Assaults against mountaintop removal tree-sitters caused security guards to resign

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Welcome to WV - where Big Coal can and does get away with anything.
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It's pretty clear who runs the town of Pettry Bottom, West Virginia, the site of a battle between environmentalists and coal behemoth Massey Energy.

One week ago, protesters from Climate Ground Zero began a sit-in... 80 feet above the ground on a National Forest slated for "demolition" by the coal giant who has pioneered the environmentally devastating practice known as Mountaintop Removal (MTR).

Since then, several of the protesters have had their lives threatened. Last week, Massey guards were instructed to fell adjoining tress in the attempt to knock the protestors from their arboreal perches, a blow which (if aimed properly) would have caused instant death. When that didn't work, several Massey contractors scaled the occupied trees and began felling pieces of the tree directly above the protesters.

Meanwhile, the police did nothing.

http://www.mnn.com/technology/research-innovations/blogs/massey-coal-assaults-cause-security-guards-to-resign

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No wonder Hannity's coming to town tomorrow and bringing Hank and Nugent to rally for this corrupt company (with help from Verizon Wireless):
http://wvablue.com/diary/4950/over-20-groups-call-for-verizon-wireless-to-answer-for-support-of-blankenships-rally

[Lorien]

1. And it's yet another atrocity that will NEVER be seen on the MSM

They'll scream about a Freepers finger tip being bitten off, but they don't give a damn if a tree-hugger who is trying to save "God's creation" from greed deranged psychopaths gets murdered.This country is beyond sick.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

2. Palin being 'offended' by jokes got more national coverage in a week

than this issue has received in the last 10 years
yer damn devil lib'rul media in action, folks

[Altoid_Cyclist]

3. I live in central PA where coal companies used to operate with almost no restrictions.

It was a mix of deep mining and strip mining. At some point they decided that the coal companies would have to restore the land after they had mined everything they could. That was 40+ years ago and in most of the "restored" areas, the damage is still obvious. Many of the streams, rivers and lakes are still so acidic that nothing can survive in the water. The strip mines might have a few sickly trees and a little grass growing, but it's far from restored to the way it was. It probably never will be despite all of the work and money invested in it by environmental projects designed to undo decades of destruction. There are still houses being damaged by mine subsidence. This will pale in comparison to the damage that MTR will inflict. How can this administration still be granting permits for MTR projects? It couldn't be that money is more important than the planet that we rely on for life could it? I'd like to think that this planet isn't doomed, but I really do wonder sometimes.
I think that I will be changing my ISP in the near future now that I see that Verizon is a part of this debacle.

[ThomWV]

7. I own 2 pieces of property that have been strip mined

My home is located on two pieces of property which together total just under 100 acres. The smaller of the two properties is located in front of our home and the larger behind it. I do not own the mineral rights for for most of it (earlier deeds and transfers left me with "2 acres of coal".

The smaller section was first mined around the turn of the century by auger mining. The site was abandoned with no reclamation effort once that method had removed all the coal it could. The same ground was then strip mined in the mid-1950's with a highwall of about 50 feet left along with a considerable gob-pile. Bad water came from that job.

In the early 1990s I was contacted by the then-owner of the mineral rights who informed me that they intended to re-enter the stripped section and take coal that had been left in the 1950's - which was a considerable amount of coal. They spent 2 years on the job and when they were done about 50,000 tons had been taken out and the original slope of the land returned - minus the old high wall, and the gob pile had been removed. The water had been cleaned up too and they left were two ponds that I subsequently stocked and that we fish from to this day.

The larger side was also strip mined, but that was done in the in late 1990's It was a much more professional job and it was completed in less than a year. The company that did the job went out of business shortly after they finished up but before they left they did such a good job of reclaiming the land that I am astounded to this day (I took a long walk up there just yesterday). They replanted with grass (it was my option to have it restored to grass or to trees), brought the pH to a neutral level and fertilized heavily. They also built a limestone weir at the head of the creek that bisects that piece of property and now for the first time in a century moss grows on the rocks of that creek and the water pH runs just under 7.

So you might ask why I'm telling you this - as if I were a spokesman for the coal industry. I'm not. What I'm saying is that all coal operators are not bad and that all strip mining does not result in destroyed land. It depends a lot more on where you are in this state than the simple fact that you are here and mining is going on. Most of it is done responsibly and most of it is done in a way that does not destroy the land. Unfortunately the topography of much of the southern coal field is such that the sort of good work that is done up here in the north end of the state simply can not be done down there. Those little teeny things you all call mountains down there have very steep sides, there is no where to push overburden that's not a valley (hence valley-fill) and more importantly down there you have a population that came (well, 'were brought' would be a better way to say it) to this state to mine coal after the civil war and has never seen any other economic base since then. No one is bringing in scabs to push those folks out of trees - its their neighbors that are doing it. How you gonna win against that?

[Altoid_Cyclist]

9. I think that they've made a lot of progress.

I don't think that the technology 40 years ago was in place to really restore the mined areas. I'm just glad that there are a lot of scientists and environmentalists working on the problems that still exist. It's just depressing to still see so many waterways devoid of any aquatic life due to the heavy metals and toxins seeping out of mines that were abandoned so long ago.

[Lorien]

4. Kick. nt

[MountainLaurel]

5. Amazing

Kudos to these security officers for having the integrity to do what's right.

[tigereye]

6. a friend of mine has been recording a certain amount of this on his FB page

otherwise, I would not have known about it...

[Withywindle]

8. K &R