University of Virginia Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

How The Fight Against Coal Dust Connects Coastal Virginia To Appalachia

Appalachia produces less coal than it once did, but that coal is still desired around the world for making steel. The demand is now creating problems for people who live near the terminals where coal is moved from train to ship, to then be carried overseas. Residents of Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, say airborne coal dust from export terminals is getting on their cars, on their houses, in their lungs. Residents have started to take matters into their own hands.

This conversation originally aired in the May 26, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Appalachia produces less coal than it once did, but that coal is still desired around the world for making steel.

The demand is now creating problems for people who live near the terminals where coal is moved from train to ship, to then be carried overseas. Residents of Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, say airborne coal dust from export terminals is getting on their cars, on their houses, in their lungs. Residents have started to take matters into their own hands.

A new podcast called Crosswinds links that fight to communities in West Virginia. It’s produced by an environmental justice research project at the University of Virginia called the Repair Lab.

Mason Adams spoke with Crosswinds producer Adrian Wood, as well as Lathaniel Kirts, a pastor and activist in one of the affected communities.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

Adams: The podcast that you all are working on, looks at a problem affecting communities in Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, but then zooms back out to trace this issue to its roots in Appalachia. Lathaniel, you live in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Can you share how you became aware of this coal dust issue?

Kirts: In the Hampton Roads area, there are two different distinct communities that we’re focusing on. One being Norfolk, and the other being Newport News. I am from Norfolk, Virginia — a native of the area. I grew up there. I applied for a job with a coalition called New Virginia Majority. They were focusing on environmental justice. This was back in 2017, and it was about the coal dust issue that was happening in the Lambert’s Point area of Norfolk. so I began working with them building their social media campaign, and helping to spread awareness to try to find something meaningful to change about the coal dust issue.

At that moment, they were focusing on covering the coal. Now, I have recently moved to Newport News, and I realized the same thing that was happening in Norfolk was [also] happening in Newport News as well. So that’s when I started this project with a dear friend of mine, who I was raised with in Norfolk [named] Malcolm Jones. He and I are both practitioners-in-residence with the University of Virginia’s Repair Lab. The Repair Lab’s goal is to help focus on environmental justice in predominately African-American communities, and try to build a coalition around these individuals who do meaningful changes around the work of environmental justice — namely in this area, coal dust.

Lathaniel Kirts and Malcolm Jones of the Repair Lab.

*Photo Credit: Crosswinds*

Adams: Can you describe these neighborhoods, a little bit in Newport News in Norfolk, that are near these coal terminals? Who are the folks that are being affected by this?

Kirts: Two distinctly different communities, [with] some very similar traits. I love them both. Norfolk is of course the biggest military hub in the world. The world’s largest naval base is in Norfolk. It has a diverse population. In Norfolk, when you get to Lambert’s Point community, it is a predominantly Black community, which also has a hub of college students from Old Dominion University there as well. So you’ve got a lot of young people coming in from all over the commonwealth and all over the nation to this place.

Then you have Newport News, which is right across the water. Where the coal terminal sits is a predominantly Black community as well. A lot of poverty as well in the area, a lot of systemic issues are there. I am also a pastor in this community. So this is something that is near and dear to my heart, because I want to see the people — who I pastor, who I work alongside, who I live alongside — to be able to thrive and have a meaningful life, to be able to breathe fresh and clean air.

Adams: These communities are dealing with issues involving coal dust blowing off of the ships and trains into their communities. What are the folks there doing to try to address this problem?

Kirts: There’ve been petitions signed. Yard signs have been put up that say, “Coal dust kills.” They are going out and they’re protesting. They’ve been doing it for years with protests at the former Norfolk Southern headquarters in Norfolk (they have since moved on to Atlanta). They’ve written letters. They’ve contacted their legislators on a national, state and local level. They have gone to city council meetings. They have recorded oral histories through the University of Virginia. We’ve had so many different things that they’ve been doing because, once again, this is affecting their community. What we want to do is to make more people aware, and hopefully come up with some type of meaningful legislation that can stop the spread of coal dust in our area.

Coal yards at Norfolk Southern’s pier at Lambert’s Point, Norfolk, Virginia.

*Photo Credit: Crosswinds*

Adams: Adrian, how did you get involved with this community effort?

Wood: I first met Lathaniel through working with the Repair Lab. I’m the full-time multimedia producer for the Repair Lab. Part of what the Repair Lab does is offer resources to our practitioners-in-residence who work with us for a one-year duration residency, and we offer them resources like academic access to libraries or different kinds of academic connections and policy research and also multimedia production around the topic or the issue that they’re bringing to us. I work as a resource for our practitioners-in-residence, and support the work that they’re doing with environmental justice storytelling that shows the work that’s already been done and also tells us about the work that’s to come.

Adams: How did the idea for the podcast take off?

Wood: The idea for the podcast came because podcasts can be really versatile forms of media. Also, my expertise is in sound and audio editing, so it was maybe the best use of my talents. With the resources at-hand, it made sense. It worked for what we were trying to do, which is to disseminate the story about coal dust, environmental racism and Hampton Roads to the rest of the nation and even the rest of the world. Podcasts work really well for that, because little segments can be picked up by other media entities, and it’s a lot easier to get something broadcast on radio than it is to get something on Netflix. Podcasts also work really well for amplifying and elevating the voices of community members and really allowing them to tell their own stories and speak for themselves around the issues that have been affecting them sometimes for generations.

Adams: So as y’all begin to develop this podcast series, you traced the route of these coal cars back up the railroad tracks and to where the coal was produced, including in West Virginia. So what did you find there?

Wood: I traced the coal that gets shipped out of the Dominion terminal in Newport News back to about a dozen coal mines, all in southern West Virginia. I was shocked but not surprised to find a lot of neglect on behalf of the coal companies around a lot of the towns where coal is being extracted — in terms of failure to reclaim sites that had been extracted and mined, and the ways that those costs had been displaced back onto the backs of residents in those communities in a way that eerily echoed what was happening in Newport News and Norfolk with the costs of environmental remediation being displaced, and people paying for that through their health and with their lives.

In West Virginia in particular, some of the mines and some of the depots where the coal gets moved from the mine onto the train are owned either by CSX, the rail company that ships to Dominion terminal, or to some other coal giants that own Dominion Terminal Associates and parts whose names you’re probably familiar with, like Peabody Coal or Arch or Alpha Metallurgical Resources. Those companies all have stakes in Dominion Terminal Associates and not surprisingly they often own the mines that the coal is coming from.

Adams: Are the folks there in West Virginia being affected by blowing coal dust as well?

Wood: Yes, I heard about this from an advocate in Junior Walk, who lives in Eunice, West Virginia, who talked about coal dust settling so thick on records on his record player that the record wouldn’t play after just sitting out for 24 hours in his home. Coal dust affects people there like it affects people in Hampton Roads, and it’s coal dust coming from the same seam in the same mountain that’s being moved from one side of the Appalachians to the ocean, and it’s coal that really should just have been left in the ground.

Activists speak about blowing coal dust from terminals in coastal Virginia.

*Photo Credit: Crosswinds*

Adams: So what connections do you see between these communities in Appalachia and in Newport News and Norfolk?

Kirts: There’s historic poverty in both communities. These people are bearing the brunt of the health disparities that are spread because of coal dust. That’s one of the main similarities that I see. And then, of course, we’re not reaping the benefits monetarily of that being in our communities. The coal is being transported mostly overseas. Two percent stays within the country; the rest is going over to other places. It’s been labored here, it’s being pulled here, being dumped into our community. And then once that coal dust spreads into our lungs, and we’re sick, we’re not going to be helped, we’re not going to be provided for, we don’t have the adequate health care to be sustained. And then these companies who like to pretend to be benevolent and to be green and friendly, are not who they say they are. They are cancer-causing agents in our community, and they’re doing damage.

That is what the similarities I see: that we’re all being negatively affected, and seeing none of the benefits of what they’re seeing being the manufacturers of coal dust.

Wood: I agree with that. And I would just add that these communities are not being protected by existing regulatory pathways through the EPA or through state environmental departments. The regulations that exist around coal dust right now through the EPA, which recently were strengthened, are still not enough to protect communities in Newport News, Norfolk or West Virginia because of the way those regulations work, which is, averages that are regional and over every 24 hours.

So a regional average may not address a high amount of coal dust concentrated in one place when the rest of the region is not being affected by that dust. Similarly, a 24-hour average doesn’t address coal dust that’s getting blown really hard for 30 minutes and covering your whole porch in black dust, and then the wind doesn’t blow for the rest of the day. That may not be enough to affect the 24-hour average. So the way that the regulations are designed are not addressing the health needs and the lifestyle needs of these communities.

And we know that coal dust is more dangerous than other kinds of dust that these regulations are designed to address, because coal dust can contain lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, among other heavy metals that are known to cause cancer and neurological damage and birth defects.

Adams: What’s next for the folks involved in this struggle to tamp down coal dust in these coastal communities?

Kirts: We’re looking for a few changes here in our area. One of the things that we’re trying to do in order to alleviate coal dust within our communities is an ordinance that will either support a coal dome — to enclose the coal into a dome so that the coal dust will not be blown into our communities — and/or a wooden fence that is going to prevent the wind to blow coal dust into the area, and once again alleviate coal that’s being spread into our communities. Anything is better than sitting beside mountains of coal terminals right next door to our playgrounds, where we have our gardens, where we have our worship facilities. These are places that are supposed to be safe places for us to go and to live freely and sit and breathe freely. And that’s what we’re fighting for and advocating for.

Adrian Wood and Lathaniel Kirts’ new podcast Crosswinds is available now.

Looking Ahead To Redistricting: How W.Va.’s Loss Of A Congressional Seat Might Affect What’s Next

Officials with the U.S. Census Bureau announced preliminary data this week that shows congressional reapportionment for the next decade — including West Virginia losing a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As federal officials reported Monday, West Virginia lost 3.2 percent of its population since the 2010 Census — the highest rate of population loss in the entire nation. With the state moving from three seats in the U.S. House to two, its likely two Republican incumbents will be pitted against one another in a 2022 primary.

Reps. David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Carol Miller — who currently hold seats in the state’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts, respectively — have all said they plan to seek reelection.

However, with census results being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, West Virginia lawmakers will have to wait until the fall to consider redistricting on the congressional and state levels. All three of West Virginia’s U.S. House members have said they will reevaluate their reelection bids once that occurs.

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center on Politics, noted that many have expected the state to be split in half, horizontally, for the new congressional map.

“The suggestion in the past has been for there to essentially be kind of a northern half and a southern half,” Kondik said.

Despite the final results of the census and new maps being months away, Kondik said West Virginians already have some idea how things might look, based on the preliminary data released this week.

“The [current] 3rd District — based on the incomplete numbers we have now — lost the most population, followed by the 1st District,” he said. “The 2nd District — which cuts across the center of the state — actually gained population. So, you’re gonna have to account for those sorts of changes.”

All of this will play a role in the political calculus for McKinley, Mooney and Miller, Kondik said.

“Presumably one of these members will be able to run without a primary. But they’re going to be running in a different district than they’re used to. And that might actually invite a primary challenge — or maybe a general election challenge,” he said.

But Kondik said — given former President Donald Trump’s dominance in West Virginia in the 2020 election, despite losing nationally — it’s improbable that Democrats can regain one of the U.S. House seats.

“West Virginia’s become so Republican at the federal level that Democrats probably can’t put up much of a fight in either of these districts — given what we’ve seen over the past several cycles in West Virginia,” he said.

With West Virginia’s two House districts expected to heavily favor Republicans in 2022, Kondik said one of the state’s current House members may opt out of running this cycle to set their sights on 2024 and the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin — the lone West Virginia Democrat in federal office.

“I think the Republican Senate nomination in 2024 is a pretty valuable nomination to have because Joe Manchin only won pretty narrowly in 2018 and that should be a very competitive race in 2024 — and one that a Republican may very well be favored to win,” Kondik said.

With the 2020 Census results delayed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and interference by the Trump administration, many expect court challenges to the drawing of new maps this cycle.

Whether those hold enough merit to further slow the process or change the course of how maps look remains to be seen, but Kondik notes that things should go smoothly in West Virginia.

“There can always be lawsuits with redistricting, although some of the most common lawsuits in redistricting are over the creation of majority-minority districts where Black residents or Hispanic residents or Asian American residents may make up a majority or a near majority of the members of the people in a district,” Kondik said.

But with West Virginia’s overwhelmingly white population, Kondik said those types of lawsuits are unlikely here.

While West Virginia’s constitution and state code imposes no deadline on the Legislature to redraw district maps, the filing period for the 2022 election cycle opens in January — putting at least some pressure on the Republican supermajorities in the House of Delegates and state Senate to give potential candidates an idea of what district they’d be running in.

Lawmakers are expected to return to Charleston in the fall for a special session on redistricting. Final census results, which will inform the new maps, are expected to be released by the end of September.

April 8, 1979: Writer Breece D'J Pancake Commits Suicide

Writer BreeceD’J Pancake died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 8, 1979. The South Charleston native grew up in Milton, which became the fictionalized setting for many of his short stories.

A graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan and Marshall, Pancake taught at two military schools in Virginia before entering the University of Virginia’s Creative Writing Program, where he was influenced by authors James Alan McPherson, Peter Taylor, and Mary Lee Settle. He began writing human interest stories for a Milton newspaper and working on a series of short stories. His big breakthrough came in 1977, when the Atlantic Monthly published his story “Trilobites.”

West Virginia was a popular locale for Pancake’s tales. In addition to Milton, which he fictionalized as “Rock Camp,” he wrote about the southern coalfields, Huntington, the north-central mountains, and curvy roads like Route 60 across Gauley Mountain. His stories are stark, with ironic humor, featuring characters who are trapped either by forces beyond their control or by their own past.

A collection of his short stories was published in 1983, four years after his death, bringing Pancake widespread acclaim in literary circles.

Texting is Helping W.Va. Students Get Ahead in Higher Ed

High school seniors in West Virginia who sign-up to receive text message reminders for college preparedness are doing better in their first-year of college, according to a recent study. And findings show this prep tactic is even more effective in rural areas. West Virginia Public Broadcasting explored why and brings you this report.

Five years ago, select schools in West Virginia’s GEAR UP program, or “Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs,” participated in a national text message initiative to get high school seniors more prepared for college. That initiative spread statewide to all West Virginia high schools almost two years ago.

A University of Virginia study found that high school seniors in West Virginia who received these text reminders were almost 7 percent more likely to persist through their first-year of college. But among students from rural areas, that number jumps to 8 percent. Why?

“The magnitude of the effect is larger for rural students than it is for students overall,” said Katharine Meyer, a graduate student in Education Policy from the University of Virginia who helped author the study. She spoke with West Virginia Public Broadcasting via Skype.

“Particularly, rural students are coming from an area where we know from other studies, they may be the first person from their community to attend an individual college, because they’re coming from smaller high schools,” she noted, “and so we saw these messages as sort of, sending students messages of support, messages of belonging, and helping them feel like they were supported and welcome in the new community.”

The University of Virginia founded the national text message project. West Virginia was one of the first states to help pilot the project when it began five years ago.

West Virginia’s text message service is called “Txt 4 Success,” and it’s spearheaded here by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.

Students who opt into the program receive reminders throughout the year about things like financial aid deadlines and information about declaring a major. Most of these texts are automated, but if a student texts back with a question or concern, they’ll more than likely hear from a real person from either the West Virginia HEPC or a counselor at one of the program’s eight college partners.

20-year-old Concord junior Chelsea Goins is a first-generation college student and comes from a rural area. She commutes to Concord from Princeton and she’s involved in a lot of activities…

“I currently work in Concord University’s president’s office, admissions office, and campus bookstore,” Goins said, “I’ve cheered since my freshman year for our football and basketball teams. I also teach dance classes at Princeton Dance Studio and Princeton Health and Fitness Center.”

A lot… Goins says a big part of why she’s been able to stay organized and on top of all these activities while also doing well in school is “Txt 4 Success.”

“The text messages provide informational links and deadlines for orientations, FAFSA, enrollment checklists, sending transcripts, payment plans, and a lot more,” she explained, “It definitely helped me as a high school senior, because the texting service provided information I had never heard of.”

Goins says she found the program most helpful when it came to filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

“In high school deadlines are kind of negotiable. If you’re late, it’s okay, but with FAFSA, if you’re late, it’s over,” she noted, “you have to file it. And so, that was a hard thing to understand, that there was a deadline.”

Goins says she thinks the service has also been helpful overall for her age-group, because texting is how she and her peers communicate most frequently.

It was for that reason West Virginia HEPC Chancellor Paul Hill says he wanted West Virginia to help pioneer this program – because it’s an efficient way to communicate with young people and because it helps those first-generation students.

“We have found some mechanisms to reach student populations that we have not reached traditionally in the past; that through increased communication, we can have an impact on students by providing them with the types of information that they need to get, so I think it’s opening up a channel of direct communication to reach those students who need it most,” he said.

Hill says there are more than 22,000 students registered in the state’s texting service. All high schools in West Virginia are involved in the program, as well as Bluefield, Marshall, Shepherd, Concord, Fairmont, and West Virginia State universities, and Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College and West Virginia Northern Community College.

Hill says the HEPC’s focus now is on pushing more college prep in elementary and middle schools.