The Mountain Defender - 6th Edition, 2011

unitedmountaindefense.org

insidenew school for marsh fork

appalachia rising in washington, dc

images of resistance from the beehive collective (includes a pull-out poster!)

alabama coal coalition

epa hearing on coal ash classification

citizens fight mining permits and power plants

poetry about mountaintop removal

and more!

The Voice of AppAlAchiA’s resisTAnce AgAinsT MounTAinTop reMoVAl since 2005

A PUBLICATION OF UNITED MOUNTAIN DEFENSE • 6TH EDITION • 2011

TMD THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr 2011 2

In ThIs Issue

This is an all-volunteer newspaper published annually by United Mountain Defense in Knoxville, TN.

EditorHolly Creswell Haworth

EditorialMatt landonPaul laudemanollie SchwartzJim SheffieldBonnie SwinfordWilliam Wilson

ContriButing WritErS & artiStSRyan Bliss, Nelson Brooke, Miranda Brown, Antrim Caskey, Jeannie Cerulean, Danny Chiotos, Kate Clark, Zach Foster, Josh Galperin, Marley Green, Daniel A. Hawkins, Holly Creswell Haworth, Chris Irwin, Debbie Jarrell, Carol Judy, Matt Landon, Eric Loftis, Sara Lynch-Thomason, Jenny Marieneau, Mar-go Miller, Jen Osha, Elizabeth Salter, Ollie Schwartz, Jim Sheffield, Bonnie Swinford, The Beehive Collective

ContaCt uS Phone: (865) 689.2778 Post: P.o. Box 20363 Knoxville, tn 37920Email:[email protected]

on tHE CovEr: Massey’s Twilight mine in WV. Photograph by Antrim Caskey. See Caskey’s latest series of MTR photos for BagNews at www.bagnewsnotes.com unitEdMountaindEfEnSE.org

04 VicTory: A New school for MArsh forK eleMeNTAry

05 UMD geTs A VisTA VolUNTeer

05 rreNew collecTiVe

06 MoUNTAiN JUsTice spriNg BreAK

07 AlABAMA coAl coAliTioN AT worK iN The wArrior coAl fielD

08 AppAlAchiA risiNg

10 KNoxVille hiJAcKs NATioNAl sociAlisT MoVeMeNT rAlly

11 TUrNiNg The New riVer wATersheD iNTo A NATioNAl pArK

12 NATioNAl coAl crUMBles

12 xiNergy eNergy corp.

13 DiggiNg Deeper: The BeehiVe collecTiVe illUsTrATes coMplex sTory of MTr

14 The True CosT of Coal: ceNTerfolD pUlloUT!

17 loNe MoUNTAiN BooK proJecT

17 MoUNTAiN Keepers MUsic fesTiVAl

18 poeM: “UNTiTleD MTr #1” By MArgo Miller

18 poeM: “The eND of The worlD” By ryAN Bliss

19 sTill MoViNg MoUNTAiNs

19 QUilTiNg AgAiNsT MTr

20 AlABAMA’s BrUshy poND perMiT ApplicATioN DeNieD

20 NATioNwiDe perMiT 21 sUspeNDeD

21 isoN rocK riDge MeeTs ciTizeN opposiTioN

21 eAsT KeNTUcKy fighTs sMiTh power plANT

22 epA TAKes A hArDer looK AT MiNiNg perMiTs

22 DoMiNioN’s VirgiNiA ciTy hyBriD eNergy ceNTer

23 cANoeiNg The BlUe TrAils of coAl coUNTry

24 people’s heAriNg helD iN roANe coUNTy, TN

25 epA holDs heAriNg iN KNoxVille

26 rooT-DiggiNg iN The cleAr forK VAlley

2011 THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr TMD 3letter from the editor

f rom a coal executive’s per-spective, mountaintop re-moval is a simple concept, a

simple act: blow off the top of a moun-tain with powerful explosives; with be-hemoth machinery, push that blown-apart mountain into the valleys below, burying the streams that flow through them; get coal out of the mountain and wash the toxic heavy metals — seleni-um, mercury, arsenic and lead — out of it; put that toxic sludge into a big hole in the ground. Then you’ve got enough coal to produce eighteen minutes more of electricity (big profit). Throw out some non-native grass seed and leave.

When the people who live next to the mountain you’ve blown up start complaining of cancer, birth defects and respiratory diseases, saying that their groundwater has become contam-inated and their houses have flooded, say that you have nothing to do with it, that those are “acts of God.”

That’s what Massey Energy is tell-ing the 769 people of Mingo County, WV, who are filing lawsuits against it. Residents of Rawl, Lick Creek, Mer-rimac and Sprigg — the “Forgotten Communities” — say that Massey polluted their groundwater by pump-ing millions of gallons of toxic slurry underground for almost a decade. This has caused chronic gastrointestinal disorders, organ and skin cancers, and developmental disorders.

Antrim Caskey’s photo of the home-made sign posted by the roadway was taken while those communities were pleading for access to clean water, which they finally received in 2007. But almost six years after filing suit, residents are still pleading for justice, or some minimal form of compensa-tion. The afflicted residents — some of which have died while waiting on le-gal process — will take their stories to court sometime next year, after media-

tion efforts failed this month. Massey maintains that it has nothing to do with contaminated groundwater.

So for Massey, and the many coal companies that operate just like it, it is simple. It is one-sided. But for many others, it’s clear that mountaintop re-moval is but one thread in an intricate-ly spun web of worldwide exploitation for nonrenewable resources. It is con-nected to all current struggles to save the planet from the ruin of insatiable greed.

At the beginning of this year, the Supreme Court ruled that there can be no limits set on how much corpora-tions can contribute to political cam-paigns. This means that now, more apparently than ever, corporations are literally putting politicians into office and paying their salaries, which means that now, more than ever, we will see our government bending to the desires of Big Ag, Big Oil and Big Coal.

What ramifications will there be to destroying all life in the Gulf of Mexico with oil and toxic dispersants? What ramifications will there be to blow-ing up mountains, burying mountain headwaters and poisoning entire com-munities?

The persistent plea that’s coming from Forgotten Communities becomes more and more dire, more and more necessary, then. Silence, inaction, re-sults in tacit complacence. Proaction is the only resistance left to us. We can no longer adopt a “live and let live” principle when others are so egre-giously violating the “let live.” This is a fight for life.

Wendell Berry has said that “the global economy is built on the prin-ciple that one place can be exploited, even destroyed, for the sake of another place.” For the first time in history, the majority of the world’s population lives in cities. Increasingly, our rural

areas are exploited for their resources in order to support the energy-inten-sive consumption rates of an urban population. Worldwide, our rural areas are becoming dumping grounds for the wastes created by fossil fuel-driven in-dustry, and they are extraction grounds for food and energy. How can we con-tinue to produce food for the world in fields that lie next to landfills and toxic sludge ponds?

Corporations are willfully blind to the inherent value of the ecosystems and rural lands that they destroy, and the urban population is kept ignorant of the ecosystems and communities that endure the exploitation necessary to meet its demands.

Entire nations are being exploited and destroyed in order to sustain our consumer-crazed, oil- and coal-based society; Appalachia is one of those na-tions.

The Southern Appalachians are home to one of the most diverse for-est ecosystems in the world. Here, in Tennessee, dismembered and disem-boweled mountains are pushed into freshwater streams, here where the last of the Muddy Rocksnail, Short-spire Hornsnail, Snail Darter, Pallid Sturgeon, Mountain Blackside Dace, Appalachian Elktoe, Duskytail Darter, Southern Cavefish, Yellow Blossom Pearlymussel, Hellbender salaman-der and Cumberland Pigtoe are being pushed into extinction. Here, home of the Cherokee, where Thunder sent lightning to create fire in the hollow of a sycamore tree, the oldest mountain range in the world. Here where the continents collided, where mountain laurel, rhododendron and flaming aza-leas grow thick along the spiny ridges, where medicinal herbs like goldenseal and ginseng are becoming scarce.

In her story on Appalachia Rising, Jeannie Cerulean says that a woman

on the bus ride home from Washing-ton told her that “every hollow where a stream runs down from the mountains has its own song, a lyrical blending of falling water, rustling wind, and morn-ing birds one after another welcoming the morning sun.”

What a remarkable truth to observe — that in every cove there is a song unlike any other, that each hollow is nature’s instrument, where wind and water strike notes on rocks, earth and trees, where nature never plays the same tune twice. There are some things lost, then, that can never be gotten back.

Here in this mysterious tangle of life, we know that nothing at all is so simple as the coal companies would have it. Some songs have been silenced, but others are arising from our lips. It is up to us now to make sure that these songs are sung, these stories told, that no community goes forgotten. In these pages are the words of poets, storytell-ers, activists, visionaries, folk singers and balladeers. These are the stories that tell the tragedy, loss and devas-tation of mountaintop removal as it needs told. These are the stories that will show us how to live, how to take care of our places, how to go on, and how to heal.

holly creswell haworthNovember 22, 2010Knoxville, TN

photo by Antrim Caskey

TMD THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr 2011 4 Activism & resistAnce

Debbie Jarrell

followed next were politicians being sued by coal companies, news report-ers finding boundary lines moved at the will of the mining company, DEP protecting no one but the coal compa-ny, and educators who had loved ones in the mining arena taking up for their jobs, not the children. What a hornet nest this had turned into.

The outpouring of support for the little school in the Coal River Valley came from every group, state, univer-sity and community outside of south-ern West Virginia. Pressure on the Raleigh County School Board even-tually worked and in March of 2010, they approached the WVSBA to ask for funding for a new Marsh Fork El-ementary. Approximately $8.6 million dollars was needed. Pennies of Promise was donating $10,475, and the Raleigh Co. School Board and Massey Energy would each put in $1 million. This left us to ask for over $6.6 million dollars. At the end of April we attended the announcement of funding available for the schools in WV asking for their Needs Project. The attendance of com-munity, reporters, and concerned citi-zens for the outcome of Marsh Fork’s

funding was so large that the meeting was moved to the “Theatre” at the Clay Center. This turned out to be a fitting arena for the circus that ensued. Marsh Fork ended up with $2.6 million from the WVSBA. The remaining $4 million needed would have to fall out of the sky.

On April 26, 2010, our prayers were answered. Charlie Annenburg Weingarten, of the Annenburg Foun-dation, had been following the news of the death of our 29 miners here in Montcoal at the UBB mines (owned by Massey Energy). He was on the river when news of the WVSBA decision was handed down and realized how impor-tant the school is to our community. It was made known to a few of us that funding by the Annenburgs for our school would be $2.5 million dollars.

On April 30, 2010, during the press conference headed by our governor, it was made public that most all funding was found. The RCSB ended up donat-ing $2 million, Massey Energy $2 mil-lion, WVSBA $2.6 million, Annenburg Foundation $2.5 million, and, most importantly, the Pennies of Promise campaign $10,475.

Though the amount given by Pen-nies of Promise was the smallest, it was the most important. It represent-ed years of intensive work to put pres-sure on our government officials, both state and federal, and school officials to get our children a safe and healthy learning environment. With the out-pour of support from people like you, this huge victory was made possible. Let this go to show what a small group of dedicated people can do.

The struggle to obtain a new school for the children of Marsh Fork Elementary has been a long and tur-bulent one. It began with the hopes of a few that the children at Marsh Fork could have a safe and healthy learning environment. What one would think was a reasonable thing to ask for ¬— a school out of harm’s way — took us on a journey not soon to be forgotten.

Surrounding Marsh Fork Elemen-tary is a huge mining complex cur-rently owned by Massey Energy. The mining area began as a load-out area for the small tipple that was located at the head of Shumates Hollow. The expansion of the mine site, which is situated directly across the river from the school, included, in 1982, a Prep plant that uses chemicals to wash the coal before shipping it out and a sludge impoundment that originally had the permit to be 85 feet tall. The sludge impoundment was erected across the Shumate Hollow and the old load-out tipple, which had been the only indi-cation of a mine site, was done away with.

Over the years, the sludge impound-ment grew to be over 385 feet in height with the capacity to hold over 2.8 bil-lion gallons of waste (sludge) from the Prep plant.

The Martin County Sludge Spill oc-curred after midnight on October 11, 2000, when the bottom of a coal sludge impoundment owned by Massey Ener-gy in Martin County, Kentucky, broke into an abandoned underground mine below. The slurry came out of the mine openings, sending an estimated 306 million gallons of sludge down two tributaries of the Tug Fork River. My husband was in the group that helped “clean up” the spill. When he re-turned back home, he was called to the Shumate Impoundment to divert wa-

ters out of it due to some heavy rain in the area. It was after this episode that I began educating myself on what lay around the perimeters of the Marsh Fork Elementary.

In 2003 a silo used to load the rail-cars was added. The silo stands about 235 feet from the school itself. Added also in 2003 to this ever-expanding mining complex was a mountaintop removal site that began as 1,846 acres and has steadily increased ever since. The sludge impoundment that re-mained at the head of the hollow was to be the reservoir for any water run-ning off of this mine site.

The buildup of this mining complex was years in the making, and commu-nity members never gave it a second thought as it encroached upon the small school.

What began as a Grandparent’s fear turned into a battle between politi-cians, coal companies and the commu-nity.

In May of 2006, Pennies of Promise began as a group of community mem-bers dedicated to making sure the chil-dren’s silent voices were heard. What

Victory: A new school for MArsh fork

Photo provided by Pennies of Promise website

2011 THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr TMD 5Activism & resistAnce

on June 11 of 2010, United Mountain Defense (UMD) received its first VISTA volunteer. VISTA, or Volunteers in Service to America, was founded in 1965 as a domestic version of the Peace Corps. The VISTA program was incorporated into AmeriCorps in 1993. VISTA provides full-time vol-unteers to nonprofit, faith-based and other community organizations, and public agencies to create and expand programs that ultimately bring low-income individuals and communities out of poverty. There are currently over 5,000 VISTA members serving in 1,200 VISTA programs nationwide. Each VISTA volunteer receives $10,000, plus a $5,350 education stipend, and health coverage for a year of service.

President Obama set aside addi-tional funding creating thousands of additional AmeriCorps positions in an

effort to provide much needed jobs for unemployed Americans. UMD con-tacted the Nashville office of the Cor-poration for National Community Ser-vice in March of 2010 after learning that other watershed groups provided free housing as a $10,000 monetary match to receive VISTA funding. UMD had plenty of free housing following a temporary donation of a volunteer house on 30 acres of land in 2007.

Matt Landon Jones, a five-year volunteer with UMD, created a three-year volunteer plan and filled the 2010-2011 VISTA position. Matt will work in three areas including resource development, volunteer recruitment and training, and community outreach and education within coal-impacted

in August of 2009, rreNew was born. A strange acronym, RRe-NEW stands for all of the efforts that this ambitious collective hopes to be a part of: Remembering and ReEnergiz-ing Neighborhoods, Economies and Watersheds. RReNEW came together from a group of individuals who had already committed years of their lives to supporting efforts to stop moun-taintop removal and build sustainable Appalachian communities.

The RReNEW Collective runs its Henry Street Volunteer House in Appa-lachia, VA, where short- and long-term volunteers are able to live collectively, inexpensively and with small envi-

ronmental impact. At the same time, they support the day-to-day work of underfunded, understaffed, grassroots organizations fighting to stop the de-struction of their mountains and build healthier, more sustainable communi-ties for future generations.

Working like a lean, mean, organiz-ing machine, RReNEW has built up the capacity of our friends, the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, and continues to support local organizing for a healthier tomorrow while provid-ing meaningful and memorable intern-ship experiences for 10 young people from all over the country.

We are currently seeking interns

UMD gets VistA VolUnteerTMD Staff

rrenew collectiVe coMes together in AppAlAchiA, VAMarley Green

communities where UMD works.

Matt hopes to complete the follow-ing projects over the next three years: co-organizing at least two annual ca-

noeing trips along creeks and riv-ers that drain coal country

of East Tennessee, pro-viding water monitor-ing training to UMD volunteers with a goal of identifying im-pacted waterways not

currently listed on the 303(d) list of impaired

waterways (in an effort to get these waters listed by 2012),

co-organizing water monitoring along Tennessee’s Cumberland Trail, and co-organizing a vegetable seed distribu-tion program within the coal-impacted communities of East Tennessee.

Matt’s accomplishments to date in-clude co-organizing a canoeing trip on

the Sequatchie River; recruiting UMD volunteers to attend a nine-mile hike along the Cumberland Trail; recruit-ing and training more than twelve vol-unteers since June 2010 (who logged more than 400 volunteer hours total-ing more than $8,000 of in-kind dona-tions); attending or recruiting UMD volunteers to do outreach at more than thirty tabling opportunities across the Southeast; receiving and providing trainings during at least three regional conferences, including the first Appa-lachian Public Interest Environmental Law Conference held in Knoxville, TN; and helping a UMD volunteer submit a grant to the Appalachian Community Fund.

This position came at a very crucial time for UMD, and we appreciate both the funding and opportunity to work with AmeriCorps VISTA.

and volunteers for the spring, summer and fall seasons of 2011, for stays of 3 months to 2 years. You can find more

information about RReNEW, our work, our allies and our internships, at www.rrenewcollective.org.


MoUntAin jUstice spring breAk proViDes opportUnities for collAborAtion

Mountain Justice spring Break 2010 was a jam-packed week of panels, workshops, discussion and live music in the beauty of Southwest Virginia’s Natural Tunnel State Park. This year held an exceptional lineup of guests such as United Mine Workers of Amer-ica (UMWA), The Beehive Collective, Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch, Jane Branham of Southern Ap-palachian Mountain Stewards, Eliza Young of Meigs Citizen Action Now, a panel of Appalachian women, and many more. With nearly one hundred people in attendance, excitement was in the air. Students from across the country were eager to mobilize against mountaintop removal (MTR) and learn about the vibrant history of the Appa-lachian region.

Several retired miners who had been members of UMWA while working in the coalfields shared their stories with the camp about the rich history of union resistance in coal country. These men gave personal testimony illuminating the difficult physical and political conditions under which min-

ers must work. Participants learned the importance of unions in allowing workers power over the large energy companies who employ them.

The panel of Appalachian women described the crucial role that females play in the fight for Appalachia against the coal industry. Though few women are miners themselves, many of the most intense activists against MTR and

Ollie Schwartz

unsafe mining conditions are the wives of miners. One panelist explained that the first direct action to occur against surface mining in Kentucky was led by Ollie “Widow” Combs, who laid herself in front of a bulldozer to protest the mining of her land. Eliza Young gave a firsthand account of the devastation happening in her Ohio community caused by power plant waste. The pan-

elists emphasized MTR practices as an attack on both the men and women who live on affected lands.

The Spring Break camp clearly had a meaningful effect on its attendees; as a result of this year’s camp a Maryland Mountain Justice group was formed, and three camp participants became full-time summer volunteers for Unit-ed Mountain Defense.

Chris IrwinLawyer

I hate the system.And for a fee I will help you fight it.

[email protected] 20363Knoxville TN 37920

2011 THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr TMD 7Activism & resistAnce

Alabama sits on the largest coal deposit in the Deep South — the Warrior Coal Field. This coal deposit underlies the Appalachian Mountains from north-central Alabama to their very end at the Fall Line Hills in west-central Alabama near Tuscaloosa. Our coal has been mined for over one hun-dred years, but we have seen a mining resurgence in recent years. Around 95 strip mines and surface mines cur-rently operate within the Warrior Coal Field. Many of the newer coal mines are being located within 100 feet of streams and rivers and in places that were considered unprofitable years ago. These mines are stripping away our re-maining Appalachian mountaintops, our diverse forests, our water quality, our way of life. Communities are being affected and people are beginning to stand up for their rights.

We Alabamians have a huge battle on our hands and perhaps an even greater problem – the misperception that coal mining and mountaintop re-moval only happen in West Virginia. Currently, numerous federal agencies are considering more stringent regula-tion of coal mining in Appalachia, but Alabama — the tail-end of the Appa-lachian chain — is not on the list of states being considered.

Two state agencies — the Alabama Surface Mining Commission, charged with permitting and oversight of coal mines, and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, charged with permitting wastewater discharges from coal mines — have a long history of shared Clean Water Act oversight of the coal mining industry. This shared

oversight between the two state agen-cies has led to confusion over which agency is responsible and accountable for regulating wastewater discharges from coal mines in Alabama.

A number of grassroots citizen groups and organizations in the War-rior Coal Field have been meeting over the past year to compare stories and learn from one another so we can all be stronger and more effective. The Ala-bama Coal Coalition is a loosely knit collective of dedicated advocates who work together and share together our successes and losses, ideas and actions. We want to change misperceptions and

AlAbAMA coAl coAlition At work in the wArrior coAl fielD

Elizabeth Salter & Nelson Brooke

reform the way coal operators do busi-ness in our state.

At the first Alabama Coal Summit, held at the end of February in our state’s capitol of Montgomery, we met with United Mountain Defense and other allies to discuss our approach to effecting solutions to the systemic problems we see across our coal re-gion and also Appalachia’s. We are highlighting weaknesses of Alabama’s coal mining process. We are pushing for proper and effective implementa-tion of environmental and mining laws so that citizens can have their rights alongside coal operators. While coal

mining is being done in Alabama, it is only fair that it be done right.

Here are only a few examples of what the citizens of Alabama are facing:

Victory: Many different citizens and groups worked to stop Brushy Pond Mine, a strip mine planned for 2,949 acres on the banks of Smith Lake, an impoundment on the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River. On June 23, 2010, the permit was denied by the Alabama Surface Mining Commission, citing extreme citizen opposition as one of the reasons for denying the per-mit.

Loss: Last year, before the general public was even aware, Alabama was sold out for quick and dirty disposal of TVA’s Kingston coal ash spill waste. The ash is being sent by train to one of the poorest areas of the nation, Alabama’s “Black Belt,” in the low-income minor-ity community of Uniontown. This community’s way of life and the local environment will never be the same.

Challenge: Black Warrior River-keeper and citizens in Cordova are leading the charge to advocate that the Alabama Surface Mining Commission deny a permit for a 1,773-acre strip mine on the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River. The mine is planned im-mediately upstream of a drinking wa-ter intake for the largest metropolitan area of the state, Birmingham. The ma-jority of the land is owned by the Uni-versity of Alabama System, so citizens, students, and groups are currently pressuring the System to not lease the property.

“we alabamians have a huge battle on our hands.”

Deep south activists seek to connect with Appalachian groups in struggle against mountaintop removal

Photo by Nelson Brooke. Flight provided by Southwings.org.


My favorite moment at the national mountaintop removal pro-test in DC this October? Here’s my top three.

1) Watching Appalachians and their supporters in front of the White House square dancing while waiting to be handcuffed. Ferd, one of the Hack-ensaw Boys, was playing his fiddle near the police line. One hundred or so decided it was time to get arrested for the mountains.

2) My second favorite moment was when the 2,000 of us marched up to the PNC National Bank, the only na-tional bank still funding MTR blasting operations. We wanted them to listen to the Rain Forest Action Network when they say, “you will pay” for costs to the air, streams, rivers and residents of the Appalachian watershed. As we approached the bank, we heard that 65 people were inside laying on the floor in protest. That was an awesome moment. (Thanks! Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir! We enjoyed your music, but we loved your protest at the PNC bank!)

3) A moment that brought tears to my eyes: looking up at the EPA flag waving above the thousands of protes-tors who chanted, “EPA Do Your Job!”

I remember that flag from the first environmental club I joined at East Ridge Jr. High School near Chatta-nooga, Tennessee. It symbolizes clean air, clean water and the green world. My son and daughter stood with me in

explosions all day, water darker than beer, and particulate matter in the air that is killing their towns and their neighbors, including the “Visionary,” Judy Bonds, “One of the 50 People Changing the World, ” according to the Oct. 2009 UTNE Reader.

I attended a workshop on Mono-economics, lead by Randal Pfleger, sustainability director at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Har-lin County, Kentucky. Coal has been the only game in the holler for over 100 years. It used to employ 125,000 people but now for every 500 people it took to extract coal from underground mines, only 18 are needed to blow off 1000 feet of a mountain, drag the shattered mountain and forest into the headwater streams, and scrape off the coal. (According to Jeff Barry, creator of the documentary “Kilowatt Ours,” we get 18 days of electricity for every mountain we blow up.)

Mono-economies can lead to wel-fare capitalism. People have to fight hard for their freedoms in this kind of company-run town. There is great history to be found here for American citizens, a history of people standing up together to give rights to all of us, including the 40-hour work week. I found out in this session there’s not much of a union left, since almost everyone lost their coal jobs to MTR. (Look up the “Battle of Blair Moun-tain” quick because that historic site is slated to be blown up).

The coalfield residents in this ses-

AppAlAchiA risingAppalachians take to Washington for weekend of demonstrations and civic action

“my favorite moment? ... watching appalachians and their supporters in front of the white

house square dancing while waiting to be handcuffed.”

Activism & resistAnce

Jeannie Cerulean

Larry Gibson (featured in the documentary Coal Country), Maria Gunnoe, and others protest MTR in front of the EPA.

Photography by Eric Loftis.

front of the EPA in DC holding a sail banner made by Bread and Puppets Theatre. Our banner said, “What?”

I’ve been trying to get as many peo-ple as I can in Chattanooga to under-stand what mountaintop removal is so that they can make an informed choice about how they get their electricity.

I asked my congress people to pass legislation to stop MTR. But, standing beneath that EPA flag, I was think-ing, “MTR is illegal. It’s in violation of our Clean Water Act. Four Federal

Judges have ruled that MTR is illegal. But whatever our laws say, a president can gut their intent with the slash of a pen.”

Appalachia Rising was a power-ful outpouring of our collective wills. Voices of the Mountains, the two-day conference prior to the protest on September 27, introduced us to one another and to the many coalfield resi-dents who rose up, got on the bus, and traveled to their capital.

These people live in a war zone of

2011 THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr TMD 9

sion said they want to build their economy around cottage industry and want to produce electricity with sus-tainable tools like micro-hydro, which can power small communities without damaging streams.

To save Coal River Mountain activ-ists, citizens and number crunchers mapped out how a wind farm on the intact mountain would create more jobs, provide more electricity over time, and cause little damage to the environment and the people. Someone

named Carl from Lynch County said they were called terrorists for wanting to develop wind energy.

The coalfield residents are witness to the terror of mountaintop removal. It is hard to break out and create change when you live in West Virginia. 98 per-cent of the state is owned by absentee landowners. Massey coal gets the min-eral rights and blasts away. Some of this coal is shipped overseas. The WV residents told me Russia is planning to take over the operation. Is it legal


Larry Gibson being arrested for nonviolent protest of MTR.

“appalachia is rising! turn out your light, insulate your house, and make

it your business to generate your own electricity. sound like more than you can handle? light a can-dle! one for every mountain gone,

one for every silenced song.”

to sell 98 percent of a state to a for-eign power? No matter. Legal doesn’t matter any more when, as John Gav-enta says, “the values of the dominant class are accepted and internalized by the subordinates.” In other words, “we don’t care where our electricity comes from; we do what the powers that be tell us to do.”

Appalachia is Rising! Turn out your light, insulate your house, and make it your business to generate your own electricity. Sound like more than you

can handle? Light a candle! One for every mountain gone, one for every silenced song.

One lovely lady from West Virginia told me on the bus ride home that every hollow where a stream runs down from the mountains has its own song, a lyrical blending of fall-ing water, rustling wind, and morning birds one after another welcoming the morning sun.


on August 14, 2010, National Socialist Movement (NSM) members from Michigan and a few members of the KKK held an anti-immigrant rally in Knoxville, Tennessee to show soli-darity with the Tea Party.

Dressed in black on a hot August day, they came strolling out to face drums, bullhorns, hecklers and clowns, who had organized to protest NSM’s anti-immigration stance.

From the moment they walked out of the parking garage, until they reached the protest site in downtown Knoxville, they were heckled. This noise had the added benefit of recruit-ing Knoxvillians all up and down Mar-ket Square to see what was going on.

Over 100 hecklers berated them every step of the way to their protest zone. “Nazis go home!” was chalked onto the Gay Street sidewalk. Now they could not even continue to look at the ground in shame without seeing opposition.

Across the street from where they had gotten a permit to stand, 300 people were waiting for them. These ranks swelled as those who had been heckling them rushed around to join the counter protest.

There were lines upon lines of clowns, people in their Sunday best and even a giant blow-up clown wait-ing for them.

The Knoxvillians roared with almost one voice upon seeing the Nazis, as if to say “Now we can get the party on!”

“Their sound system is twice as big as ours!” one Nazi screamed in rage.

“And ours is big and black,” replied the DJ on the Knoxville side.

The sound system was at that mo-ment cranked up and aimed at the Na-zis like a sonic bazooka.

“We have been waiting for you for thirty minutes, Nazis!” the DJ roared. “You’re not even on time for your own rally! Here is something I heard you love!”

A new voice thundered: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin ...”

At the end of MLK’s words, the DJs cranked up Mexican dance music as the KKK and Nazi folks tried in vain to set up their sound system directly across from the Knoxvillians.

Fifteen minutes after their arrival, the Nazis finally got their sound sys-tem plugged in.

The Nazis’ main speaker was a gen-tleman the fine citizens of Knoxville immediately dubbed “Mr. Clean.”

“White power!” he screamed.

“We can’t hear you; your sound sys-tem sucks!” the folks from Knoxville chanted back.

“White power!” Mr. Clean the Nazi cried. He looked up to see that the entire crowd had turned to invite the KKK and Nazis to rant at the back of their heads.

The party continued. “Waw waw

waw” is all this reporter can honestly report from the Nazi side, as it was impossible to hear anything else the entire rest of the rally. The opposition sound system was so superior to what the Nazis had brought that it success-fully drowned out their words with dance music and speeches. Even their flags with the giant swastikas on them looked saggy and tired.

Back and forth the angry Nazi Mr. Clean strutted. He approached the mike twice as if to speak, then literally backed off upon hearing the dance mu-sic and seeing the folks from Knoxville. Finally summoning his courage again, he approached the mike and opened his mouth to speak. Right before his words came out, a single voice cried out in the crowd.

“You’re sexy, you’re cute, take off your Nazi suit. You’re sexy, you’re cute, take off your Nazi suit!” The crowd quickly took up the chant.

Trying desperately to gather any momentum, the Nazis shouted “White power!”

“We have more requests for Mexi-can dance music!” replied the DJs.

Hundreds of Knoxvillians danced and moved their bodies to the beat.

Finally no longer able to tolerate

knoxVille hijAcks nAtionAl sociAlist MoVeMent rAlly

this abuse, Mr. Clean staggered back from the microphone, and his crew of less than 50 Nazis and KKK folks be-gan trudging away from their stage, having given up.

The very first block of their trudge back, they got blasted from the left and right by hundreds of protesters waiting to follow them. Giant chalk messages had been scrawled on the sidewalk big and proud: “NAZI GO HOME.” The only place the Nazis could look was up.

Every step of the way home they were heckled by folks who had just discovered that the Klan and Nazis were in their home town on a Satur-day morning.

As the Nazis pulled out and drove off they were heckled and laughed at.

By the end of the day, well over 350 folks from Knoxville had heckled and harassed the Klansmen and Nazis from the moment they stepped out of the parking garage until they be-gan their long drives back home. They were undoubtedly relieved at every mile they put between themselves and Knoxville.

Chris Irwin

Photos by Eric Loftis


United Mountain Defense calls for the designation of the New River watershed as a National Park. On October 1, 2010, Governor Bredesen filed a Lands Unsuitable for Mining petition with the U.S. Department of Interior, Office of Surface Mining that would protect 65,000 acres of ridgeline in Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Scott County. The area encompasses all the units that comprise the North Cumberland Wildlife Management area, including both the Royal Blue and Sundquist areas, as well as the New River watershed, which lies on the northern Cumberland Plateau, just northwest of Knoxville.

We propose that we not only protect the ridgelines but the entire New River watershed from logging and mining. This area contains some of the oldest growth forest on the plateau and many habitats that support rare and threat-ened species.

There’s a whole host of reasons to designate the New River watershed as a National Park. Here are just a few:

• A National Park would create jobs and a vibrant eco-tourism economy for the surrounding counties, which cur-rently have some of the highest unem-ployment rates in the state.

• Currently the area is ravaged by logging and strip mining, which re-sults in severe erosion and landslides. The New River drains into the Cum-berland River, which flows through Nashville. When heavy rains hit, flash flooding occurs, causing massive floods like the one that hit Nashville in May 2010, which caused millions of dollars of damage and ruined many lives. If we do not protect the New River wa-tershed, we can expect to see Nashville

suffer the consequences again in the future.

• The area is already flanked by Fro-zen Head State Natural Area, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Obed Wild and Scenic River, the Cumberland Trail State Park, Lone Mountain State Forest, Catoosa State Wildlife Area, and the Royal Blue State Wildlife Management Area. The Na-tional Park designation, then, would unify a large network of areas that are already under various levels of protec-tion, adding up to an acreage amount close to that of the Great Smoky Moun-tains National Park (GSMNP).

• More than one third of the US population lives within a 1-day drive of the Smokies—the same would hold true for the New River National Park.

The Great Smoky Mountains was the result of the vision of a few and the persistence and involvement of many. It began when a Knoxville couple vis-ited the mountains and said “why can’t we have a national park in the Smok-ies?” Eleven years passed between the original idea for the park and its establishment, and there were many people working tirelessly throughout those years. We believe that the New River watershed can be the New River National Park, Tennessee’s second Na-tional Park.

Get behind this exciting vision today. Cut out the letter below ask-ing Tennessee governor-elect, Bill Haslam, to read United Mountain De-fense’s full proposal for the New River National Park, which can be found at unitedmountaindefense.org. If you are an organization, please contact us to sign on to our proposal today.

tUrning the new riVer wAtersheD into A nAtionAl pArk

knoxVille hijAcks nAtionAl sociAlist MoVeMent rAlly


Holly Creswell Haworth

Governor Haslam,

Hello, my name is __________________,

and I am currently a resident of

______________________________. I am

writing to request that you read the New

River National Park proposal that has been

submitted to you by the Knoxville-based non-

profit, United Mountain Defense. I know that

you must be very busy as Tennessee’s new

governor, and I wish you luck. I hope that you

find the time to read this proposal. The idea

should be pursued, as it would greatly benefit

our beautiful state of Tennessee.

Thank you,

________________________

Send to:

Governor Haslam

Governor’s Office

Tennessee State Capitol

Nashville, TN 37243-0001


it may seem strange that Xinergy Corporation, a two-year-old coal company with mining rights in Alabama, Kentucky, Ten-nessee and West Virginia, be head-quartered right here in Knoxville, Tennessee. This new face looks a lot like the old face of Knoxville’s coal cadre. In fact, the executive lineup could be pulled from an out-dated National Coal Corporation yearbook. Xinergy’s CEO (Jon Nix), CFO (Mike Castle), Vice President

xinergy corp. AnD nAtionAl coAl — shAring A boArD rooM?

of Sales (Jeff Samples), and Gen-eral Counsel (Charles Kite) were all pulled from identical positions at National Coal, also headquartered in Knoxville.

Why all the overlap? Like many recent business choices in the re-cession economy, it all comes back to debt. Xinergy was founded by National Coal’s former CEO, Jon Nix, who began selling millions of dollars of National Coal stock in 2007. In the last months of 2008,

Xinergy brokered an $11 million deal to purchase National Coal’s Kentucky operation at Straight Creek.

Conveniently, the sum — paid in cash — helped National Coal pay off some significant debts. It didn’t hurt that the deal jump-started one of the company’s ma-jor stockholder’s (Nix) new proj-ect, either.

Xinergy is running with the same parts performing the same

Jenny Marieneau

nAtionAl coAl corporAtion crUMblesJim Sheffield

Alas! Unable to keep its head above water any longer, the Knox-ville-based National Coal Corpora-tion (NCC) has decided its best op-tion is selling out.

According to a press release post-ed on September 28, Ranger Energy Investments has offered to pay NCC $1.00 per share for each share of its common stock, representing “a 54% premium to National Coal’s closing price of $0.65 per share on Septem-ber 27, 2010.”

Ranger previously purchased a portion of National Coal’s assets in the New River Tract of East Tennes-see.

Ranger Energy Investments, LLC is an “acquisition vehicle” for West Virginia coal baron Jim Justice, president and CEO of Bluestone Industries, Inc, founder of Justice Family Farms, and owner of the famed Greenbrier Resort in Green-

brier County, West Virginia.

In 2009 Justice brokered a deal with Russian mining company Mechel OAO, which agreed to buy Bluestone’s coal holdings in West Virginia for $436 million. In the past several years, Bluestone’s min-ing operations have spread to Ken-tucky, Tennessee and Wise County, VA.

Justice has also been a major player in agribusiness on the East Coast since the late ’70s. Justice Family Farms was reportedly “the largest cash grain operation on the East Coast” in 2008, “producing corn, wheat and soybeans on more than 50,000 acres in West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.”

In July of this year, National Coal was informed by the Nasdaq Stock Market that it would no longer qual-ify for listing in the Nasdaq Global

Market due to a prolonged drop in the price of its common stock shares.

According to NCC’s website, its stock price closed at $0.82 per share as of August 5. However, in order to comply with Nasdaq regulations, they must maintain a stock price of $1.00 per share. After 30 con-secutive days of non-compliance the company received a letter from Nas-daq notifying them that they would be dropped from the Global Market.

Clearly, with nowhere left to turn, National Coal has accepted its fate and is prepared to broker a deal with Ranger Energy.

However, there is one major road-block in the finalization of this deal. In early October, Tennessee Gover-nor Phil Bredesen signed a Lands Unsuitable for Mining petition, which was filed with the US Depart-ment of Interior’s Office of Surface

Mining. The petition asks for the federal government’s help in prohib-iting surface mining on lands man-aged for public use on the Northern Cumberland Plateau. The proposed areas include the Royal Blue, Sun-dquist and New River Tracts in the North Cumberland Wildlife Man-agement area, as well as the Emory River Tract Conservation Easement.

This could potentially be a deal-breaker for Ranger Energy, as it would limit the amount of their in-vestment they could actually utilize. The transaction with National Coal has yet to be legitimized and isn’t expected to close until December. If these areas are granted “Unsuitable for Mining” status, it could make the deal a lot less attractive for Ranger, who may choose to back out.


functions on the same site as Na-tional Coal Corporation. Do not be fooled by the makeover — they are part of the same machine. Stay tuned for future deals and employ-ee exchange between these two companies.


Does picking up a newspaper and finding a laundry list of heady social ills — from toxic pollution and militarization to resource extraction and mountaintop removal — make you feel small, sad, immobilized, or generally frustrated and freaked out? Ever felt overwhelmed thinking about climate change, the extinction crisis, or globalization?

Do you wish a small group of en-ergetic, plain-spoken, kind-hearted folks would come to your town and use cartoons, funny stories, and lots of good news to discuss these big, complex issues and provide clear-headed analysis for how to make powerful system change while they’re at it?

Wish no more. After more than two years of discussions, feedback, eraser marks, sketches and rough drafts, The Beehive Design Collec-tive has completed The True Cost of Coal, an elaborate, narrative, anti-copyright illustration that explores the complex story of mountaintop removal coal mining and the broad-er impacts of coal extraction in Ap-palachia and throughout the world. Touring “Bees” are ready and eager to swarm to your doorstep with paper True Cost of Coal posters, giant por-table fabric banners, and presenta-tions of this unique, interactive, and wholly engaging multi-disciplinary art piece.

The True Cost of Coal is an epic, highly collaborative illustration painstakingly crafted by the wildly motivated, all-volunteer, artist-ac-tivist Beehive Collective. A commit-ted group of mostly women, the Bees make their home in Eastern Maine

Digging Deeper

Art/music/culture

dialogue, and inspiration to front-line Appalachian communities and robust social movements organizing for a future beyond coal.

To create The True Cost of Coal, Bees spent years gathering precious “pollen” — stories, songs, and hard-hitting political analysis from the

“Do you wish a small group of energetic, plain-spoken, kind-hearted folks would come to your town and use cartoons ... to discuss these big, complex is-sues? ... wish no more.”

cont. on page 16...

Turn the page for a pull-out excerpt of The True Cost of Coal!

A Bee explaining The True Cost of Coal poster. Photo by Beehive Collective

Written by the Bees / Illustrations by The Beehive CollectiveThe Beehive collective illustrates complex story of mountaintop removal

but work in deep collaboration with communities throughout the West-ern Hemisphere to create holistic, ac-cessible, and educational images that inspire critical reflection and strate-gic action. Hot off the presses and flying off the shelves, the allegorical True Cost of Coal graphic is designed as an educational and organizing tool, custom-crafted to provide analysis,


ers, the Office of Surface Mining, and sludge dams, with a cast of me-dicinal plant characters ranging from bloodroot and goldenseal to ginseng, burdock, and nettle.

You’ll see coalfield characters de-fending their lands and lives, through overt acts of protest and covert acts of defiance. If the Bees have done their work correctly, you’ll discover a love letter to the Appalachian Moun-tains and the cultural and biological diversity that they nurture.

grassroots about the history of Appa-lachia and the complicated, destruc-tive power of the coal industry in the region. Criss-crossing the moun-tains, the Bees conducted interviews and participated in discussions with community organizers, activists, stu-dents, and everyday folks in the re-gion whose lives and livelihoods have been directly impacted by coal and mountaintop removal mining. To fulfill their mission of “cross-polli-nating the grassroots,” Bees returned each fall and spring to connect with friends and allies throughout the il-lustration process, cross-checking drafts and sketches and honing vi-sual metaphors with folks whose sto-ries are represented.

The result of all this cross-pol-lination and foraging? Far from a simple story of environmental devas-tation with clear good guys and bad guys, The True Cost of Coal depicts a deeply complex history of power, colonization, and economic neces-sity, interwoven with heroic stories of coalfield resistance and resiliency. For these well-meaning pollinators “from away,” tallying the costs of coal proved so complex, in fact, that the resulting illustrated graphic is the most richly detailed of the Beehive’s work to date, featuring over 100 dis-tinct species of Appalachian plants and animals!

If you pick up a copy of the 5’ x 2.5’ poster, you’ll encounter stories span-ning from the formation of the coal during the carboniferous period 300 million years ago to the Trail of Tears and the Battle of Blair Mountain to the recent 2008 toxic fly ash spill in Harriman, TN. You’ll find tales of food systems, manifest destiny, US military might, and Oxycontin addic-tion drawn alongside sustainable ur-ban housing projects, molly mooch-

...cont. from Beehive Collective page 13

Art/music/culture

Bees at work in the studio

to get your copy of the true cost of coal, to see images from the graphic, or to bring the bees to your school, town, or event, please visit www.beehivecollective.org.

2011 THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr TMD 17Art/music/culture

lone MoUntAin book project seeks to eDUcAte yoUng reADersText & artwork by Sara Lynch-Thomason

l o n e M o u n t a i n i s a n illustrated children’s storybook about mountaintop removal. The project was conceived in 2008 during my in-ternship with United Mountain De-fense. As the main collaborator on the project, my job was both to write and illustrate the book (intended for readers age 9-12). By following the lives of people, plants and animals on a mountain called Lone Mountain, in the course of one day, readers begin to understand that it is teeming with stories that stretch back millennia.

But Lone Mountain, like so many mountains in Appalachia, is now in trouble. Sections of its slopes are be-ing strip-mined, and all the animals, the waterways, and the plants are disappearing, trading many renew-able resources for a finite one. Lone Mountain can no longer hear her chil-

dren talk to her, and they can hardly hear her voice above the din of bull-dozers. By the end of the book, the reader is encouraged to understand him/herself as a part of Lone Moun-tain; they drink its waters, they use its medicinal plants, and they can tell its story too.

Through the story of Lone Moun-tain, readers can understand them-selves as part of the ancient narra-tive of Appalachia, and in the process they can become teachers to future generations so that they may treat our mountains with care.

Now in its second year, this project is nearing completion. Fundraising efforts are underway, and the book will soon be available.

Donations to the project can cur-rently be made at United Mountain Defense’s website: unitedmountainde-fense.org

MUsic in the MiDst of MoUntAintop reMoVAl

Keeper of the Mountains Larry Gibson has been holding holi-day festivals with friends and family since the mid 1980s — even as the mountains around him have been torn down. These weekends have proved to be important in bringing people to-gether with music and friendship.

People have come together for more than twenty years on Kayford Mountain. Hundreds make the long journey to celebrate Appalachian life at the Mountain Keepers Music Fes-tival. Held on July 4 weekend, speak-ers and musicians highlighted the hard reality of coal and the need to defend our mountains from the rav-

ages of mountaintop removal. NASA Scientist James Hansen drove more than 9 hours each way to deliver the dire message of climate change and to emphasize that we need clean energy now.

The purpose of the concert, ac-cording to Gibson, is to show support for “human rights, health and water rights, and basically everything that we have.”

This festival brought Gibson’s fam-ily together with people who actively work to end mountaintop removal and with people who made their first visit to the mountain for an all-around fun and warm weekend.

The festival featured many emerg-ing artists who celebrated their home and heritage. From old time ballads to Affrilachian poetry to folk songs to Latin jazz to rock, the music provid-ed a perfect fun atmosphere for the weekend’s festivities.

This weekend was one of three an-nual festivals. Gibson also holds Labor Day (Sep. 3-4) and Changing of the Leaves (Oct. 9-10) festivals each year.

Updates and photos of Kayford Mountain festivals can be found on the Keeper of the Mountains website at mountainkeeper.org.

Danny Chiotos

Paige Dalporto, of Fayette Co., WV, performing his original “Coal Time Religion.”

TMD THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr 2011 18 Art/music/culture

I wrote this while riding up a moun-taintop removal site on a van that kept cutting off from all the dust clogging its filters. The tour was led by United Mountain Defense as part of the Fund-ing Exchanges Skills Conference hosted by the Appalachian Community Fund.

Can’t breatheCan you help me?Take a picture Roses grow wildtrying their best to beautifya landscape being destroyedGrass seeds thrownon the side of a mountainto “fix” the problem that won’t go awayas long as we keep removing moun-taintops 80 years for topsoil to come backblack locusts even dieno treesmassive landslides ensure that they will never grow tallthe land can no longer heal itselfand will forever have a hard timeas long as we keep removing moun-taintops instead of praying for it during

droughtsthe folks who live in the bottomspray the rain doesn’t comecause when the rain comes, the coal dirt turns to acidwhen the rain comes, it washes the fake hillside and baby trees down the mountainin a river of sludgeWouldn’t let my kids play near itDon’t care what the owner of the mines says he would do with his Can’t drink the waterDon’t want toForced instead, we’ll drink what thecoal companies’ brothers’ brother’s daddybottled up for usBig huge drums of “produced water”right next to the drums of “crude oil”“The drinking water of the future”, they sayand it will beas long as we keep removing moun-taintops I can’t breatheCan you please help me?You had best take a picture‘Cause all of this will not grow back and you will never see it againas long as we keep removing moun-taintops

Margo Miller

UntitleD Mtr #1

the enD of the worlDRyan Bliss

Led through March fog

on Kayford

down trails lined by

clay bits and pines

that floated with us

in sky,

and sound:

squealing and groaning,

roaring

and shrieking

as the mountain

lifted from its bed.

And the cliff.

“In front of us, there’s a drop off of about 300 feet.”

A redwood,

before meeting

machine

and coal dust,

rocks in piles

we bring home

and curl up with—

central heat breezing

and dream.

But we couldn’t see that.

Only gray mist

shielding us from

the visible attack.

And when the silence

crept in,

it burned

like a hand full of dried ice.

Gone.

End of the world.

Dinosaurs of its

cataclysm positively

overheard.

Quinton Mine. Photo by Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper

Miller Steam Plant, Locust Fork. Flight provided by Southwings.org. Photo by Nelson Brooke.

2011 THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr TMD 19Art/music/culture

QUilting AgAinst MoUntAintop reMoVAl

Dana Kuhnline quilt patch

The floating lab collective is organizing a project to explore and amplify Appalachian artists’ respons-es to mountaintop removal. Working with poets, musicians, quilters and storytellers, the project aims to collect and share people’s creative responses to the affected land.

Floating Lab recently traveled to Kentucky to meet and work with lo-cal artists and poets, filming their personal and creative responses to the issue of mountaintop removal amidst the backdrop of the Kentucky moun-tains, mining sites, and other loca-tions of personal importance to the artists.

What was prevalent was the forti-tude and dedication of these people, facing a polarized Appalachia where fear tactics are used to quell those who would challenge or hold responsible “Big Coal.”

Stories of arson and stalking, among other injustices, show a strug-gle for free speech in Appalachia. Songs, poetry and the visual arts have often been a medium for resistance within an environment of fear.

The collected responses create a vast and complex portrait of the local activist. The resulting project will be exhibited at George Mason University and, tentatively, at the University of Louisville and other locations.

An important part of this effort is the creation of a crazy quilt that will document quilters’ relationship to the mountains and areas affected by mountaintop removal. Quilting is a time-honored Appalachian tradition and an ideal way to respond.

We have received many beautifully crafted and deeply responsive patches, and we will be seeking additional sub-missions until Spring 2011.

To participate, please create a patch dedicated to a mountain of your choice. Feel free to get creative; the patches can be any size or shape. The only constraint is that the name of a mountain or range of mountains must be embroidered or somehow noted on the fabric. Along with the patch, we would like you to include a

still MoVing MoUntAinsJen Osha

Kate Clark

Thank you to everyone who has helped to sell or raise awareness about the Still Moving Mountains CDs! We at Aurora Lights are happy to say that we have been able to provide four grants from the proceeds of the CD since its release last June: to the com-munity kitchen in Rock Creek, WV, the RReNEW volunteer house in Ap-palachia, VA, the Mountain Keeper’s Festival on Kayford Mt., WV, and to Mountain Justice to support travel to Appalachia Rising.

We are also thrilled that the multi-media website released with Still Mov-ing Mountains, JourneyUpCoalRiver.org, won the e-Appalachia 2010 web-

site of the year award from the Appala-chian Studies Association.

Still Moving Mountains combines in-terviews with local residents impacted by mountaintop removal, along with a mixture of local and well-known artists: Kathy Mat-tea, Del McCoury, Blue Highway, Everett Lilly and the Lilly Mountaineers, Great American Taxi and Andrew McKnight.

A unique combina-tion of music, visuals and community involvement, Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home unleash-es the passion and urgency empower-

ing the coalfield justice movement in Appalachia at this critical time.

The CD goes hand-in-hand with Journey Up Coal River, an award-win-ning multimedia website featuring in-

terviews, photographs, maps, and lesson plans centered around the Coal River Valley in southern West Vir-ginia.

All proceeds from the album are used for grants and other

educational and charitable purposes consistent with Aurora Lights’ mission to raise awareness of the impacts of

mountaintop removal coal mining.

The first CD, released by Falling Mountain Music, raised more than $6,000 for local grassroots work.

Since its release, Still Moving Moun-tains has been on CNN, CMT, FolkWax, Elmore Magazine and more. Let’s keep sellin’ ‘em so more grants can go out.

Want to apply for a grant, help us spread the word or get involved in West Virginia? Please check out www.auroralights.org for more information or email Jen Osha at [email protected].

personal memory about the mountain in writing.

Please mail quilt patches along with writings to:

Floating Lab CollectiveSchool of ArtGeorge Mason University4400 University DriveMSN 1C3Fairfax, VA 22030

TMD THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr 2011 20 chAllenging Permits

brUshy ponD perMit ApplicAtion DenieD

Nelson Brooke

In December of 2009, National Coal of Alabama (NCA) submitted a permit application with intent to surface mine coal near Smith Lake, an impound-ment on the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River. This lake is well known in Alabama for its prime water quality, scenic shoreline, and countless rec-reational opportunities. Water from Smith Lake is also used for Birming-

flows through the wilderness is Ala-bama’s only federally designated Wild & Scenic River. So when NCA an-nounced plans to strip-mine 2,949 acres of coal along Smith Lake and dis-charge wastewater out of 69 sediment ponds into the lake and its tributaries, people were outraged and banded to-gether in opposition.

Leaders from the lake community held meetings with concerned citizens, the Smith Lake Environmental Pres-ervation Committee and Smith Lake Living magazine. Opposition grew like wildfire to over 1,000 petition signato-ries, and soon an organization called Stop Smith Lake Strip Mining was formed.

This grassroots group of local and concerned citizens scoured the permit application filed with the Alabama Sur-

Army corps of engineers and epA take a second look at unmonitored dumping of fill into valleysOllie Schwartz

On June 18, 2010, the Army Corp of Engineers, in conjunction with the EPA, declared a suspension on Na-tionwide Permit Number Twenty-one (NWP 21). According to the Federal Register, this permit had been used to authorize the “discharge of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States for surface coal mining activi-ties” in the Appalachian regions of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ten-nessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Though enacted in 1982, the permit has not been challenged for its envi-ronmental impacts until now.

The suspension was issued because the discharge allowed by the permit “may result in more than minimal im-pacts to aquatic resources,” according to the Army Corps of Engineers. As a result of this suspension, further per-mits may only be granted according to Individual Permit procedure under the Clean Water Act.

Permits granted before June 18, 2010 will be valid until March 18, 2012 (with a one-year grace period), and NWP 21 is still valid in other regions outside these six states.

The suspension of this permit forces the EPA to conduct closer evaluations of proposed valley fill sites. This is a critical step in the right direction to protecting Appalachian watersheds from harmful impacts of MTR. Al-though permits already granted will remain in effect, this ruling will, at the very least, prevent new permits from being issued until 2013.

The reevaluation of NWP 21 is part of the Interagency Action Plan (IAP) developed under the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by the EPA,

Corps of Engineers, and Office of Sur-face Mining and Reclamation Enforce-ment, who have committed to better protection of waterways affected by coal mining.

As part of the evaluation process, comments were taken from citizens, 16,500 of whom expressed support for suspension and 6,500 of whom opposed suspension, according to the Federal Registry.

Aerial view of pro-posed mining area for the Brushy Pond Mine on Smith Lake. This sight adjoins one of the more popular ma-rinas along the lake — frequented by thou-sands of recreators, vacationers and locals every year. Photo by Nelson Brooke. Flight provided by South-wings.org.

citizens organize against surface mine near treasured smith lake

face Mining Commission (ASMC) dur-ing the 30-day comment period.

They uncovered countless flaws, pointed them out to the ASMC, and requested a public hearing. Black War-rior Riverkeeper conducted a review of NCA’s wastewater permit compliance history at all of their seven active Ala-bama mines after citizens were unable to obtain this public information from the state. It found that NCA had ma-jor noncompliance issues at all of its mines, numbering at least 9,758 viola-tions. Major public opposition, numer-ous application flaws, and poor com-pliance history combined to make this grassroots opposition a major success.

On June 23, 2010 the ASMC denied NCA’s Brushy Pond Mine permit appli-cation due to serious permit applica-tion deficiencies.

ham, Alabama’s public water supply.

This lake’s water is of high quality because it is fed by the headwaters of the Sipsey Fork, which flow from the forests and canyons of the Bankhead National Forest and its heart — the Sipsey Wilderness, America’s first des-ignated wilderness East of the Missis-sippi River.

The stretch of the Sipsey Fork that

nAtionwiDe perMit 21 sUspenDeD


eAst kentUcky consiDers AlternAtiVes to cAncelleD sMith plAntMiranda Brown

For more than four years, East Ken-tucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) has been planning to build a coal-burning power facility just southeast of Win-chester on the Kentucky River, and citizens of eastern Kentucky have been rallying to prevent it. Its plan was to provide extra electricity to the 87 EKPC counties during peak use times in the summer and winter.

Now it has entered into an agree-ment with Kentuckians for the Com-

chAllenging Permits

citizens express concern over public health, quality of life

The Southern Appalachian Moun-tain Stewards (SAMS) have been hold-ing off the proposed permit that would allow A&G Coal Corp. to strip-mine Ison Rock Ridge. The proposed mine would destroy 1,231.13 acres of land. There is concern that the operation would create more coal dust problems in the area, as well as violate the Clean Water Act, further burdening our wa-terways and the health of people living nearby.

Strip mining on Ison Rock Ridge would directly impact the surround-ing communities of Andover, Inman, Derby, Arno and the town of Appala-chia. Judy Needham, from Andover, and Barbara Mullins, from Derby, are two residents who are against the per-mit and have been working hard with SAMS to “keep Ison Rock Ridge Stand-ing.”

“People in Andover are definitely

Marley Green

worried about it,” says Needham. “There will be a truck haul through An-dover, and there’s a lot of truck traffic already, so it will affect us when we go to the store, post office, anything.”

Many people in the surrounding communities are against the mine, yet they remain silent on the issue.

“None of the neighbors up in my holler approve of any of this — the stripping, the trucks, the water, the dust. But they still won’t help us with this fight,” says Mullins.

Although the strip mine permit has not yet been issued, clear-cuts have al-ready been made.

“We’ve already had eight trees fall, and one fell and broke the porch,” says Mullins. “This used to be a beauti-ful town, but now people see dust on the roads. It’s covering up homes and vehicles.”

The two women also stress the envi-ronmental impact of strip mining.

Needham emphasizes that “if Ison Rock is approved, and they start min-ing, it’s going to destroy the mountains — something we take pride in. That mountain will never be the same.”

Mullins has similar worries. “It’s go-ing to be a dead world. They’ve done away with the mountains. They’re do-ing it all wrong,” she says.

Fighting to keep Ison Rock Ridge Standing has been a hard battle. Need-ham recalls a series of informal confer-ences where residents were given the option to speak into a tape recorder but were denied a question-and-an-swer session with the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.

“They try to deliberately do what’s best for the coal companies,” she says.

“They don’t do anything to accom-

modate the people during the permit-ting process.” Mrs. Mullins agrees, recounting how her husband “went to the A&G main office and they wouldn’t open the door for him and nobody would talk to him.”

Despite difficulties like these, there is still hope, and SAMS continues the battle. Both Needham and Mullins ac-knowledge the headway that SAMS has made over the years.

“We’ve got them to stop Ison Rock Ridge for the moment,” says Mullins. “Everyone at SAMS has worked their butt off.”

“The EPA is finally listening to us,” says Needham proudly. “Of all the sur-face mining permits, the Ison Rock Ridge permit has taken the longest to approve, more than any other — it’s because of the people who have not let them do as they please, without fight-ing for what’s right.”

proposeD ison rock riDge Mining perMit Meets citizen opposition

together to evaluate and recommend new energy efficiency programs and renewable energy options.

An investigation undertaken by the Kentucky Public Service Commission mandated that EKPC reevaluate the available alternatives to building a new coal plant. In addition, EKPC has with-drawn its request for funding approval from the PSC, stating that “all options are on the table” regarding other en-ergy sources, such as natural gas and

monwealth, Kentucky Environmental Foundation, the Sierra Club, three individual co-op members, the Ken-tucky attorney general, and Gallatin Steel (EKPC’s biggest industrial cus-tomer); EKPC will halt its plans for the proposed coal-burning power plant in Clark County. The cooperative also committed $125,000 toward a collab-orative effort in which the public in-terest groups, EKPC and its member co-ops, and other parties will work

renewables.

Home weatherization and other en-ergy efficiency measures could cover about 53 percent of the generating ca-pacity of Smith. Another 35 percent of the generating power of Smith could be made up for in small-scale hydropower installations at opportune locations throughout Kentucky, many of which can be installed where there are exist-ing dams.


On September 11, 2009, the Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that 79 proposed moun-taintop removal (MTR) coal mines would need further review before the permitting process could continue.

At the time, many believed that this announcement was an early sign that the EPA’ s stance on MTR was shifting dramatically. Optimism faded when a more careful reading of the announce-ment did not imply a moratorium on permits but rather an ambiguous desig-nation of “review” under an enhanced partnership between the EPA and the US Corps of Engineers, which would not necessarily stop a given permit from being issued.

The 79 permits that were made public as part of the review process were iden-tified and pulled aside due to concerns

about the individual mines’ effects on water and environmental quality.

On January 5, 2010, the EPA an-nounced that it had denied the permit for the Hobet 45 mountaintop mine in Logan Co., WV, which was proposed by the Patriot Coal Company.

According to the EPA press release, “ … the proposed mine raised significant environmental and water quality con-cerns.”

Since that announcement in Janu-ary, a few permits from the list have been approved or surfaced in the courts only to be buried again in negotiations. This relative period of quiet left people across the spectrum on the MTR issue confused about the intent of the ad-ministration.

On April 1, 2010, the EPA released a plan for “comprehensive guidance

epA pUts holD on perMitsZach Foster

to protect Appalachian communities from harmful environmental impacts of mountaintop mining.” The intent of this new set of guidelines is to clarify the standards of the permitting pro-cess. The EPA has set these standards according to the “strong science” of two new reports released by the Office of Research and Development — one cov-ers the aquatic impacts of mountaintop mining and valley fills; the other sets a benchmark for unacceptable levels of conductivity, which is used to measure pollutant levels.

The EPA has also committed to a higher level of transparency in its per-mitting processes.

“The intent here is to tell people what the science is telling us, which is that it would be untrue to say that you could have numbers of valley fills, anything

other than minimal valley fills, and not expect to see irreversible damage to stream health,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

The impacts of these guidelines are yet to be seen on the ground, but many are hoping to get a better grip on the stance of the EPA when a decision on the permit for the Spruce 1 mine in West Virginia comes through some-time in the near future.

On October 15, 2010, EPA issued a recommendation to veto the per-mit for Spruce 1, saying that it would bury almost seven miles of headwater streams.

That permit was initially approved in 2007 but was subsequently tied up in litigation and could be seen as a test for what the EPA may have in mind for future permits in the region.

constrUction of DoMinion’s VirginiA city hybriD energy center reAches hAlfwAy pointDaniel A. Hawkins

Despite the tremendous efforts of local citizens to prevent the con-struction of a new fossil-fueled power plant near their homes, the Dominion-owned Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center has made great strides in its construction.

During two weeks in July, a large stator originally shipped from Japan made its way from the French Broad River in Knoxville, TN, to the power plant site near St. Paul, VA. The mas-sive size and 400-ton weight required various road improvements to be made along the 176-mile route of public road-ways it would travel. An almost circus-

like atmosphere surrounded the eight-mile-per-day move as people came from far and wide to witness what was being called a logistical triumph.

While proponents of the new power plant celebrated the stator’s arrival as being the halfway point to the plant’s construction, many citizens received it as a foreboding indication that the air they breathe may soon be polluted.

Laura Miller, member of the South-ern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, said of the plant’s construction, “This is a sore point for us. We fought very hard to stop this atrocious creation

from being built.”

Appalshop, a non-profit media or-ganization based in Whitesburg, KY, made a documentary called The Elec-tricity Fairy that outlines much of the fight against the construction of the plant.

Other citizenry have begun raising questions about some of the promises made by the plant’s proponents con-cerning the amount of construction jobs it was to create for local citizens.

During the end of September, con-struction employment peaked at 2,123 employees, of which only 632, or 29.8

chAllenging Permits

percent, were considered to be local citizens. Gregory Edwards, Media and Community Relations Manager for Do-minion, explained why. “Construction is at a stage now where people with the specialized construction skills needed on site are not as easily found in the local area, e.g. specialized welders, boilermakers, electricians. Shaw, the general contractor for the project, has been doing an excellent job of training local hires in a variety of construction skills.”


Zach Foster

Blue Trails are the water equivalent to hiking trails. Blue Trails are often associated with conservation easements, land acquisition, stream buffer requirements, higher water quality standards, and requirements for stream flow protections. Blue Trails can also help remove dams that are not usable and build support for Wild and Scenic River designations.

The American Rivers Organiza-tion provides an online guide for Blue Trails to help communities reconnect with their rivers, but doesn’t have any trails listed in East Tennessee. Howev-er, I hope to see Blue Trails along these East Tennessee waterways in the fu-ture. These trails could be used for educational purposes and as an eco-nomic resource in rural coal-impacted communities.

Below is a list of waterways with descriptions, including put-ins, take-outs, and the class of rapids for each

cAnoeing the blUe trAils of coAl coUntry

waterway. (Rapids are classified from 1 through 5, with 1 being flat water and 5 being turbulent whitewater.)

hickory creek: Class 1 and minor Class 2 rapids.

I have floated Hickory Creek from Stinking Creek near Habersham, TN to Hwy 90 at Morley, TN in Campbell County. This float was six miles and took three hours because we had to portage around some downed trees across the creek. It is only passable for canoes following a rain event or when the water level is higher than usual in late winter and spring. Kayaks might be able to float year-round. About 40 percent of this run can be scouted from Hwy 25W.

Upper cumberland: Class 1 and minor Class 2 rapids.

I floated 10 miles of a 25-mile

stretch from Harlan, KY in Harlan County to a boat ramp in Tejay, KY in Bell County. The put-in is behind the Dairy Queen in Harlan. The boat ramp take-out is right off of Hwy 119 in Bell County. The Upper Cumberland has a fairly good flow because it is a combi-nation of the Poor Fork of the Cum-berland River, the Clover, and Martins Fork. It has nice scenery, a hand full of small rapids, and is fairly remote. About 30 percent of this run can be scouted from Hwy 119.

sequatchie river: Class 1 rapids.

There are over 70 canoeable miles on this river. All of it drains down the center of a 5-mile-wide valley embed-ded in the southern part of Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. The Sequatchie Valley is a rift valley, said to be one of only two in the world. The Sequatchie travels through Bledsoe, Sequatchie, and Marion counties. Old Indian fish traps and later remains of river mills and their low mill dams can be found along the way. Ketner Mill, with a ten-foot dam at river mile 17, was built in 1824 and still grinds corn today. Ac-cording to the Canoe the Sequatchie Company, which is for sale, there is a good put-in on Cherry Street and Old TN 28, which is southeast of Dunlap, TN. The take-out is on Condra Switch Road. They suggested parking a vehi-cle at Hwy 28 and Condra Switch Road as it would be safer. This 12-mile float can take nearly 6 hours.

Big south fork of the cumberland river: Class 3 — 4 rapids.

The Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area surrounds 60 miles of the Big South Fork River and

its tributaries. Hwy 297 crosses the river at Leatherwood Ford. Above Leatherwood Ford is the Big South Fork’s famous Class 3 - 4 whitewater section. Below the bridge, the river flows fairly calm for 30-odd miles un-til the take-out at Blue Heron, an old mining community that has been re-stored by the National Park Service. The only outfitter operating on the Big South Fork is Sheltowee Trace Outfit-ters out of Whitley City, KY.

obed river: Class 2 - 4 rapids.

Another federally protected river system on the Plateau is the Obed Wild and Scenic River area, located in Cumberland and Morgan counties west of Knoxville. The park protects more than 45 miles of the Obed River and its main tributaries, including Daddy’s Creek and Clear Creek. These streams are best paddled in the spring. The boulder-choked channels require good maneuvering skills, and the runs are remote.

If you are interested in participating or organizing a float down any of these waterways, please contact UMD to find out about our next trip.

references:

http://www.bluetrailsguide.org

http://www.americanwhitewater.org

A Paddler’s Guidebook by Bob Lantz

Matt Landon

Photo by John Wathen.

getting out

TMD THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr 2011 24 regulAting coAl

on september 2, 2010, with a unanimous voice, the people of Roane County, TN and surround-ing areas made it known that they strongly support regulating coal ash under Subtitle C of the Resource Con-servation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

Coal ash is the waste that devas-tated Roane County when it erupted from TVA’s Kingston coal ash pond in 2008.

With this terrible disaster still fresh in their minds, residents turned out in large numbers to let the Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA) know that this industrial waste should be classified as toxic.

Representatives from the EPA as well as a representative from Senator Lamar Alexander’s office attended, along with media of all stripes.

A certified court stenographer re-corded all of the testimony that was presented and the final transcript will be submitted to the EPA as part of its written record.

Earlier this summer, the EPA for-mally proposed two alternative rules to regulate coal ash. One alternative, Subtitle D, would establish unenforce-able suggestions for how to manage the waste — at essentially the same level as household garbage. The other option, Subtitle C, would comprehen-sively regulate ash as a special haz-ardous waste from its generation to disposal — “cradle to grave.”

The EPA also announced that it would accept input on whether or not to hold public hearings. When the first and second rounds of hear-ings were announced, not one of the

seven hearings was within a reason-able drive of Roane County, where people have the keenest understand-ing of what happens when coal ash is unregulated.

In an effort to help Tennesseans participate in the civil process, a number of local and regional groups teamed to form the Citizens’ Coal Ash Hearing Committee.

These groups included the South-ern Alliance for Clean Energy, United

Mountain Defense, Statewide Orga-nizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM), Roane County Concerned Citizens, Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light, Cumberland Stewards, Ten-nessee Clean Water Network, Scott County Environmental Coalition, Tennessee Environmental Council and the Tennessee Chapter of the Si-erra Club.

The People’s Coal Ash Hearing was a great success. The EPA sent an ex-

perienced RCRA attorney to the hear-ing to present the options for coal ash regulation. After the EPA presenta-tion, the floor was open to the public for comments.

Of the seventy in attendance, twenty-five citizens spoke. They hailed from various parts of Ten-nessee, including Roane County, Nashville, Cookeville, Knoxville, and Johnson City. A Kentuckian and a North Carolinian were also in atten-dance.

Lawyers, scientists, students, ac-tivists, retirees, and many others spoke; every single commenter spoke strongly in favor of comprehensively regulating coal ash.

Citizens’ concerns included the shortcomings of the test method that the EPA has used to analyze coal ash, fear of future disasters, weakness of state regulations, the unwillingness of state regulators to enforce the reg-ulations that are in place, and confu-sion about the industry’s argument that proper regulation will stigma-tize coal ash.

Most notably, citizens spoke of their personal experiences after the Kingston disaster. They discussed how they and their neighbors were affected. They talked about how their lives have changed and how they see this rule as an opportunity to make things safer for others.

Just a week after the People’s Hearing, on September 8, the EPA announced a public hearing in Knoxville.

Josh Galperin

residents speak out for coal ash regulations people’s heAring helD in roAne coUnty

Photo by Sara Galperin

“every single commenter spoke strongly in favor of

comprehensively regulating coal ash.”


epA holDs finAl heAring on coAl Ash in knoxVille

Appropriately, the envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA) tacked Knoxville — the major city closest to the largest coal ash spill in history — onto the end of a long string of public hearings about the classification of coal ash.

The Oct. 27 hearing began with a silent morning vigil led by Green-peace and supported by volunteers with United Mountain Defense (UMD) and Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM).

Graphic images of the 2008 Ten-nessee Valley Authority coal ash di-saster in Roane County were on dis-play, forcing industry participants to see the real impact of coal ash.

There was not only the opportuni-ty for citizens to voice their concerns to the EPA but also numerous oppor-tunities for uninformed citizens to learn more about the hazards of coal ash, especially in connection to the TVA disaster and all of its ramifica-tions.

These learning opportunities in-cluded the documentary Perry Coun-ty, which told the story of the poor, mostly African-American communi-

artistic expression of the truly scary nature of coal ash.

Many young participants of the rally spoke during the final session of the hearing, making for an emotional and inspired last couple hours of the day. Several young people spoke to the four-member panel about the real fear of living in a future where coal ash remains unregulated by the EPA.

With teary eyes and shaking voic-es, speakers said that they were sad-dened and angered by the ways that coal ash is poisoning their environ-ment and, in turn, their bodies.

“I’m shaking because I’m so furi-ous and sad at the same time,” said Roxanne Shohadae of SPEAK.

Several speakers applauded the EPA for making steps in the right di-rection but lamented that even sub-title C is not enough.

However, only one person in the

last two hours of the hearing urged the EPA to adopt the industry-friend-ly subtitle D.

Those who spoke for subtitle D throughout the day represented in-dustries that use (“recycle”) coal ash to manufacture products such as con-crete. They claim that publicizing the fact that coal ash is full of toxic heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, lead and selenium would “create a stigma” for their industry.

With such arguments as these, it is apparent that profit maximization for industry is behind the push for subtitle D while public and ecological health is behind the push for subtitle C.

The EPA will be considering these two options based upon the testi-monies gathered from both industry and citizens and will make a deci-sion sometime following the Nov. 19 deadline for public comments.

All of the testimony gathered dur-ing the People’s Hearing, previous to the EPA’s decision to hold a public hearing in Tennessee, has now been submitted officially to the EPA.

“speakers said that they were saddened and angered by the ways that coal ash is

poisoning their environment and, in turn, their bodies.”

ty to which much of the coal ash was hastily shipped following the TVA disaster. The film’s featured report-ers and producer were available for a question-and-answer session follow-ing the film.

A press conference was held at midday, during which health and wa-ter experts and citizens suffering di-rect impacts of coal ash spoke to the media.

Sierra Club staff and volunteers delivered more than 6,500 comment postcards that had been collected from across the country.

Nearing the culmination of the action-packed day, a “Coal Ash is Scary” rally — organized by UMD, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Greenpeace, and Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville (SPEAK) — gave more than one hun-dred participants the chance to dress in zombie and ghoul costumes as an

regulAting coAl

Holly Creswell Haworth & Bonnie Swinford

Carol Judy tells what it’s like “when the coal ash is in your yard.” Photo by Eric Loftis

Protestor at the “Coal Ash is Scary” rally. Photo by Eric Loftis.


root-Digging storiesCarol Judy

i live in the clear fork valley in northeast Tennessee. I am a non-timber forest worker, which for me means digging roots, pulling moss and sustaining human and for-est health.

I dig goldenseal , Creek yellow-root, and black and blue cohosh for cash income. Sassafras roots are my contribution to local women who make a tonic from their use.

Other plants, like ginseng, I don’t dig, but harvest by breaking over, helping the plant regenerate for an-other cycle of growth. Usnea, an im-mune system builder is harvested for my use as well for sharing with oth-ers.

Deep mines hollowed many of these mountains before I was born, while logging left many with cleared and eroded slopes.

Yet, over these past 60 years, the bare patches have grown again and have become young woods for anoth-er generation. This is the forest cycle I have seen; the woods and their diver-sity of growth shelter the roots I dig.

I have goldenseal beds that I have dug for 15 years, while others have been destroyed by clear-cutting the woods and by development of land for the mining industry.

I sold goldenseal for 35 dollars a pound dry last year. That same gold-enseal gets sold in the local drugstore for 60 dollars an ounce.

This is one example of over 400 Appalachian plants dug and sold to a global market as a raw product. If product development of the plant was within my community instead of somewhere else, more of that added value could stay here rather than go elsewhere.

Folks here hunger to be able to provide for themselves, take care of the land that nourishes us to sustain the generations we are all part of.

Today logging is not about timber but more about fiber-pulp produc-tion, at least around here. This means clear-cutting — a very different log-ging practice than that of the past generation.

Clear-cutting seriously interrupts the forest’s ability to regenerate or retain its diverse, symbiotic commu-nities. The timber companies create mono-cultures in pine for fiber pro-duction, growing trees designed to sell in far-off specialty markets, not for local, holistic use.

Meanwhile, I look at these moun-tains that surround me and at the people of my community and realize that regionally our “communities of place” are being similarly treated.

As the resources from the land and forest are soaked up to support our “first world culture,” our “free market economy,” little respect is given to the systems that gave birth to these resources.

Our “natural energy,” our deep knowledge into how these mountains create life, is castrated. And this is a far deeper loss than anything gained from a fiber-pulp factory.

Meanwhile, strip-mining and mountaintop removal (MTR) are to the mountains what clear-cutting is to the forest. It’s no longer enough to destroy part of a mountain; now en-tire summits are classified as “over-burden,” a “misfortune” (to quote Ox-ford’s Dictionary) because the land itself restricts the open plunder of the resources beneath it.

I find this terrifying, because I

know the social culture behind this mining is driven by consumers who demand instant gratification, to in-sure a maximum stock-holder profit for corporations.

It is based on an often willful ig-norance of the cost of this consump-tion, what this plunder does to the true “communities of place” where the resources come from.

True bonds of humanity are re-placed with the cold bonds of the market, and the relationships of commodities replace actual relation-ships.

All the while, more and more of our natural wealth is stolen — prevent-ing the long-term sustainable futures

voices from the Mountains

The author digging roots. Photo by Michelle Mockbee.

for those that come after us.

We are rural and urban people, we all need good air and water to have life anywhere. Woods and forests do that. By being, they create air and water, necessary for all life. The more mountains and woods are destroyed, the less air and water there is for life.

I close with this thought, as I kneel on my knees, digger in the earth. I give thanks for the knowledge I gain by being in the woods, and to the spirit that created man and earth. Many of us understand the woods as “Church.” My hope is that others on their knees in Church as buildings find ways to understand and connect to the woods as Church.

2011 THE MOUNTAIN DEFENDEr TMD 27Join the fight!voices from the Mountains

the MoUntAin DefenDer neeDs yoUr sUpport.

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When you sponsor The Mountain Defender, you are supporting independent environmental journalism in East Tennessee. Now that’s some-thing that can really make a difference!

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Go to unitedmountaindefense.org to sponsor us today.

UMD internships

UMD has internships and volunteer opportunities that can be conducted from any location throughout the year. Come spend the summer defending the mountains in Tennessee. We have a wide range of internship projects, and we welcome new projects.

JoIn unITeD MounTaIn DefenseUniteD MoUntAin Defense works to protect Tennessee’s waters, air, mountains and people. UMD members recognize that the health of the waters, forests and communities are only as strong as the mountain’s foundation. Join UMD and help create a strong and healthy future. UMD meets every Tuesday night at 7:00 at Bar-ley’s in downtown Knoxville. We’d love to see you there!

VolUnteer!We need your skills & expertise.

lAwyers

scieNTisTs

AccoUNTANTs

ArTisTs

perforMers

MeDiA liAisoNs

MeDics

eDUcATors

pUBlic speAKers

grANT wriTers

weB DesigNers

ViDeo eDiTors

ViDeogrAphers

phoTogrAphers

gArDeNers

grAphic DesigNers

eVeNT orgANizers

oUTreAch

scoUTiNg

yoUr UNiQUe self!

DonAte!properTies iN coAl coUNTry or KNoxVille,TN

gloBAl posiTioNiNg sysTeMs

high resolUTioN DigiTAl sTill / ViDeo cAMerAs

geNerAl office sUpplies

rUNNiNg cArs/ TrUcKs

gAs cArDs

lApTop coMpUTers

frUiT Trees/ plANTs/ seeDs

TArps/ rope/ DUcT TApe

cAMpiNg geAr

cANoes & KAyAKs

4-wheelers

Artwork by Sara Lynch-Thomason, for the Lone Mountain Book Project. See story on page 17 inside.

The Mountain Defender - 6th Edition, 2011

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Transcript of The Mountain Defender - 6th Edition, 2011