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WRITING

War Comes to Appalachia
john johnson

The region known as Appalachia is one of the most beautiful and biologically diverse areas of this gorgeous little green-blue planet that we call home. The mountains and forests of Appalachia filter air and water, create soil, provide habitat and spiritual sanctuary, and generally make life possible and desirable. The beauty and diversity have been evolving here for eons.

With the coming of industrialized Europeans, Appalachia has suffered, yet endured. Now, a new form of industrial exploitation has laid siege to Appalachia. It is called mountaintop removal and it's all about extracting coal cheaper and faster to line the pockets of greedheads up on Wall Street and to fuel the wasteful extravagance of a mindless, homogenous, consumer culture run amok. Mountaintop removal is exactly what the name says it is. The tops of mountains are blasted and bulldozed off into adjacent valleys in order to access thin seams of coal. The resulting landscape looks like it has been bombed. The coal is shipped out to energy companies and burned to make electricity. The valleys and hollers are filled with rock, rubble and mine spoils that obliterate springs, streams and forests. It is a war against the earth.

Dynamite is cheaper than people, so mountaintop removal does not create any new jobs. Communities adjacent to mountaintop removal coal mines suffer from poverty, have their foundations and wells ruined from blasting, and are in danger from hazards of overloaded coal trucks careening down small, windy mountain roads. Mountaintop removal has destroyed approximately 1,000 miles of streams and 500 square miles of land in West Virginia. It is wrecking eastern Kentucky and has recently appeared in Tennessee. It is an industrial cancer that is spreading and must be stopped. It is a war against land and people.

Long viewed as powerless, ignorant hillbillies, mountain people in coal country in Appalachia are organizing to save their homes, communities, culture and life supporting natural environment.

Recently activists from Kentucky and West Virginia have embarked on a series of nation-wide tours to educate and inspire fellow Appalachians and Americans about the scourge of mountaintop removal. Produced by Appalachian Voices and Coal River Mountain Watch, the tour offers a stunning and moving slide show called "The Hidden Destruction of the Appalachian Mountains." The tour also features first hand accounts of the struggle of living with mountaintop removal and opportunities for discussion and questions.

In late January, the tour came to East Tennessee. It featured Dave Cooper, an ex-industrial engineer and current hard working environmental activist from Kentucky; Judy Bonds, a coal miners daughter from West Virginia who recently won the prestigious Goldman Award for her work to save the natural and cultural heritage of Appalachia; and Patty Sebok of West Virginia, who is married to a underground miner who opposes mountaintop removal.

In Knoxville, Crossville, and Chattanooga, each activist gave moving testimony to the destructive effects of mountaintop removal. Judy talked about her grandchildren and friends who have to sleep fully clothed when it rains, just in case they have to flee flash flooding from the denuded mountains and wrecked creeks. In 1972, 132 million gallons of coal slurry and water broke through a holding dam and pond and send a tidal wave flash flood through Marfork Hollow in West Virginia, levelling homes and killing 125 people. West Virginia has seen an increase in wrecked homes, businesses and deaths from flash flooding in the last several years.

Patty talked about thousands of underground miners who have been put out of work by mountaintop removal, which relies on explosives and heavy machinery. Employment in the coal fields has plummeted while production has increased.

The "Hidden Destruction of the Appalachian Mountains" tour was quite timely in East Tennessee as mountaintop removal has recently appeared in Tennessee's coal fields. This destructive form of strip mining is occurring in Campbell and Claibourne Counties, just north of Knoxville. The word on the grapevine is that the coal industry is looking into reopening old mines all over the Cumberland Plateau to get the remaining coal. Now that the Bush administration has gutted parts of the Clean Air Act, it is possible and profitable for utilities to burn high sulfur eastern coal. Following the lead of the industry in West Virginia and Kentucky, the coal companies will likely use cheap and destructive mountaintop removal practices to get to the coal. The Tennessee Valley Authority is already considering using mountaintop removal to access some of its coal reserves that are located under the state owned Royal Blue Wildlife Management Area north of Knoxville. Zeb Mountain in Campbell County is already being destroyed by the Robert Clear Coal Company. Robert Clear claims that he can put the mountain back together after blasting off the three peaks in a method called "cross ridge mining" that still tears the mountain apart. Miners at that job site told activists with Tennessee Forest Watch that the coal from Zeb Mountain is being trucked to TVA's Kingston coal burning facility off Interstate 40. There it is burned to heat water to turn turbines to make electricity. Burning coal sends noxious pollutants into the atmosphere and is largely responsible for Tennessee having the third worst air quality in the nation. It also contributes to acid rain and is seriously damaging the high elevation ecosystems of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Local activists Ann League, Mary Mastin, Wanda Hodge and Cielo Sand were on hand at the Tennessee shows to offer updates on mountaintop removal in Tennessee. Currently, activists with Tennessee Forest Watch are doing stream monitoring for water quality. Robert Clear Coal has just been cited by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for water quality violations at the Zeb Mountain mine. Other activists are sponsoring lawsuits against the Robert Clear Coal Company, the Federal Office of Surface Mining and the state in order to force a full Environmental Impact Study and enforce the Clean Water Act at Zeb Mountain. Others are urging Tennessee Governor Phil Bredeson to intervene and halt mountaintop removal in Tennessee.

After the slide show, Dave passed out postcards as Judy and Patty asked for help in stopping mountaintop removal and protecting the Appalachian mountains' cultural and natural heritage. The audience was asked to write a short note to East Tennessee federal Representatives Duncan, Wamp or Davis. The purpose is to ask for support of the Clean Water Protection Act, sponsored by Representatives Christoper Shays (R-CT) and Frank Palone (D-NJ). This amendment to the Clean Water Act will make covering streams with mining debris illegal. With a corporate controlled congress and administration, this bill has an uphill struggle.

It is going to take a widespread public outcry to stop this deadly practice of mountaintop removal. Mountaintop removal is ecocide and war of the highest order. It destroys mountains, streams and forests, forever.

Concerned citizens of Appalachia and America are going to have to raise their voices and take action to halt this devastating type of coal mining. In solidarity with our friends and fellow Appalachians in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, please write or call the following elected officials and ask them to support the Clean Water Protection Act (known as H.R. 738) and to take any other steps necessary to halt mountain top removal. Please also contact your representatives and senators as well.

Rep. William Jenkins, 1207 Longworth House Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20515

Rep. John Duncan, 2267 Rayburn House Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20515, 202-225-5435

Rep. Zach Wamp, 2447 Rayburn House Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20515, 202-225-3271

Rep. Lincoln Davis, 504 Cannon House Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20515, 202-225-6831

The easiest thing you can do to help protect the mountains - turn off the lights! Conserve electricity. Replace wasteful normal light bulbs with energy efficient compact flourescent light bulbs. Stop wasting electricity - it only encourages them!

A broad based movement used letters, studies, citizen monitoring, permitted protests, and non-violent civil disobedience and direct action to make the destruction of southern forests at the hands of the paper industry a national issue. While there is still much work needed to save our life giving forests, we need to protect our mountains as well. Mountaintop removal is the permanent clearcut, the final solution, in industry's latest quest to wreck everything good and beautiful for cheap energy and mega profits.

Stand up for your mountains - your cultural and natural heritage - your life support system! Do it today! Write some letters, turn off the lights when you are not using them, take to the streets and mountains and get involved with the campaigns to save Appalachia! Stop the war on Appalachia!

The following groups are actively campaigning against mountaintop removal in Tennessee and other Appalachian states. Get in touch and get involved:

Katuah Earth First!, Tennessee Valley Faction, P.O. Box 281, Chattanooga, TN, 37401.
KEF! meets every other Wednesday in Chattanooga. For information, please contact john at 423-949-5922, johnjef@bledsoe.net or Amanda at 423-821-3501, efactivist@yahoo.com.

KEF! will gladly take donations to help with our protest campaign against mountaintop removal.

Katuah Earth First! - River Faction in Knoxville - www.stopmtntopremoval.com

Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) - P.O. Box 479 Lake City, TN 37769 865-426-9455 www.socm.org

Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project - www.sabp.net

Appalachian Voices - www.sabp.net

Cold River Mountain Watch - crmw@charter.net

various Sierra Club chapters across Appalachia - www.sierraclub.org

Support the lawsuit against the Zeb Mountain mine - contributions to the Sierra Club Foundation (memo - Zeb Mountain) can be mailed to Sierra Club attn: Cielo Sand c/o P.O. Box 90 Sale Creek, TN 37373.

Support citizen monitoring efforts - send contributions to Tennessee Forest Watch c/o Doug Murray 278 Log Home Rd, LaFollete, TN 37766. The money will be used to pay for water quality tests and overflights to document the destruction of Zeb Mountain.

To book the "Hidden Destruction of the Appalachian Mountains" roadshow tour in your town, please email Dave Cooper at (859) 299-5669 or email davecooper928@yahoo.com

Dave Cooper will be at the University of the South in Sewanee on March 15th for a presentation of "The Hidden Destruction of the Appalachian Mountains" slideshow and discussion.

About the author:

john johnson is active with Katuah Earth First! in Chattanooga. He lives at the Sequatchie Valley Institute at Moonshadow (www.svionline.org), near old coal mines, on the side of the Cumberland Plateau in beautiful east Tennessee. He is involved with an ongoing love affair with the mountains, streams and forests of Appalachia. john doesn't capitalize his name because he doesn't believe in capitalism.


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