Most readers here and supporters of the cause to end mountaintop removal already know about the plight of Marsh Fork Elementary in Sundial, WV. For those that don’t, I’ll briefly touch on the issues before getting down to the grit of this post.
As you can see in this image taken in 2005, the school sits below a reservoir of toxic sludge- 2.8 BILLION gallons of it!! Also, the school sits just over 200 feet from a coal silo that covers the area in a fine black dust. Air samples taken from inside the school all show the presence of the fine dust in the air. This dust is know to cause respiratory ailments, especially in children. What was it years ago that a lot of underground coal miners died from… oh yeah!! Its called black lung disease. Yet this school sits dangerously close to these hazards, yet Massey Energy refuses to do anything about it. I guess the government of WV doesn’t care either, after all why should they do anything, I’m sure they are getting their pockets padded from this site and many others just like it, so of course they will just turn a blind eye.
Pennies of Promise - A Way For You To Help
The original reason for this post was to bring awareness of a site that has been mentioned here in a couple of posts, yet never fully covered. I just happened across link to them on another blog and decided to try to help get their cause out there.
Pennies Of Promise is a grass roots effort comprised of local citizens of the Coal River Valley, WV, and other concerned fellow Appalachians. In the absence of help from our elected officials, we have looked to each other for support.
Since, as I stated above, King Coal and the government don’t care, the citizens have to step in and try to make things right. Thats just what Pennies of Promise has done. they started their own campaign to raise money to build a new school. What’s more, they have made it easy for you to donate. Just visit their save Marsh Fork Elementary donation page to contribute whatever you can. you cna donate via check/money order or if you have a paypal account, you can use that, which makes it even easier to donate. You may donate anonymously if you wish also.
Reminder
Just a quick note to remind everyone the STOP mountaintop removal forums are up and running. You can visit them here.
Also, i don’t know if anyone has ever explored this aspect before but here about 5 years ago at the Keystone #2 mine (a Bluestone Industries operation), a coal silo exploded due to improper ventiliation. The gas from the coal apparently built up in the silo and ignited. The silo and much of the surronding area was destroyed. I don’t want to even imagine what would happen if this Marsh Fork coal silo exploded. A current mine educator/former inspector told us about this, he is a family friend and asked that if we told about this, not to use his name. I don’t know if the Keystone #2 explosion was publicized since only company property was damaged.