On this West Virginia Morning, the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, which caused the deaths of 29 miners, happened 14 years ago. Ashton Marra worked for WVPB at the time and covered the trial of Don Blankenship, CEO of the company that owned the mine. Briana Heaney sat down with Marra to talk about what it was like being a reporter covering the trial.
On this West Virginia Morning, the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, which caused the deaths of 29 miners, happened 14 years ago. Ashton Marra worked for WVPB at the time and covered the trial of Don Blankenship, CEO of the company that owned the mine. Briana Heaney sat down with Marra to talk about what it was like being a reporter covering the trial.
Also, in this show, our Mountain Stage Song of the Week comes to us from four-time GRAMMY winner Sarah Jarosz. We listen to her performance of “Good at What I Do,” which recently reached #1 on the Americana Radio charts.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from Marshall Health.
West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.
Eric Douglas is our news director. Chris Schulz produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
The EPA’s proposed consent decree would settle a lawsuit filed this month by environmental groups in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a settlement to a federal lawsuit over water pollution from coal mining.
The EPA’s proposed consent decree would settle a lawsuit filed this month by environmental groups in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
It establishes total daily maximum loads for ionic toxicity in the lower Guyandotte watershed.
Ionic toxicity, dissolved mineral salts that result from surface mining, can impair aquatic life.
The West Virginia Rivers Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Sierra club filed the lawsuit on March 18. It named Adam Ortiz, the EPA Region 3 Administrator, as a defendant.
This year, nearly $30 million in federal funding will go toward projects that revitalize West Virginia’s coalfield communities and repurpose abandoned mine lands across the state.
In an effort to repurpose abandoned mine lands, state officials have granted millions of dollars in federal funding to community development projects on former West Virginia coalfields.
The funding was secured in the latest round of the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) Program. Since 2016, the program has provided federal dollars to community and economic development projects that rehabilitate coalfields, as well as the towns surrounding them.
West Virginia has hundreds of abandoned coal mining sites, with an estimated 173,000 acres of land across the state abandoned before 1977 alone.
For 2024, West Virginia was granted just under $30 million through the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), which oversees the program.
This year’s funding marks the most West Virginia has received since 2016, the first year of the program.
With OSMRE’s final approval still pending, West Virginia officials said that this year’s funding would be divided between 10 different economic development initiatives across the state.
Projects selected for funding by state officials this year include a cattle processing facility in Brooke County, a sports park in Marion County and a heritage center in Ohio County.
Announced Thursday, the following projects were tapped for AMLER funding this year by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the West Virginia Department of Commerce, the West Virginia Department of Transportation and the Governor’s Office:
Chief Logan Resort and Recreation Center, Logan County: $6,800,000
West Virginia Farm Foods, Brooke County: $4,000,000
City of Thomas Water Improvement Project, Tucker County: $3,000,000
Cleanwater RU2 Process Project, Kanawha County: $2,950,000
Ashland Resort Tourism Park, McDowell County: $2,993,500
Liberty Station Lodge & Tavern, Mercer County: $2,421,968
Opal Smith Highwall and Roanoke Center Expansion, Lewis County: $2,406,739
Gravity Adventure Park, Kanawha County: $2,163,954
Coal has not generated more than 19 percent of U.S. electricity in any month this year, falling to 13.8 percent in April and May. That’s the first time coal has ever fallen below 15 percent. Coal was never less than 20 percent in any month before 2020.
Power plants currently have huge inventories of coal. On average, 113 days, or four months. That’s not far below the May 2020 peak of 120 days. It took 16 months to lower those stockpiles.
Seth Feaster, an energy data analyst, says that’s not good news for the mining industry. As utilities burn through their current inventory, they’re not going to buy more.
“And the other shoe to drop is we’re going to start seeing a decline in coal production because there’s nowhere to put all that coal,” he said.
Utilities are choosing to use cheaper natural gas and renewables instead, Feaster says. In 2024, he says, the post-COVID coal rebound will be over.
This week on Inside Appalachia, Rae Garringer felt isolated growing up and thought they were the only queer person in a small town. But they learned otherwise. Now they’re collecting and sharing the stories of rural LGBTQ people from across the country. Also, surface mining changes the landscape in a way that makes flooding worse. And there’s no easy fix. And we meet an Appalachian village witch, who wonders: How come we don’t hear about more female cryptids? Why isn’t there a Mothwoman?
This week, Rae Garringer felt isolated growing up and thought they were the only queer person in a small town. But they learned otherwise. Now they are collecting and sharing the stories of rural LGBTQ people from across the country.
Also, surface mining changes the landscape in a way that makes flooding worse. And there’s no easy fix.
And we meet an Appalachian village witch, who wonders: How come we don’t hear about more female cryptids? Why isn’t there a Mothwoman?
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
For 10 years, West Virginia native Rae Garringer has traveled around the country, recording oral history interviews with LGBTQ people in rural areas. Beginning in 2020, they started producing those interviews for a podcast called Country Queers.
Host Mason Adams caught up with Garringer, and they discussed the project and what it meant to tell those stories.
Climate Change, Mining And Flash Flooding
Flash flooding in Kanawha County.
Credit: Anna Goodnight
In August, historic flooding swept through central and southern West Virginia. Sudden heavy rain swept down the mountains, turning streams into rivers. The floods struck so swiftly that dozens of people had to be rescued.
But just as quickly as the floodwaters rose, they subsided, leaving wreck and ruin. Flash floods like this have become a regular occurrence in much of Appalachia.
WVPB’s Briana Heaney investigated the recent flooding near Charleston.
Interview With An Appalachian Witch
H. Byron Ballard at home.
Credit: Llewellyn Worldwide
It’s the October spooky season, but here in Appalachia, a lot of people take witchcraft more seriously than broomsticks and black cats. It’s part of folklore. H. Byron Ballard, a practicing witch in North Carolina, is the author of “Small Magics: Practical Secrets from an Appalachian Village Witch.”
Producer Bill Lynch spoke with her.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Todd Burge, John Blissard, The Dirty River Boys and Tyler Childers.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
1st Source Bank, of South Bend, Indiana, joined Bluestone Resource’s motion for a stay in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on Wednesday.
An Indiana bank that loaned money to a coal company owned by Gov. Jim Justice has joined a court case involving another of the company’s creditors and a dispute over a helicopter.
1st Source Bank, of South Bend, Indiana, joined Bluestone Resource’s motion for a stay in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on Wednesday.
Bluestone and 1st Source want the court to stop the U.S. Marshals from seizing the helicopter on behalf of Caroleng Investments, an offshore company Bluestone owes $13 million.
In its filing, 1st Source estimates the value of the 2012 Bell helicopter at $1.2 million. Previous filings had indicated the helicopter was built in 2009.
1st Source identifies itself as “a lender with a perfected, first-priority security interest in the personal property” of Bluestone, meaning the helicopter.
Caroleng’s attorneys tracked the aircraft, which had been housed in Roanoke, Virginia, to Burlington, North Carolina. On Tuesday, the company asked the court to order Bluestone to turn over the aircraft to the U.S. Marshals, subject to contempt of court.
1st Source and Bluestone entered a loan agreement in 2018 for $1.5 million, the bank’s court filing says.
In 2021, Bluestone secured $10 million in financing from 1st Source, using the helicopter as part of the collateral. As of Oct. 15, Bluestone owes 1st Source about $5 million, the court filing says.
“By virtue of its security interest in the helicopter,” the filing says, “1st Source has a property interest in the helicopter that may be harmed by the execution of the writ.”
In an earlier court filing, Bluestone identified Caroleng, based in the British Virgin Islands, as a shell company controlled by Russian mining and metals oligarch Igor Zyuzin.
Caroleng disputed that description, identifying itself as a “special purpose investment vehicle.”
