Mountaintop Removal Mining Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Artists Take Public To School With Social Issues Exhibition in Beckley

Robby Moore usually doesn’t put his work in exhibits he curates. But this time he had something he felt he needed to express. Moore’s the executive director of the Beckley Art Center (BAC.)

“My whole life I’ve experienced sort of a silent racism,” Moore said. “Some of that is because we think of the civil rights movement in the distant past but it’s really close. My parents went to segregated high schools. I still live in a neighborhood that for many of my friends and neighbors when I tell them where I live you get a certain look and sometimes it goes beyond the look they just simply express that that’s ‘the bad part of town.

“I’ve lived here for 41 years and I think it’s a very nice part of town. It’s my home.”

Robby Moore created a piece called “Black History Month” for the art exhibition called Social Studies.

The BAC’s Dan and Cynthia Bickey Art Gallery is hosting the Social Studies exhibition. He says it’s meant to bring deep, thoughtful conversation about social studies and social justice.

“We have pieces that address mountaintop removal, poverty, women’s rights, voting, censorship, gun violence, racism and the Black Lives Matter movement,” Moore said.

Paula Clendenin created a piece called, “White Wash,” that’s part of the art exhibition called “Social Studies.”

The exhibition includes 14 West Virginia artists and one artist from Virginia/Pennsylvania. Some of the work was inspired during the pandemic, like finding something to do with all of the plastic bags that seemed to accumulate in homes across the country.

“Normally, I would go physically to the store and use reusable bags,” said artist and Tamarack Foundation programming manager Domenica Queen. “Because I wanted to stay out of the stores and not only protect myself, but also not add my risk factors to the situation. I ended up ordering, curbside pickup groceries pretty regularly. There were plastic bags coming in from that.”

Domenica Queen created a piece called “Overlap” by rug hooking with plastic bags for the art exhibition called Social Studies.

She’s also an artist who creates with paint. During the lockdown of the pandemic, she felt uninspired so she sat down her paint brushes and picked up the Appalachian tradition of rug hooking with a modern, plastic, twist. Instead of using fabric, Queen used plastic in her rugs.

“You might not consider it, but art supplies do get kind of pricey,” Queen said. “It’s really fun to be able to be really exuberant with my use of the material. I don’t have to be conservative. I don’t have to think, ‘well, I’m gonna have to buy another tube of paint or another canvas.’ I mean, it’s trash. I’m playing with trash, so there’s no waste that’s going to happen.”

Queen learned the technique from fellow artist Susan Feller. Feller says it’s a forgivable craft.

“Take my five minute lesson in how to use the hook and go with it,” Feller said. “I don’t care what fabric you use, use plastic bags for all I care.”

Each loop is made by pushing the hook through loose weave of backing to pull up the strip of fabric (or yarns) when the loop is up, the hook moves on to another hole just far enough away to be hidden with the next loop. On and on until done. Changing strips is by cutting fabric off on top, and hooking a new color in the same hole.

Feller uses rug-hooking pieces to create what she calls an honest view of her surroundings in West Virginia.

“I think there’s a beautiful story to tell with our natural surroundings,” Feller said. “We live here in the Appalachian in the Potomac Highlands. I look out on a forest. So it’s gorgeous.

“But as we’re driving on the manmade highways that go scenically, we see the windmills and the turbine and that type of utility. We see the coal processing and down in the lower part of the state, certainly the mountaintop removal. Those things are just subtle awareness for people traveling through as tourists. But I do know that all of us live amongst it and are in conflict.”

Susan Feller’s piece called “Mountaintop Removal Puzzle” is part of the Social Studies exhibition at the Beckley Art Center.

Some of Feller’s work is also part of the “Social Studies” exhibition at the Beckley Arts Center. The framed pieces of carefully hooked fabric might look pretty, but the title has a much deeper story. It’s called “Mountaintop Removal Puzzle.”

Feller, like Moore and other artists in this showcase, hopes to create conversations around these social issues.

Domenica Queen hopes those conversations include questions.

“I’m not really looking for people to have a certain interpretation,” Queen said. “I’m just trying to fill their head with questions. Is that plastic? What was that before? Why did they make those shapes?

“I mostly want people to have questions because questions are really more useful than answers most of the time, especially when you’re talking about hoping for change. Change only comes through asking questions.”

Mollie Schaidt created a piece called, “Dad’s Legs Are Breaking Down, But He Still Has to Work,” for the art exhibition called Social Studies at the Beckley Art Center.

The artists shared some photos of their work for this story, but they suggest visiting the gallery to experience this exhibit and take in all of the textures — in person — to get a better appreciation for the show.

The exhibition will be up through June 19 in Beckley.

Two Decades Of Resistance: Coal River Mountain Watch Takes Stock At 20

Coal River Mountain Watch’s history of resistance to mountaintop coal mining is plastered across the wood panelled walls of the group’s modest office in Raleigh County, West Virginia.

Framed photos, many of demonstrators being handcuffed, dot the walls. In the back of the building, a floor-to-ceiling length tapestry depicts the “true cost of coal” as envisioned by an activist volunteer group that created it. Pollution spews from a coal-fired power plant. A stream runs dirty. Anthropomorphized creatures take the place of humans.

“Look for somebody with a bullhorn,” said Vernon Haltom. The current co-executive director of Coal River Mountain Watch is animated as he searches the tableau, his salt-and-pepper beard bobbing up and down. Near the bottom right-hand corner he spots an ant wearing a hard hat and carrying a bullhorn.

“I think of that one as Judy Bonds,” Haltom said. “She was a person with a bullhorn.”

Photos depicting Coal River Mountain Watch’s history of grassroots activism hang in the office.

The “insect Bonds” is surrounded by other activist creatures; a salamander holds a miniature wind turbine and bees flit around. This hive of activity is a tribute to the grassroots network of activists that formed in Appalachia in the 1990s and 2000s, largely to raise awareness of the health and environmental impacts of mountaintop removal. The practice, which requires blowing the tops off mountains to reach the coal below, has disturbed an estimated 1.5 million acres, an area roughly the size of Delaware, and buried thousands of miles of streams.

Coal River Mountain Watch and Bonds were central figures in the movement.

“We had a lot of cross pollination of ideas and various tactics and things that we’ve tried and done in varying levels of success or frustration over the years,” Haltom said. “So many of these things are things that Judy Bonds had to say.”

A coal miners daughter and waitress at a local Pizza Hut, Bonds and her family were the last to evacuate from her own hometown of Marfork Hollow, which was surrounded by mountaintop removal. In 2003, she was awarded the Goldman Prize, often referred to as the green Nobel.

In her acceptance speech, Bonds spoke of using activism to break coal’s deep ties in Appalachia and to seek a better way of life for those living in the communities neighboring mining.

“Organize, educate, motivate, mentor young children,” she said. “Children take back your earth.”

For the last 20 years, those have been the tenets of Coal River Mountain Watch, said Vivian Stockman with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

“It takes a lot of courage to stand up when you’re right in the middle of it and that’s what Coal River Mountain Watch has been doing for its two decades of existence,” she said.

This animation shows the expansion of surface mining’s footprint (displayed in yellow) from 1985 to 2015 for a 31,000 square kilometer sub-region of the study area in West Virginia and Kentucky, and has county boundaries visible.

A simple wooden sign hangs above the office entrance with the group’s logo and a motto: “Remembering the past, working for the future.” As the group hits the 20-year mark its leaders are taking stock of accomplishments, some painful losses, and the work ahead.

‘True Activist’

The group counts some hard-fought victories in its 20 years of existence, including securing a new campus for Marsh Fork Elementary School, which was previously located in the shadow of an active mining operation owned by Massey Energy.

An earthen dam and impoundment sitting above the school was permitted to hold 2.8 billion gallons of liquid coal waste. The waste pond and dam were constructed by the same mining company that was responsible for a similar impoundment in Martin County, Kentucky, that failed in 2000, sending millions of gallons of slurry into two tributaries of the Tug Fork River.

In addition to the active mountaintop removal mine, the school was also near a coal silo and railroad line. Concerned advocates feared students were being exposed to coal and silica dust as well as diesel emissions.

A coal silo near the old Marsh Fork Elementary School.

While some children reported illness, others in the community were concerned the school could close and students would be sent elsewhere.

Coal River Mountain Watch’s playbook included protest, letter writing campaigns and the use of the legal system. To raise awareness around Marsh Fork, In 2006, one of the group’s members, Ed Wiley, walked from Charleston to Washington, D.C., to raise the issue to West Virginia’s Congressional leadership. Ultimately, a new campus was approved in 2010.

While some of the group’s tactics in courts and protests were confrontational, other actions sought cooperation. Bonds made some unlikely allies, like Mike Caputo, an organizer with the United Mine Workers. The two teamed up to reduce the weight of coal trucks. The oversized vehicles barreled down steep mountain roads, killing at least 14 people over a two-year period. Caputo, now a delegate in West Virginia’s Legislature, said Bonds was dedicated to her community.

A photo of Judy Bonds inside Coal River Mountain Watch headquarters.

“Even when we disagreed, I miss her dearly,” he said. “You look up the word activist and you’ll see Judy Bonds’ picture beside it, because she was a true activist.”

Bonds died of cancer in 2011. After two decades of activism — some of which elicited threats to members lives and personal safety — today Coal River Mountain Watch had yet to see its primary goal of ending mountaintop removal mining realized. And while the plight of the Appalachian coal miner remains a politically hot touchstone, nationally, the spotlight on mountaintop removal has faded.

“It’s been tough lately because a lot of people think mountaintop removal is over and they don’t really grasp why we still do this,” Haltom said.

He said funders have shifted their priorities to other causes, which has resulted in fewer resources. Coal River Mountain Watch’s staff has scaled back. And while it’s an asset to be on the ground, the nonprofit also faces fundraising challenges due to its isolated location.

The group was central in securing a National Academy of Sciences study into the health impacts of mountaintop removal mining. In 2017, it was abruptly cancelled by the Trump administration. The organization has also lobbied repeatedly for the passage of the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Act, which would bar mining until a health study is done. The bill received a hearing in the House in 2019, but otherwise has had little traction in Congress.

Still, in recent years, research has validated many of fears about the health impacts of mountaintop removal. Studies show a correlation between mountaintop removal and high rates of cancer, lung disease, andbirth defects in neighboring communities.

“The blasting dust is deadly. I mean it’s silica,” Haltom said. “We’ve known silica is a killer, but for some reason people think that Appalachians are immune to it.”

New research from theNational Institute for Occupational Safety and Health released this month shows surface mine dust contains more silica than does dust in underground coal mines. The findings come at a time when the most severe form of black lung disease, once thought to be nearly eradicated, is surging in Central Appalachia.

Next Generation

Volunteers swim in Peachtree Falls after cleaning up trash in the nearby creek.

While the work may be harder, Coal River Mountain Watch is still doing it. At their solar-powered headquarters, the group models possible alternatives to coal mining, such as hemp farming and beekeeping. And they’re instilling in a younger generation a passion for the mountains around them.

To mark its 20 years, Coal River Mountain Watch hosted a creek cleanup. Dozens of kids and adults crashed through Peachtree Creek gathering bottles, plastic bags and even a kid-sized swimming pool. After more than an hour of tough work, volunteers took a dip in Peachtree Falls.

Volunteers, including Coal River Mountain Watch Co-Director Debbie Jarrell, clean up trash along Peachtree Creek.

At a barbeque after the cleanup, volunteers munched on hotdogs and burgers. Watching children play in the nearby creek, Haltom reflected on Coal River Mountain Watch’s legacy.

“I think we’ve come a long way in helping people understand there’s a better way of living, you know,” he said. “Don’t treat your community like it’s a disposable item.”

Coal Community Residents Again Ask Congress For Health Study Of Mountaintop Removal

Residents of Appalachian coal communities told a Congressional subcommittee Tuesday that the controversial mining practice known as mountaintop removal should be halted until its health effects are better studied.

Late in the Obama administration the National Academy of Sciences launched a study into the health effects for communities near mountaintop removal coal mines.

Donna Branham of Lenore, West Virginia, was among the many residents with questions and concerns about effects on air and water quality. She was hopeful the National Academy study would bring some answers. But in the summer of 2017 the Trump administration’s Interior Department abruptly cancelled funding and ordered the National Academy to halt the study.

“We felt abandoned, we felt as if our lives didn’t matter,” Branham told lawmakers.

Branham was one of four witnesses from Kentucky and West Virginia who told members of the House Natural Resources Committee that the National Academy study should continue. Until such a study is complete, they argued, regulators should place a moratorium on mountaintop removal mining.

Former coal miner Carl Shoupe of Benham, Kentucky, organizes for the citizens’ action group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. He said mining also threatens cultural and natural areas that could be part of the region’s new economy.

“As we speak, a coal company is seeking a permit to strip mine the ridge behind my home,” Shoupe said. “They plan to go up the entire valley.”

West Virginia University Environmental Health Professor Michael McCawley pointed to what he called strong evidence linking the mining practice to a variety of negative health effects.

Several studies show correlation between mountaintop removal and high rates of illnesses in neighboring communities. McCawley said his work on air quality near mines also shows high levels of fine particulate matter, which are known to present health hazards.

“In my opinion these independent studies should allow the conclusions to be considered more than simply correlative,” he said. “They should be considered causal.”

McCawley said he thinks that mounting evidence of health effects is what motivated the Interior Department to cancel the study.

“I think they believed that the study was going to come out with evidence that supported banning mountaintop mining, that they knew what the evidence was,” he said.

Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat who represents the Louisville area, also testified about his legislation, the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Act, which would ban new permits for the mining practice until a comprehensive health study is completed.

Kentucky Coal Association President Tyler White countered that Yarmuth’s bill is too broadly worded and would have negative economic effects.

“This would effectively delay or halt coal production throughout Appalachia and set a staggering precedent that could affect mining nationwide.”

Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who chairs the committee, said in an interview with the ReSource that the Interior Department had declined to answer requests for information and declined to send a representative to answer lawmakers’ questions. Grijalva said his committee is considering using its subpoena power to get documents relevant to the department’s decision to cancel the National Academy study.

“We’re being very diligent in the way that we’re doing it. We want to make sure that our subpoenas have standing,” he said. “When we do it, it’ll mean something.”

ReSource reporter Sydney Boles contributed to this story.

Grant Funding Available for Economic Development Projects on Strip Mines

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation is taking applications for grant funding available for economic development projects.

The goal of the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Economic Development Pilot Program is to provide financial assistance to communities hoping to redevelop lands near abandoned mine sites across the state.

Since 2016, 18 projects have received a total of $53 million dollars in grant funding. Those projects are located in Boone, Clay, Kanawha, Fayette, Lincoln, Logan, Marion, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Preston, Raleigh, and Tucker counties.

The projects that received grant funding ranged from water line expansions and public sewer system improvements to new construction at a YMCA facility and development of an ATV trail.

The DEP is seeking applications for economic development projects located on or adjacent to mine sites that ceased operations prior to the signing of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act in 1977.

Applications are due June 15.

We Have Questions: Seeking Explanation for Halted Mining Impact Study in Appalachia

In a move officials say is meant to “ensure the proper and responsible allocation of taxpayers’ money,” a forthcoming study on the public health impacts of mountaintop removal mining titled, “Potential Human Health Effects of Surface Coal Mining Operations in Central Appalachia” was cancelled in August, leaving behind an unaccounted for $400,000 of remaining funding.

The study is supposedly pending a departmental review of projects costing more than $100,000.

This move comes in spite of the fact that similar studies by other agencies investigating different aspects and risks involved with mountaintop removal mining have consistently produced findings that support more — not less — intense scrutiny of the health risks facing inhabitants of Appalachia.

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D) of Arizona’s 3rd District sent a letter last month to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke demanding an explanation of the fate of the funds.

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The study, conducted under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and canceled by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), had a budget of $1,000,000 and focused on four states in Central Appalachia: Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky. It would have helped identify consequences from surface coal mining operations on air and water quality and their potential for short-term and long-term human health effects.

According to Rep. Grijalva’s letter, no other studies have been halted as a result of budget review by the Department of Interior of grants over $100,000. Arizona’s Representative expressed concern that the reasons behind the research’s cancellation might be driven by ideology and not fiscal responsibility.

“It increasingly appears as if DOI ended the study because of fears that it would conclusively show that mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining is a serious threat to the health of people living in Appalachia. Cutting off funding for a scientific study because it will likely produce uncomfortable results for powerful Administration allies is unconscionable, especially when these political games are affecting public health. Sadly, as we have seen so far this year, this Administration routinely suppresses science that doesn’t agree with its ideology.”

In his letter, Rep. Grijalva recalls a joint call for the reinstitution of the study with Representatives Frank Pallone (D–N.J.), ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, John Yarmuth (D–KY.), ranking member of the Committee on Budget, Don Beyer (D–VA.) and Donald McEachin (D–VA.). The was letter sent by the Representatives one week after the August 18 decision to halt the study. As of press time it remains unanswered.

“Sadly, this Administration continues to perpetrate one of the cruelest deceptions in politics today, telling the people of Appalachia that coal jobs are coming back, all while far too many Americans get sick and die from the dangerous consequences of mountaintop removal,” commented Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky’s 3rd District. He declared he plans to continue to push for the legislation he introduced with Representative Louise Slaughter of New York’s 25th District. The Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act (ACHEA) would “place a moratorium on all new mountaintop coal removal mining permits while federal officials examine health consequences to surrounding communities.”

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The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine remains in the dark regarding the future of the halted research as well. The Academy’s Media Officer, Riya V. Anandwala, informed 100 Days in Appalachia that there are no significant updates regarding the study, as review is still under way. According to Anandwala, no official timeline was presented to the Academy and no advanced warning was dispatched. She is also unaware of any other studies halted for the same reasons.

“OSMRE sent us the letter on August 18 and informed us of the upcoming review,” she said in a phone interview. “The National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine still believes it is an important study and researchers working on the project are ready to continue their work as soon as the review is over,” she added.

Interior’s Deputy Press Secretary, Alex Hinson, explained in an email that the review is meant to ensure the proper and responsible allocation of taxpayers’ money. Although Hinson stated that “in April the Department began reviewing grants and cooperative partnerships that exceed $100,000,” he failed to provide any studies that are undergoing similar review. Hinson declined comment on Rep. Grijalva’s statements, despite repeated requests. To date, questions directed from Rep. Grijalva’s Office concerning the halted study remain unanswered.

Rep. Grijalva argues that since funding for the study has been awarded to the National Academy of Sciences with Fiscal Year 2016 funds from OSMRE, the DOI should be able to account for the money remaining in the grant, as September 30 marked the end of the Fiscal Year 2017. OSMRE is typically given two fiscal years to spend its appropriations, and the agency loses any funds it fails to spend within that timeframe.

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The Environmental Protection Agency’s report from 2011 titled “The Effects of Mountaintop Mines and Valley Fills on Aquatic Ecosystems of the Central Appalachian Coalfields” looked at a variety of impacts of MTR on the environment –particularly on water sources in the valley fills. Among these impacts are high concentrations of major chemical ions that remain elevated downstream, high levels of selenium affecting birds and fish, as well as water quality degradation reaching lethal levels for organisms native to those environments.

Asked whether there have been any additional responses to the study being halted, Anandwala said she was not aware of any other calls from Congress or Senate offering support.

100 Days in Appalachia reached out to three additional Representatives—David B. McKinley (R-WV), Alex Mooney (R-WV), and Evan Jenkins (R-WV). Each declined to comment on the halted study.

Jan Pytalski is a Washington, D.C. correspondent for 100 Days in Appalachia. Jan is a recent transplant to the United States from Poland, where he began his journalism career working for the Reuters news agency in Warsaw. After moving to Washington, he continued working for Reuters as a stringer, helping with the White House coverage under the Trump Administration. Prior to his work as a reporter, Jan spent over a decade working as a translator with publishers and universities in Poland and the United States.