Video and Petition: Save Coal River Mountain


Jun 20, 2016

Just watch this new video. https://vimeo.com/171209724 Do you think the communities of Coal River Mountain, the health of the citizens, and the striking beauty are worth saving? We do. So after you watch the video (or before, we're not picky), please sign the petition to save it from bankrupt Alpha Natural Resources' proposed 561-acre "Center Contour" mountaintop removal site. http://tinyurl.com/petitioncrm

Alpha has closed nearly all of their underground mines in our area. They've laid off miners and cut retired miners' benefits that they were promised for most of a lifetime of loyal service at Alpha and notoriously dangerous Massey mines, while their top executives reap millions in bonuses from driving the company into bankruptcy.

But wait, that's not all.

The WV Dept. of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) just reached an agreement in principle with Alpha in which Alpha will continue their mountaintop removal operations to partially pay for the reclamation at previously destroyed mountains. That's right. The years of self-bonding and failure to invest in "reclamation" at levels comparable to their thousands of acres of blasted mountains are finally revealing their consequences. While Alpha is getting some bailout from creditors, they continue razing Coal River Mountain at a cluster of active sites and applying for more. The 2,000-acre Edwight site sits practically abandoned on neighboring Cherry Pond Mountain above the communities of Naoma, Sundial, Pettry Bottom, and Edwight. A March flyover revealed perhaps two bulldozers scratching a vast heap of dusty rubble. It appears that they've laid off most of the workforce at the Edwight site to leave a skeleton crew doing token reclamation.

So to partially pay for "reclamation," which tends to be a joke, Alpha will continue grinding away at Coal River Mountain, giving the local communities an added dose of deadly toxic airborne dust.

The Center site is two miles long, nearly a mile wide in places, and includes about a mile-long section, 1,800 feet wide (the length of 6 football fields), where they plan to level off the top 500 feet of the ridge. And eventually put it back. They say so, anyway.

But wait, there's more.

Also on the drawing board is the 1,028-acre Eagle South permit, planned to devour the ridges above the Coal River Mountain communities of Rock Creek. http://crmw.net/updates/yet-another-mountaintop-removal-site-planned.php

So please, sign and share the petition at http://www.tinyurl.com/petitioncrm , and when it's announced, please consider coming to speak against this site at the "informal conference" that the WVDEP will be holding. Stay tuned for details about date, time, and location.

And also please consider a donation at http://crmw.net/donate.php to support our work fighting against these public health hazards.

Thanks!