I’m curious if we can even talk about mountaintop removal coal mining without ripping each others throats out. I just don’t understand. Why does it have to be a hostile subject? Why can’t we voice our opinions on either side without worrying about someone throwing rocks? I don’t normally bash anybody - well except maybe Blankenship but, hey, even if your a coal miner you gotta understand that. I have a problem with Beth Walker on the Supreme Court on ethic grounds alone. Regardless of whether she has the best intentions or shady intentions, there will always be doubt in her rulings for the coal industry for the simple fact she has strong connections to the friends of coal. I don’t have anything personally against Mrs. Walker I just don’t think she should be on the Supreme Court where she will most likely have to decide a case or two against the coal industry. And since her family funds the friends of coal - I think that is all that needs to be said.

I’m going to tell you some of my problems with mountaintop removal coal mining.

My problem with mountaintop removal coal mining lies in Prenter, West Virginia where they have had to form a citizens action group to try and get clean water - a battle they have been fighting for years. In the 21st century, in the great United States of America, we have people without clean water to drink. These people live in Boone County which is one of the highest coal producing counties in the country. They don’t see the profit from coal. Especially when they have to drive ten miles to a tanker to fill water jugs because their well water has been contaminated.

My problem with mountaintop removal coal mining lies in Sundial, West Virginia - Marsh Fork Elementary - where citizens have been fighting to get their kids away from a nearby silo, sludge dam, and mountaintop removal site. These people aren’t asking the coal industry for much. They just want their kids a safe distance from the site. And understandably they don’t believe the coal industry or the DEP concerning the supposed safety of the school. It may very well be safe but there is enough doubt to say why chance it. This is one time for sure that we are not going to want to have to say we told you so.

My problem with mountaintop removal coal mining lies on Kayford Mountain where Larry Gibson has been fighting to save his fifty acres for somewhere around 20 years. He has had 122 acts of violence against him for wanting to preserve his home. There is a family cemetery on his property that is completely surrounded by a mountaintop removal site.

My problem with mountaintop removal coal mining has to do with all of the ancestral grave sites in the hills of West Virginia. Some of those are marked only with stones. The coal industry is currently allowed to mine 100 feet from a (known) grave site. Think about this for a minute. What if it were your grave that close to blasting? All I can say, if you plan to be buried in the mountains like most mountain folk like to be - you better get the resting part done before you go.

I have had people comment and tell me that people like having money pour into their communities from these mine sites. I challenge anybody to drive through the coalfields and show me somewhere besides coal company property that is benefiting from mountaintop removal coal mining. And I don’t mean pointing out Darryl and his other brother Darryl, I mean show me a community that is benefiting in the coalfields.

If you want to improve the reputation of the coal industry then get clean water to the folks in Prenter. Don’t shoot at Larry Gibson any more or try to run him off the road. For God’s sake do something about Marsh Fork Elementary. If little groups are jumping up everywhere waving red flags, they are not environmental extremist. They are waving flags because something is wrong. Most movements are set in motion by a great wrong. The movements will stay in motion until the wrong has been corrected.

In lieu of being called an environmental extremist my problem with mountaintop removal coal mining lies in the 1200 miles of buried streams, the complete wasting of an entire hardwood forest. When I say that I mean when the mountains are clearcut there are no logging trucks to get those trees. They are just simply sacrificed. I see an entire job market right there not utilized. If we have to destroy the mountains - a lot of people could benefit from the boost to the logging industry. If we have to destroy the mountains then we could do a heck of a lot better job of reclaiming them. Spend some of those millions earned from taking the mountain apart, hire some crews, and do your absolute best to restore some resemblance of order.

We are not even giving these reclaimed sites an opportunity. There is no topsoil. If I’m not badly mistaken it takes about a 120 years to create one inch of topsoil. Imagine how long it will take to gain enough topsoil to support the root structure of a tree. Please don’t come at me with future development. There are only a handful of sites that have been developed, the few hundred others are 26 hard miles south of nowhere and those are the ones we should be concerned with.

Why are we bound and determined to destroy our heritage, culture, and our land?… and for what?

Coal, a non-renewable resource.