-Caveat Lector- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1999 08:12:40 -0400 From: DAMN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: DAMN: 21-AUG-1999: March Against West Virginia Mountaintop Removal Title: March Against West Virginia Mountaintop Removal Date: 21-AUG-1999 Author: Vivian Stockman Source: Graffiti Magazine, http://www.grafwv.com Style: First person account >From July 7 to August 21, opponents of mountaintop removal walked 490 miles across West Virginia, from Harper’s Ferry to Huntington. Organized by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), dozens of folks, including novelist and gubernatorial candidate Denise Giardina and her campaign manager Vince George, walked to raise awareness about the ecocide known as mountaintop removal mining. Larry Gibson, 53, was with the "Walk for the Mountains" the entire way. National and international TV news shows have broadcast images from Kayford Mountain, his ancestral home in the coalfields. Julian Martin, 62, walked from the start until August 5. Julian’s coal-miner grandfather fought in the Battle of Blair Mountain and his father lost an eye in the coal mines. Artist Carol Jackson displayed her "mountaintop removal cemetery" at stops along the walk. Each of the 1,025 tombstones in the mock graveyard represent one of West Virginia’s streams, mountains or communities that has been leveled, buried or severely impacted by mountaintop removal. Aug. 12: Driving up Kayford Mountain at 2 a.m. (we couldn’t miss the Perseid meteor showers), bats swooped above us, lucky to have food and habitat here in WV’s southern coalfields. Around Kayford, mountaintop removal operations have turned square miles of forests, streams, mountains and valleys into dusty piles of lifeless rock. Here and there, patches of "reclaimed" land sport grasses that not even cattle will eat. Scrub trees grow on a very few spots. It will be centuries — if ever — before the vibrant diversity of life returns to these once beautiful mountains. On the steep road up the mountain, we pulled aside to allow coal trucks to pass, their brakes screeching like some sort of tortured whale song. Dust boiled all around us, causing a "whiteout" at night. On top of Kayford, we camped under a shelter so we could watch for meteors. While my friend D.L. slept, a continuous loud, low-pitched rumble, interspersed with the groaning and beep-beep-beep of backing vehicles, kept me awake. Early the next morning, Larry came out of his cousin’s modest cabin, glad to see more people ready to join the walk. Rick Eades, a hydrogeologist with WV Citizens Action Group (CAG), had arrived the night before. There was reason for them to be concerned for their safety: A handful of miners from the nearby Samples Mine had promised to rough Larry up. Some miners blame environmentalists for layoffs, some of which came on the heels of the mountaintop removal lawsuit. The WV Highlands Conservancy and a few coalfield residents filed the lawsuit after decades of governmental regulators and mine operators failing to follow state and federal mining laws. Low coal demand and increasing mechanization have resulted in many layoffs. Despite industry claims that coal provides prosperity, these coal-rich counties have some of the highest poverty rates and some of the worst infrastructure and school systems in the state. We drove down the mountain to the walk’s starting point, Kayford Freewill Baptist Church, about the only structure left in the "town." We waited for others who had promised to walk. As coal trucks rumbled by, we thought about passing the Samples Mine entrance. Soon, 20 people gathered at the church, including James and Sibby Weekly, Blair residents who are litigants in the lawsuit. Like Larry, they have been harassed and intimidated for daring to take a stand against the eco-slaughter. TV news crews also joined us. We gathered up the state flag and a "Stop Mountaintop Removal" sign and walked about six hours from Kayford to Sharon, along the Cabin Creek hollow. At least 150 coal trucks passed us as we walked on the edge of the narrow road. The trucks, weighing about 30 tons empty and more than 100 tons full, lumbered over little bridges where posted weight limits were 8 or 12 tons. At least 50 other trucks rolled by, carrying fuel, explosives and pieces of huge equipment to the mine sites. Our steps were buoyed by the presence of four teenagers and three children. Most of the kids live in Kayford and Red Warrior, communities that, as mining intensified, shriveled like the mountains around them. Larry told the kids he was walking for them, for their futures. The Samples Mine employs five family members of one of the teenagers walking with us. Still, she walked because she has lived with the effects of mountaintop removal — the devastated landscape, the noise, the dust, the cracked foundations and dried-up wells. She refuses to buy the argument that we must choose between the land that sustains us and jobs. Ultimately, the two cannot be separated. In one community, a pastor painting his church steeple called to offer us a drink of water. Like people all along the route, he offered us words of encouragement. After 10 miles of walking, we stopped for the day, elated at the support we had received, right in the heart of coal country. Vivian Stockman works part-time for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. She’s a consultant for the WV Highlands Conservancy and a stringer for Roane County Newspapers. 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