February 9 |
OVEC Action
Alert Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition |
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- 8:30 a.m. Tomorrow, Feb. 10: Hearing on Coal River Mountain
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Noon Tomorrow, Feb. 10: Come Hear DEP Talk about That Sludge
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Then, At 2 Tomorrow, Hop Over to Clean Elections Presentation
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Feb. 12: DEP informal conference on renewal of MTR permit on Gauley Mountain
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March 14 to 18: 4th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, D.C.
Yes, we do realize that if you can come out tomorrow, you are likely going to be able to attend one of the goings-on, but we do want you to know about them all...
8:30
a.m. Tomorrow, Feb. 10: Hearing on Coal River Mountain
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb.
10, the West Virginia Surface Mine Board will hold a hearing to decide
whether or not Massey Energy may begin the process of destroying part of
Coal River Mountain and the wind farm potential in that area. The board
will hear Coal River
Mountain Watch’s appeal of Massey Energy’s Bee Tree surface mine
permit revision approved by the
West Virginia Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) last November. The revision
allows Massey to begin blasting along a ridge within 200 feet of the 8.9
billion gallon
Brushy Fork coal sludge impoundment. The hearing will be held at
DEP headquarters, 601 57th St., Charleston.
Residents worry the blasting could cause the toxic sludge to break through into mines beneath the impoundment, flooding the valley in a catastrophe greater than Massey’s Martin County, Kentucky disaster of 2000. After the Tennessee Valley Authority’s sludge disaster of December, 2008, and recent reports that the DEP does not adequately regulate sludge impoundments near underground mines, residents say this permit needs far greater scrutiny.
Coal River Mountain is a symbol of the choices facing our country right now, and it could be a symbol of West Virginia’s willingness to help move the country toward cleaner energy and safer, more stable jobs. Local residents want a 328 megawatt wind farm on the mountain, which would provide over $1.7 million a year in county tax revenue, create long-term jobs and help build a new economic model for the area. However, Massey Energy has plans to operate a mountaintop removal mining operation that will last for only 17 years.
Toxic Sludge in
Your Water Bad For You? DEP Not Sure...
Associated Press reports, "Two
years after it was charged to do so, and 13 months after its
original deadline, the West Virginia Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) remains unable to answer a question that worries
thousands in the southern coalfields: Are water supplies and human
health at risk when a chemical soup from the cleaning of coal is
pumped into worked-out underground mines? ...Yet coal operators are
still permitted to inject slurry at 15 locations." Read the rest of
the jaw-dropping Associated Press article
here.
Without the efforts of our Sludge Safety Project (SSP), DEP would not have been forced to do this study. Without the continued efforts of SSP, DEP would not be presenting its lack of findings to West Virginia legislators tomorrow. Please come out to support SSP (see below).
Noon Tomorrow,
Feb. 10: Come Hear DEP Talk about That Sludge
Please join us tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 10 at noon in the House
Judiciary Room
410M at the West Virginia State Capitol. Click here for
maps (pdf) of the Capitol building. You'll join SSP members
in hearing DEP chief Randy Huffman report to legislators on the
Water Resources Committee on the lack of progress on SCR 15,
the Sludge Study mentioned above.
Please encourage your legislators to attend this hearing. Click here to find out who your delegates are and here to find out who you senators are.
Background on SCR15; Help Advance
Sludge Safety in 2009
After
much work in 2006 and 2007, SSP won the study resolution, SCR
15, to find out what is in coal sludge and how it affects our health and
our water. A key piece of the resolution, "to allow independent
scientists on site to sample water and sludge," was left out of the
final draft. Since SCR 15 was passed, SSP has met several times with the
DEP. We learned that only five sites in the state would be sampled for
water contamination, and that the DEP would not prioritize places where
citizens are sick and have repeatedly reported bad water to the DEP.
New information on health and water in southern West Virginia has surfaced since 2007, and we want the legislature to be aware of the facts. Please join us for the 2009 legislative session as we continue to insist that legislators and regulators work to improve the health and safety of families living near coal sludge "disposal" sites. E-mail info@sludgesafety.org to get involved or to learn more.
Then, At 2 Tomorrow, Hop Over to Clean
Elections Presentation
Carol Warren, coordinator for
WV Citizens
for Clean Elections, will give a presentation on
voter-owned, publicly financed elections to the Joint Judiciary
Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 2 p.m. in the House Government
Organization Committee Meeting Room 215-E at the Capitol.
Click here for
maps (pdf) of the Capitol building.
Are you tired of big campaign contributors getting all the attention from the Legislature while citizen needs and priorities are ignored? Public financing will put the people back in the driver's seat. When the public pays for campaigns, the elected officials are accountable only to you, the voter. Please come out to support our Clean Elections work.
And remember, the Clean Elections cash-prize video contest is ongoing. Details here. Deadline to enter is Feb. 28.
Feb 12:
DEP informal conference on renewal of MTR permit on Gauley Mountain
February 12: 6:00 p.m. at the Ansted
Middle School, 118 Church Street, Ansted, West Virginia. The WV
Department of Environmental Protection will hold an informal
conference regarding Powellton Coal Company's attempt to renew
Permit Number S-3003-01. Please come out to tell the DEP to deny
Powellton Coal Company! Powellton Coal Company is currently in
violation of the terms and conditions of its surface mining permit
for polluting the headwaters of Rich Creek in West Virginia.
The National Park Service (NPS) has asked the DEP to not renew this permit due to the mining operation discharging unsafe water into Rich Creek, a stream known for its trout population. Read the NPS letter here.
This mine is located between the New and Gauley rivers--two of the premier whitewater rafting rivers in the United States and part of the reason why West Virginia is "Wild and Wonderful."
The Appalachian Center for the Economy & the Environment is suing to stop Powellton’s water pollution in this area on behalf of Ansted Historical Preservation Council and the Sierra Club. Ansted is the Fayette County town in the shadow of Gauley Mountain.
100 Days of
Action Continues
If you are attending any of the events listed above, then you are
taking part in the nationwide 100 Days Of Action. Check out more of
what is going on
here --
join an action or create your own. And below, we've listed more
actions we want to be certain are on your radar screen.
Feb.
17: I Love Mountains Day at the Kentucky State Capitol
Join
Kentuckians For The Commonwealth in Frankfort, Kentucky for
I Love Mountains Day. Details
here. OVEC's newest organizer, Robin Blakeman is organizing carpools
from the Huntington area. E-mail
Robin@ohvec.org if you want to
join a carpool or can offer rides to others.
Feb.
27 to March 2: Powershift 2009; March 2 Mass Civil
Disobedience at Coal-Fired Power Plant in D.C.
OVEC volunteers, staff and board members will attend this event,
along with other Appalachian mountaintop removal opponents and
thousands of young people from around the county. Learn more and
register to attend
here.
March 2: Mass
Civil Disobedience at Coal-Fired Power Plant in D.C.
Powershift 2009 culminates on March 2
with
Capitol Climate Action, mass civil disobedience at the
Capitol coal-fired power plant in Washington, D.C. (Note that
you do not have to attend Powershift in order to participate
on March 2.)
OVEC members are organizing carpools to DC from points around
West Virginia. Contact
vivian@ohvec.org if you want to join a carpool or can offer
rides to others. If you live close to any D.C. area Metro stops and
have space for folks to crash a night or two, please let us know.
Letter by Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben on Call for Mass Civil Disobedience Against Coal
March
14 to 18: 4th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington,
D.C.
You're invited to the 4th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in
Washington. It promises to be a truly historic event. With a new
congress and administration, we have a real opportunity to pass the
Clean Water Protection Act (CWPA) in the House of Representatives
this year. The CWPA will make mountaintop removal valley fills
illegal and go a long way toward ending mountaintop removal coal
mining.
Last year's week in Washington was a tremendous success — and a lot of fun. More than 120 people from 19 states came to Washington, holding more than 150 meetings with Congressional offices.
The result? People like you helped us gain 8 new co-sponsors for the CWPA — in just three days in Washington. We ended 2008 and the 110th Congress with 153 co-sponsors.
Will you join us? Full and partial scholarships are available; apply by Feb. 20. Scholarships will be given on a the basis of need.
Registration deadline is Feb. 25. Register online, and if you are interested in carpooling from points in West Virginia with OVEC members, contact patricia@sludgesafety.org.
Can't come? We're having a call-in day Tuesday, March 17, and you can participate from anywhere. You can also sponsor a participant by making a contribution
This isn't just a trip to talk to legislators -- it is an opportunity to meet and share stories with other passionate people who care about Appalachia while in our nation's capitol. There'll be workshops to help you develop and hone skills that will serve you as you take this message to Congress and beyond: Now is the time to end the devastation mountaintop removal coal mining wreaks here in the coalfields.
This powerful event changes lives, and, with your help, it will also finally ban mountaintop removal.
To register and find out more, click here.
March 7 to 15:
Mountain Justice Spring Break (MJSB) 2009
MJSB 2009 will bring you face to face with the devastating effects
of mountaintop removal mining
– and give you
the skills and knowledge you need to fight back! Through education,
community service, speakers, hiking, music, poetry, direct action
and more, you will join local communities in the struggle to
maintain their land and culture. Learn more and sign up
here.
Hard to Keep Up with the News? Try Coal
Tattoo
The Charleston Gazette's environment reporter Ken Ward, Jr.
now has a blog,
Coal Tattoo. Check out the postings on the
sludge study, the
Tennessee coal ash disaster, climate scientist
James Hansen on Coal River Mountain and much more. Breaking
news is posted here quickly. You can also follow Ward on
Twitter.
As always, there's also OVEC's daily news postings here and here, which can help you keep up with energy and climate news.
Speaking of energy and climate news, click here for a compendium of news articles and photos from last Tuesday's action on Coal River Mountain. And, big thanks to everyone who made calls to Governor Manchin last Tuesday!
www.ohvec.org 304-522-0246 vivian@ohvec.org |
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