Spring Research Trip

I visited the coal fields of WV in May to see the family and do some research. Here are some pics from my trip.


This is a mountaintop removal mining site at Kayford, WV. About 1,000 feet of mountain tops are lopped off to unearth the coal. This site is actually a small one - 900 acres. The largest mountaintop removal site in WV is around 12,000 acres. 3 millions pounds of explosives are used everyday in the coalfields at MTR sites.

This was also taken on Kayford Mountain. The large truck is dumping the waste of this MTR operation over the decapitated mountain. But this material is no longer called "waste." The Bush administration re-wrote an environmental law and this waste is now referred to as "fill" which makes the dumping of it perfectly legal. To get a sense of the scope of MTR notice the ant-sized vehicles in the foreground of the picture.

Believe it or not, this is a water sample taken straight from the tap of a woman's house in McDowell county, WV. Reminds me of orange soda. This water sample is in Bill Price's office in Charleston. Bill is the local Sierra Club representative fighting the coal industry in the state.

This is the humble office of the Coal River Mountain Watch, an anti-mountaintop removal citizen's group in Boone County, WV. I spend most of my time here when researching in the coal fields. The building is full of local women who joined the group because of the incursions of coal on their homes and land. The mountain mural was painted by one of the members, Sarah, who told me that while she was painting it one motorist drove by and said "if you don't watch it, we'll blow up that mountain too." lovely, huh? She did say other motorists applauded and praised her efforts.

This the the sticker-ridden vehicle of activist Larry Gibson. He is sitting on land worth about 300 million dollars. He refuses to sell his property to coal companies so they are mining around him. The pics of the MTR site above is literally in Larry's backyard. He has received many death threats but continues to stand his ground.

I was trying to get a pic of the plate on the front of this car, but you can't see it clearly. It is a "Friends of Coal" sign that is common in the area. Friends of Coal is a front group for the WV Coal Association. They are engaged in a grassroots campaign to get as many people as possible to support the coal industry. Their propoganda campaigns are very successful as you see their license plates, bumper stickers and signs all over the coal fields.

Some anti-mtr activists paid to erect this billboard that originally said "Stop Destroying My Mountains," signed by God. Vandals changed the signator to "tree huggers," revealing the strong anti-environment presence in the coalfields. This pic was taken in Surveyor, WV on Rte 3 in Raleigh county.