Recent Aerial Videos


Sep 30, 2021

Here's a sampling of recent aerial videos with descriptions of mountaintop removal sites and related coal operations on and around Coal River Mountain. Some are from our flyover with Southwings on June 16, 2021, and some are from drone flights by Junior Walk. To see more, you can go to (and subscribe please) to Coal River Mountain Watch on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnPu-xSzsMIOhwKDIC8K0qg and Junior Walk at https://www.youtube.com/user/BobaFeattus.  The old Marsh Fork Elementary School (black flat roof--the white building is the gym) across the Marsh Fork of the Big Coal River from Alpha Metallurgical Resources' Goals Coal preparation plant, under a 2.8 billion-gallon waste sludge dam. The orange ponds are treatment of coal waste before it's put back into the river. 

Sept. 24, 2021. Panoramic view of MTR and remaining ridges on Coal River Mountain from the heads of Workman’s Creek and Rock Creek area. Nearly all of the tree-covered ridges are either permitted for MTR or on the drawing board, subjecting them to the same fate as the white, dusty rubble area and subjecting residents to the public health threat of airborne blasting dust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owyG44Sji4w

Aug. 22, 2021. Coal giant Alpha Metallurgical Resources plans to remove this portion of Paint Mountain above Artie, WV, their 4th site within a mile of Clear Fork Elementary School, and fill the valleys with waste rubble. Coal River Mountain Watch opposes this expanded destruction. Not only is the blasting dust a public health hazard, but the MTR and valley fills will threaten the valley with floods like those of 1998 and 2001.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeGcrjlHdD8

 

June 16, 2021. Flyover of Coal River Mountain, including mountaintop removal and the Brushy Fork coal waste sludge dam. Brushy Fork is two miles from tip to toe, holds about 8 billion gallons of black sludge, and is built over abandoned underground mines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2E20OFh24s

Flyover courtesy Southwings.

 

June 16, 2021. Flyover of the old Marsh Fork Elementary School, Sundial, WV, beside a coal silo, prep plant, 2.8-billion-gallon sludge dam, and 2,000-acre mountaintop removal site (the Edwight site) on Cherry Pond Mountain, operated by Alpha Metallurgical Resources. The company assured everyone that this was all perfectly fine, in spite of high rates of respiratory illness in the school. After 6 years of persistent campaigning, and a huge boost from a generous foundation, we got a new school for the kids in a safer location, where they started class in 2013. The orange ponds are where the waste is treated before being released back into the river (the Marsh Fork of the Big Coal River).

Also pictured are the community of Sundial, Pettry Bottom, and Naoma, home of Coal River Mountain Watch. The company plans to resume operations at the mountaintop removal site, presently in “inactive” status.

Flyover courtesy SouthWings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUpaTDgLhPQ&t=172s

 

June 16, 2021. Flyover of the same 2,000-acre MTR site above, the Edwight site on Cherry Pond Mountain. In November 2015, the permit’s status was changed from “Active-Moving Coal” to “Active-Reclamation Only.” On Dec. 15, 2015, this permit was cited for not keeping up with its reclamation schedule. Subsequent agreements and revisions kept extending reclamation. The permit was placed in “Inactive” status on Oct. 20, 2020, with the justification that “The current decline of the coal market has forced the applicant to re-evaluate all of it’s reserves, timing, and costs.” The company further states that “start-up of this operation could start within a few days of a decision to begin production activities.” As the video shows, much of the site has no reclamation whatsoever, and what reclamation has been done is effectively cosmetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgL7vxkwicU&t=9s

 

Nov. 20, 2020. Active MTR on Coal River Mountain above the McDowell Branch neighborhood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyuSWo0ZPiM

 

Nov. 13, 2020 Blasting on Coal River Mountain. The dust cloud traveled through the McDowell Branch and Workman’s Creek neighborhoods, drifting at least two miles from the blast site near Boyd Branch Knob. The airborne blasting dust threatens the health of residents. CRMW submitted a complaint for this blatant violation, but WV Dept. of Environmental Protection refused to issue a citation because “photos and video can be altered.” Instead, their investigation relies on the blasting logs and diagrams provided by the company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTb9Bm2otxE

Nov. 13, 2020 Blasting on Coal River Mountain. The dust cloud traveled through the McDowell Branch and Workman’s Creek neighborhoods, drifting at least two miles from the blast site near Boyd Branch Knob. The airborne blasting dust threatens the health of residents. CRMW submitted a complaint for this blatant violation, but WV Dept. of Environmental Protection refused to issue a citation because “photos and video can be altered.” Instead, their investigation relies on the blasting logs and diagrams provided by the company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkB9watQzak&t=11s

 

Nov. 4, 2019 Blasting on Coal River Mountain. The dust cloud traveled into the McDowell Branch neighborhood. The airborne blasting dust threatens the health of residents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys3OAY_Jgmw