Route #3 as it is located in a blind curve.
We request that all trucks hauling coal from this facility before the beltline is finished be enclosed traveling loaded or empty to prevent coal dust leaving them while traveling through Sylvester to the Elk Run Facility, that their speed not exceed thirty (30) miles per hour, to limit damage done to an already broken and cracked highway.
We request the Belt Line which will cross Route #3, Coal River, the Railroad Yard and any excess land be completely covered from exiting one mountain and entering the opposite mountain to assure no coal dust leaving it and entering the airway.
We request Elk Run protect and secure the Cemetary that lies at the railroad entrance of the Belt Line, where Benjamin White, who the Town of Whitesville was named for, is buried.
We request the sewage facilities for this permit be connected to and serviced by the Boone-Raleigh Public Serive District PSD as each resident in this community is required to do, this will eliminate any doubt of fecal contamination draining into Round Bottom Ranch, the Town of Sylvester and the Coal River, a river as reported from a study released this past year on the Coal River Watershed, which is already over contaminated with fecal matter.
We feel these requests are just and in compliance with the West Virginia Codes for mining and reclamation and the public service district, as well as the welfare of the Citizens in the community of Sylvester.
Massey Energy as sole owner of Elk Run Mining Company spends millions of dollars begging people to believe they are good neighbors, when all they need to do is earn it in their everyday actions and deeds.
In the future I respectfully request that all meetings pertaining to the welfare of the citizens of the Sylvester community be held at the Sylvester Community Center, it is adequate and available to accomodate such a meeting, our population is sixty (60) percent elderly seniors who are unable to travel over congested highways, yet deserve the respect of being able to participate in matters that are important to their lives.
I sincerely hope this is a much wiser and compassionate representation of the DEP and Elk Run Mining officials than we faced November 1, in 1997, which was a black day for the Community of Sylvester, for they left us with no alternative than to fight for our very existence, which we intend to do till Justice once again prevails.
Submitted by:
Pauline Canterberry
Resident, Town of Sylvester, WV
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Things done to bring attention to the coal dust problems in the Town of Sylvester, West Virginia, and to seek a solution to stop the problem:
Compiled by Pauline Canterberry and Mary Miller, March 2006.
1. In 1997 Elk Run Mining Company, a subsidary of Massey Energy, applied for a petition to install a preparation plant at their Elk Run Facility, knowing the prevailing winds in the Town of Sylvester area traveled west to east which would bring it directly over the town from the facility. The Mayor of Sylvester and the Town Council met with the Elk Run Mining officials and asked them not to install the preparation plant at that facility. Also, a meeting was called with the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) in November 1997, asking them not to allow the permit. They were given a petition bearing the names of 75% of the Sylvester residents opposing the permit. The DEP issued the permit and the facility went into operation on in April 1998. A mountain bluff was removed which protected the town from its present facility, and the preparation plant sat on a hill within 700 feet of the nearest residents.
2. Within a month of operating, our town began to be covered with coal dust night and day. The facility operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Town people began calling complaining to the DEP. For two years our complaints were ignored.
3. Finally DEP inspector Bill Cook (now deceased) began to write violations against Elk Run Mining. After three violations without any relief, we demanded a hearing before the DEP. At this hearing Elk Run Mining pleaded good cause showing, an inadequate screen was placed before the plant which didn’t begin to catch the coal dust, they planted pine trees in front of the facility which will take years to grow large enough to provide any protection, they installed a sprinkling system which, had they used it correctly, would have helped some, but it was only operated when the DEP inspectors were in the area. The Town still had no relief.
4. At this point, the coal dust not only covered the outside of our homes, but now was entering to the inside due to the fine consistency of the dust after being crushed inside the plant. We demanded a hearing before the office of Surface Mining to show video evidence of the coal dust. Homes and vehicles were covered with coal dust, as well as hugs billows of coal dust coming at us from the plant over the Town of Sylvester. With four members of the board present, all voted unanimously that Elk Run Mining was violating their permit and allowing coal dust to leave their facility and damage the residents in the Town of Sylvester. Elk Run was told to correct the problem at the hearing October 25, 2000. That order was appealed and we are still awaiting the Judge’s final decision on that hearing, which was July 3, 2001.
5. At this time, we decided to take our plight to the Legislature and ask for new coal dust laws to be made. We were told there was already Laws that protected the people, yet coal companies are not made to abide by this law, especially Massey Energy.
6. At this time, we decided to expose Elk Run Mining and Massey Energy for what they truely were, a corporation that harasses and destroys for their own personal greed and our politicians were refusing to uphold the West Virginia Laws because of being indebted to the coal corporations because of campaign contributions recieved from them.
7. We contacted the News Media to write stories and publish pictures of the destruction in Sylvester.
8. We continued to send mail to state and federal officials, only to be referred back to the DEP by form letters.
9. We joined environmental groups to expose Massey Energy. Coal River Mountain Watch in Whitesville, WV; Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in Huntington, WV; and the West Virginia Organizing Project in Logan, WV.
10. We joined protests against Massey Energy:
Massey Energy’s Charleston office
Massey Energy’s stockholder meeting, Richmond, VA
Massey Energy’s stockholder meeting, Charleston, WV
Massey Energy’s stockholder meeting, Chantilly, VA
Massey Energy Kanawha City office (tried to issue a list of demands to stop damages to Citizens, but were asked to leave the premises.)
Protested the President’s visit to Charleston to promote coal in WV
Joined Coal River Mountain Watch and Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in law suit against Massey Energy owned Marfork Coal Company for black water spills into the Big Coal River, where Sylvester’s drinking water comes from. It is now in its second appeal to the Supreme Court with no decision.
11. In February, 2001, Sylvester residents filed a lawsuit against Elk Run Mining for damages to Property. We gathered Coal Dust samples from homes in Sylvester every seven (7) days for two and a half years, filming and documenting the trail. We filmed coal dust from Elk Run Mining flowing over from their facility and into the Town of Sylvester. We filmed coal dust being washed from homes and sidewalks, the attic of homes showing the accumulation of coal dust. We filmed balls of coal dust being emitted from the preperation plant and flowing into the air passage over Sylvester.
12. We attended meetings in Washington, DC and spoke at news conferences about the coal dust damages for citizens of southern West Virginia.
13. We fought overloaded Coal Trucks and got speed limits lowered in the Town of Sylvester.
14. We successfully fought a Synfuel Plant being built on Elk Run’s Mining facility.
15. We attended monthly meetings with Elk Run Mining officials seeking to end the dust problems.
16. We keep in constant contact with the DEP and Office of Air Quality about the conditions in Sylvester.
17. We sought and won the removal of a dam in Big Coal River at Elk Run Mining that had been built without a permit.
18. We gathered over 700 signatures on petitions to have Big Coal River rechanneled where mountaintop removal mining has filled it in with silt causing severe flooding.
19. We went on road tours through Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia showing power point presentations of damage caused to communities and citizens by mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia, seeking help from other State Legislatures to support the Shey-Polane Protection Clean Water Act.
20. We attended the Babcock-Reynolds Foundation Seminar seeking grant funding for Coal River Mountain Watch to enable them to continue their fight against mountaintop removal mining and its injustice to citizens being destroyed by it.
21. We contacted state representatives seeking warning systems to be placed in areas where sludge impoundments are built, in case of breakage.
22. We are serving as intervenors in a law suite against Marfork Coal Company for black water spills from their impoundment into Big Coal River where citizens’ drinking water comes from.
23. We campaigned during elections to elect politicians who aren’t paid by coal companies.
24. We protested in Appalachia, Virginia against a coal company who was working on an unpermitted mine site, causing the death of an innocent child in his sleep when a huge boulder came crushing down the mountain into his bedroom.
25. We protested a permit to install the second silo 100 feet from Marsh Fork Elementary School where the present silo is causing the children to become sick, also to prevent enlargement of the sludge impoundment above the school as the MSHA reports it already has leaks in it.
26. We requested changes in the permit at Elk Run Mining for an underground mine, to save the Town from further damages. These requests were granted.
27. We lobbied at West Virgina State Legislature for the Resolution for Sludge Safety project. The resolution was introduced.
28. We supported Coal River Mountain Watch in its nation Mountain Justice Summer movement.
29. We opposed a proposed settlement between DEP and subsidaries of Massey Energy, Inc.
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The following letter is from the Elk Run permit manager to Haskel Boytek, a permit supervisor.
January 9, 2006
Re: Permit U-5003-05
Roundbottom Powellton
Dear Mr. Boytek:
Elk Run Coal Company has prepared this response based on the review of the public comments recieved for the above referenced permit during our meeting held January 9, 2006. Those in attendence at that meeting were Paul McCombs, Wayne Persinger representing Elk Run Coal Company and Kenneth Maxwell, Greg Ball, Tracie Kitchen, Haskel Boytek, Tom Satterfield, Dallas Runyon, and Terry Ramey representing the DEP.
Blasting: Blasting concerns as it relates to damage to their homes will be handled according to current blasting regulations. Pre blasting surveys will be conducted on residences within one half mile of the permit area. Any damage to residents’ homes will be based on this survey.
Coal Haulage: No coal haulage will occur after 11 pm. All loaded coal trucks will be covered and will maintain a 30-mile per hour speed limit within the Sylvester City limits. The road to the mine site will be paved to minimize tracking of mud onto Route 3. Route 3 will be cleaned, as it currently is, weekly unless it requires additional attention while coal is hauled. Flashing warning lights and signs will be installed at the intersection of Route 3 and the mine access road. Upon completion of hauling coal through Sylvester, Route 3 will be evaluated by Elk Run Coal Company and the Department of Highways to determine if any damage in excess of the normal wear and tear has occured. If a determination has been made as to damage a cost will be agreed upon by both parties at that time.
Dust: The entire beltline will be enclosed from mountain to mountain. The permit has typical details that show how that will be accomplished. The beltline will have a dust suppressant system on it to further minimize dust at the transfer points. Note that these transfer points will be totally enclosed as well. The cleaning of the road will also help with the dust concerns.
Cemetery: A cemetery was located that was in the path of the proposed overland beltline. This belt line has been relocated to avoid this cemetery. The cemetery has been located and a chain link fence has been constructed around the perimeter of the cemetery. In addition repairs have been made to some graves where they have settled.
New Road Construction: Concerns were raised about the construction of the access road above Route 3. During the construction of this road fencing material will be maintained ahead of the construction to keep material from rolling over the hill and onto the highway or into residents’ homes. In addition the contractor will station a spotter on Route 3 with radio communication with the equipment operators to watch for falling debris, which could pose a hazard to the citizens.
300-foot Waiver: Residents that live within a 300-foot radius of where the mine site access road intersects with Route 3 are being asked to sign a waiver to allow the permit limits within 300 feet of their residences. This waiver is required so that the mine access road can be widened to all for easier access from Route 3. This is necessary so that the coal trucks can have easier and safer access to Route 3.
Impoundment: The impoundment issue does not have anything to do with this permit. However, all impoundments must have an emergency warning plan approved annually by the DEP.
Sewage System: Elk Run Coal Company will be connecting to the local PSD for its water and sewage for its mine bath house use.
Meetings: Elk Run Coal Company and DEP discussed that any future public hearings should be held at the Sylvester Community Building. This community building has ample space and is more convenient to the residents of Sylvester. In addition it was discussed that Elk Run Coal Company representatives meet periodically with the Sylvester town council to discuss various issues.
If you should have any questions or comments, please contact me at 854-3505.
Sincerely,
Paul McCombs
Permit Manager
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by Sue Sharp [reprinted with permission from http://www.wvcoalfield.com ]
Sylvester is a small community tucked neatly away in the mountains of the southern coal fields of West Virginia. According to the dictionary, a community is “all the people living in the same place and subject to the same laws.” As anyone who has ever lived in a small community knows–that really doesn’t describe a community very well.
A community is a place where people really care about each other, a place where people still believe in helping each other. People in a community rake leaves or shovel snow for their elderly neighbors, and they are there to lend a hand when there is an illness or death in the family. In the summertime, people sit on their front porches and talk to their neighbors. They have cookouts, and invite the neighbors over to swim in their pool.
Over the past two and a half years, I’ve noticed a change in the town. It started slowly, at first, hardly noticeable. It was like one day you woke up and noticed that not too many people were sitting on their porches. You didn’t see people out walking for exercise. Of course, I’d noticed the coal dust on my porch and in my pool, but I was waiting for someone to do something about it, just like everyone else! Soon people were comparing notes and swapping coal dust stories. It took awhile. West Virginians are easy-going people–slow to anger.
For two and one half years, Elk Run Coal Company has been dumping coal dust on our town and for two years, we have been trying to get something done about it! We’ve complained to the DEP, various other state agencies, OSM, gone before the Surface Mine Board, been to hearings, town meetings and even met with coal company officials. All we’ve come up with is EMPTY PROMISES!
To people who have never dealt with a problem like this, it is very hard to understand what we mean when we say we have a coal dust problem. They think: “Well, what’s a little dust?” I want you to use your imagination for me:
* Take two jars of baby powder and dump them in a large baggie–maybe the gallon size. This is where you have to use your imagination. Now pretend this powder is BLACK and that it contains diesel fuel and other chemicals that are used in making synfuel. Get a plate and dump about a fourth of the ‘dust’on it, set it on the coffee table and turn the ceiling fan on. Leave the fan on until the plate is empty. My, doesn’t the living room look nice all covered in DUST? Notice how it clings to the carpet, drapes and furniture. use your imagination and change the color of the dust from white to BLACK.
* Now take another quarter of the ‘dust’ and sprinkle it on your porch and porch furniture. Sit back and relax in one of the chairs. Doesn’t the ‘dust’ make your clothes look nice?
* Take another fourth of the dust and gently sprinkle it on your freshly washed car, remembering all the while that this is BLACK DUST. Be sure to start the car and turn the heater on so the dust gets sucked into the car.
* Finally, what do you do with the last quarter of the dust. It really doesn’t matter what you do with it! Because no matter where you put it–It’s going to get ALL over everything–EVERYWHERE!
People were JUST PLAIN FED UP! All of government was telling us: “No one should have to live like this!” But, yet we were.
The community pulled together and circulated a petition to make the company see that we were serious about getting something done about the dust level and to raise awareness about the problem. The problem with the dust didn’t start until the company moved the prep plant to our side of the mountain. Everyone who lives in a coal community knows that they will have to deal with some dust. We were all used to dust–but not at this level.
The mountain had protected use from the blowing dust until they cut the mountain down and put that prep plant right on top of it. That just opened the way, like a tunnel, for the dust to float down on top of us. A violation was written, and a cessation order issued. DEP Director Mike Castle rescinded the order and offered an alternative solution. The solution involved making the coal company pay the “town” of Sylvester $100,000 to use for a civic project so the miners wouldn’t have to be out of work for three days. Well, that didn’t take care of the problem! The dust is still there!.
Many meetings and hearings took place, and now the town of Sylvester is in mediation with the coal company and DEP to try to work out a way to…Well, I’m not sure that they’re trying to do.The only right, decent, legal thing to do is STOP THE DUST! How? Maybe that’s what they’re trying to figure out. I don’t know the answer to the dilemma. I have some ideas–but NO ONE IS LISTENING. The law says for them to prevent damage. How can anyone know how much damage has already been done to the tiny lungs of children who have played in the town for the two years that this has been happening? Is it going to take a 10-year-old child dying from BLACK LUNG Disease before our government does something to benefit the people just because it is the right thing to do?
We are prisoners in the very homes we worked so hard to pay for. We can’t use our porches, or porch furniture or swimming pools. In warm weather we can’t leave our doors or windows open because the dust comes inside. Our attics are full of coal dust; our insulation ruined and our sidewalks black with coal dust. It’s in our furnaces, our air conditioner filters and air cleaners. Even keeping the doors and windows shut doesn’t keep it out. Somehow it manages to creep inside the house and get in the carpet and drapes. When you dust, it’s on the tables and fan blades. sometimes it manages to get inside the kitchen cabinets. Children who play in the yard come in the house looking like they have been working in the mines. I’ve even found coal dust inside my computer. You wash it off today and tomorrow it’s back.
Unlike the Ghost Busters song “who ya gonna call?”– it seems to us that we don’t have anyone to call. The state agencies who should be ‘Dust Busters’ don’t seem to care. If they did, we wouldn’t still be putting up with this after two and a half years. We need an air quality standard for WV. EPA standards are NOT good enough for here! Dust is too concentrated in WV!
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Builder Levy is an accomplished photographer of the West Virginia coal fields, and has generously allowed his writing and photographs to be reprinted here. http://www.builderlevy.com
Pauline was born in 1930 in Stanaford #4 camp near Beckley. At age 10, her family moved to Keith, a coal camp outside of Whitesville. At eleven, to be able to buy things for herself, she had a route in Whitesville, selling the Charleston Daily Mail. During high school she worked as a clerk at the Whitesville Dollar General Store where she remained upon her graduation, eventually becoming the store’s manager. Her husband, whom she married in 1948, was a coal miner and decorated WW II veteran. He had fought in the Battle of the Bulge, was captured and spent five months in a German prisoner of war camp, and survived a fifteen day forced march to Berlin. He died of Black Lung disease in 1991. Pauline and her friend and neighbor, Mary Miller and other residents of Sylvester have been fighting to get Massey Energy to control and limit the amount of coal dust that is constantly coating their homes from its recently expanded Elk Run stoker plant, and uncovered conveyors. Although the Sylvester residents have won some legal battles in court, and forced the coal company to put a protective plastic dome over the coal stockpiles, Elk Run (a Massey subsidiary) continues to operate and expand. Massey has been buying out and buying up every available home near their operation so that they could expand with impunity. Ms. Canterberry said of Massey Energy, “It seems like they want to expand us all out of the “holler” and make it into one big stockpile of coal.”
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These entries are based on research or interviews conducted by Appalachian Voices staff and volunteers- we’d love for you to add another story or eulogy, and let us know if you’d like to request a change.
Kayford Mountain and its surrounding areas have been the home of Larry Gibson’s family since the 1700’s. More than three hundred of his relatives are buried in the family cemetery there, and when he grew up on Kayford’s beautiful slopes, the mountains rose in every direction from his house. He treasures some of the best memories of his life from those days. He recalls that “it wasn’t the fast life then, it was the good life.”
In 1986, the mountaintop removal started. Over the next 20 years, “the slow motion destruction of Kayford Mountain has been continuous – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Arch Coal Inc., Horizon Natural Resources and Massey Energy have flattened the mountains surrounding Larry’s house into a 12,000 acre “pancake.” The mine comes to within 200 feet of the family cemetery, and the blasts make the ground shake. Stray rocks from the explosions land near the gravestones and scar the ground. As one visitor noted, “gone is the peace and stillness that the old cemetery once harbored. For Gibson and other family members, mountaintop mining is practically raising the dead, while burying the living.”
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