{"article":{"id":129857,"heading":"\r\nSuccessful Week of Anti-Mountaintop Removal in Lexington\r\n","author":"Maude Richards and Micah Lee","created":"2005-06-20 17:37:09","modified":"2005-06-20 17:37:09","last_modified":"Tue, 21 Jun 2005 00:37:09","article":"\r\n \r\n

\r\nMountain Justice Summer (MJS), an anti-MTR campaign occurring in a \r\nnumber of Appalachian states, is working to raise public awareness \r\nabout the adverse environmental, economic, and health effects of this \r\nform of strip mining, and to pressure the corporations involved into \r\nceasing their destruction of one of the world's most biologically \r\ndiverse ecosystems.  Volunteers have come from as far away as Arizona \r\nand Seattle to join local organizers and residents of West Virginia, \r\nKentucky, Tennessee, and southwest Virginia.

\r\nA large downtown rally and march, preceded by four banner drops on \r\nmajor Lexington roads, ended MJS's Lexington week on a high note as \r\nover 175 people listened to residents of the coal fields speak out \r\nagainst MTR, marched peacefully past a counter-rally at Kentucky Coal \r\nAssociation (KCA) headquarters, and presented a list of demands to \r\nKentucky Utilities, an electricity company that provides much of its \r\nenergy from MTR-mined coal.  Organizers also put on an energetic skit \r\nwith such characters as King Coal and The Sludge Monster outside the \r\nKentucky Utility headquarters.

\r\nDuring the rally, MJS activists presented Bill Caylor, President of \r\nKCA, with a silver platter of toxic sludge collected at the October \r\n2000 slurry spill in Martin County, Kentucky.  Caylor dipped his \r\nfinger in the goo and stuck it in his mouth, to the bewilderment of \r\nonlookers.  In April of 2004, at a Kentucky University panel \r\ndiscussion, Caylor had accepted a challenge to eat sludge after \r\nclaiming that it was as harmless as dirt.  Sludge, the carcinogenic, \r\nheavy-metal-filled by-product of the coal cleaning process, is often \r\nstored by the billions of gallons behind dams at MTR sites that are \r\ndirectly above houses and even elementary schools.  The Martin County \r\nspill has been called \"the worst environmental disaster in the \r\nsoutheastern United States\" by the Environmental Protection Agency, \r\nand Massey Energy, the coal company responsible, was fined $5,500.

\r\nAfter the sludge delivery, MJS activists engaged in healthy dialogue \r\nwith Caylor about the economic and environmental concerns of MTR and \r\nthe role that KCA plays in energy consumption.  \"We asked him to write \r\na policy on conservation for KCA,\" said Benji Burrell.  Caylor is \r\nreported as saying, \"In our next board meeting in October, I'll \r\npresent [these ideas] to the board and we'll talk about writing a \r\nconservation policy.\"

\r\nEarlier in the week, MJS organized a screening at the Kentucky Theater \r\nof films relating to strip mining in Appalachia, including Mucked, To \r\nSave the Land and People, Kilowatt Ours, Sludge, and The End of \r\nSuburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream. \r\nRoughly 200 people attended the educational event, and stayed for the \r\nensuing question and answer session with Lexington organizer Dave \r\nCooper.

\r\nThroughout the week, the MJS activists engaged people on the street in \r\nconversation about MTR, gathered signatures for local non-profit \r\nKentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), tested streams affected by \r\nmining sites, and interviewed coal truck drivers to compile \r\ninformation on dangerously overloaded trucks.  Said MJS activist \r\nKenlan Chiosso, \"Seeing the local children hold anti-MTR signs at the \r\nrally was one of the most rewarding parts of the week.\"<\/p>\r\n

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Mountain Justice Summer (MJS) seeks to add to the growing\r\n anti-MTR citizens movement. Specifically MJS demands an\r\n abolition of MTR, steep slope strip mining and all other forms\r\n of surface mining for coal. We want to protect the cultural\r\n and natural heritage of the Appalachia coal fields. We want to\r\n contribute with grassroots organizing, public education,\r\n nonviolent civil disobedience and other forms of citizen action.
\r\n Historically coal companies have engaged in violence and\r\n property destruction when faced with citizen opposition to\r\n their activities. MJS is committed to nonviolence and will not\r\n be engaged in property destruction. <\/em>
\r\n <\/p>\r\n

To let them know how you feel,\r\n contact:
\r\n Massey\r\n Energy<\/strong>
\r\n \r\n (destroyer of mountains, waterways and communities in WV and KY;\r\n also viciously anti-union)
\r\n 4 North 4th Street, Richmond, VA 23219
\r\n Phone: 888.424.2417, 804.788.1824
\r\n Some of Massey's top managers:
\r\n <\/strong>\r\n katherine.kenny@masseyenergyco.com,john.parker@masseyenergyco.com,
\r\n \r\nmichael.allen@masseyenergyco.com,steve.sears@masseyenergyco.com,
\r\n \r\ngary.smith@masseyenergyco.com,gary.temple@masseyenergyco.com,
\r\n tom.kielty@masseyenergyco.com,thomas.dougherty@masseyenergyco.com
\r\n
\r\n Contact us at mountainjusticesummer@gmail\r\n.com and visit www.mountainjusticesummer.org\r\n for more information <\/p>\r\n <\/div> \r\n <\/td>\r\n

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\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/td>\r\n <\/tr><\/table>\r\n\n","contact":"mountainjusticesummer@gmail.com","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainjusticesummer.org\/","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"During the week of June 13 in Lexington, KY, a meal of toxic coal sludge scraped out of a stream in eastern Kentucky was delivered to the president of a coal advocacy group, hundreds of concerned citizens attended an anti-mountain top removal (MTR) rally and march that ended at Kentucky Utility's headquarters, a film festival educated Lexingtonians about the dangers of strip mining and its repercussions, and activists passed out literature on the streets, all part of Mountain Justice Summer's week in Lexington, Kentucky. \r\n","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2005\/06\/129857.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}