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Biker Gives Appalachian Towns a Voice
Trip is to protest mountaintop removal mining
Sam Evans wants the voices of Appalachian families near coal mining sites to be heard, so he's cycling to Washington, D.C., to hand-deliver protest letters written by mining communities.
University of Tennessee law student Sam Evans, left, pictured biking last December with friends Rebecca Falls and Phillip Burgess, is leaving Jan. 9 on a 750-mile bike journey to Washington, D.C., to protest mountaintop removal mining. Along the way, Evans is planning to visit Appalachian families adversely affected by the practice and deliver a record of their testimony to the Natural Resources Defense Council. (photo: Sam Evans) "The bike ride for me is just a way to take the voices of the people who aren't being heard right now and take them to Washington, D.C.," said Evans, a third-year law student at the University of Tennessee. He plans on leaving Tennessee Jan. 9 and arriving in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20.
Evans won't be alone for the 750-mile trip. Missy Petty of Conservation Fisheries Inc., a nonprofit organization that rescues endangered fish species, will join him for the first half of the trip.
Evans and Petty plan to stay in homes close to coal mining sites to see for themselves the impact mining has on nearby communities, then gather letters protesting mountaintop removal mining. Evans will hand-deliver the letters to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which will give the letters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"We just want people to be aware of what's going on in their own backyards and want them to care," Petty said.
According to Evans, a sludge pond similar to the one that broke in Kingston on Dec. 22 rests above an elementary school in West Virginia.
"If it breaks it'll bury the school," Evans said. "It's just another sludge build waiting to happen, and the people have been trying to address that for years."
Petty agreed.
"There have been people killed in these communities, and they're drinking water that's polluted, and because they're poor, no one's hearing their voices," she said. "Because Sam and I are able to get out and ride our bikes we're going to reach out to, I hope, you know, the nation." Evans said he's flown over areas impacted by mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia.
"It's not just hundreds of mountains," he said. "It's reaching the point to where it's thousands."
Petty said they've "been getting the word out to a lot of mountaintop removal groups" about their trip. "We know there are ways to mine without destroying the tops of mountains," she said.
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15 Comments so far
Show All>>There have been people killed in these communities, and they're drinking water that's polluted, and because they're poor, no one's hearing their voices," she said. "Because Sam and I are able to get out and ride our bikes we're going to reach out to, I hope, you know, the nation."
If a single mansion owned by a Cindy Mccain, a Warren Buffet , or a Ted Kennedy was built in any of these regions, rest assured that single voice claiming the sludge ponds unsafe , would be heard.
There would be immediate action to address said persons concerns.
Welcome to reality in America. Money talks and the only color
that matters to politicians is green. It's sad, and wrong, but
if you're poor in America you are basically screwed. The only
time those people are going to see Cindy McCain was when she was
looking for votes with John in the last election.
The other day I heard some high school teacher clown from Cumberland, MD, talking about how stupid people from West Virginia are, and how we can't speak English and all have crooked teeth. He's a right-wing Catholic who sits around with older women at McDonald's spouting his conventional wisdom garbage. When he goes home he just flips on the lights powered for him by West Virginia coal.
Appalachia has been blown, blasted, bombed and dumped right into Third World America. They say Bush has kept U.S. safe since 9/11 ? Hannity's America sure ain't my America ! http://www.wisecountyissues.com What THE COAL INDUSTRY is doing to Appalachia is toxic terrorism. Our environment is destroyed and our health care is questionable as far as what's advertised compared to what's on public record as to the acceptable standards of health care in East Tennessee.
Maybe if Appalachia wouldn't vote for people like Bush and McCain, they wouldn't have that problem. Ya think?
Wish the politicians would get as greedy over renewable, they still could stuff their pockets with green. Fossil Fuel is just beating a dead dinosaur.
http://www.wisecountyissues.com If Dubai is in trouble, I can't imagine what kind of trouble we are in Appalachia...
These people are fools. They are not from this community and they prey on people who are a small and I mean small % of people who oppose mountaintop mining. Why is it that the majoity of people who live in these communities support mountaintop mining? Did any of you people who oppose this type of mining ever ask? Hell no. Without mountaintop mining the majority of hospitals, shopping malls, colleges, new housing would not exist in Appalachia. The majority of people in Appalachia would like for all you do-gooders to stay the hell out of the Appalachia communities. And I will say it again. The majority of you do-gooders and especially the ones that don't live in these communities, stay the hell out, or come and join us, and maybe you might get a real job producing instead of pointles complaining, and grandstanding.
That's right. Just keep talking while your part of the country elect the likes of Bush and McCain. Please don't complain about your environmental disasters. You made your bed, lie in it.
orcan; The next time this marvelous specimen is holding court,ask him this-of the following five people who was not born in WVa?-Tecumseh,Mother Jones,Booker T.Washington,Pearl Buck,and Stonewall Jackson? Perhaps he'll have a racist riposte at the ready. The correct answer is all 5 were born in WVa.Why do people,a teacher of all things,make fun of people because they're poor?
Already more has been lost in Appalachia of beautiful tourist destinations than the savings[mostly in profits for Massey and others]of cheaper mountaintop removal.
tmullins;Hope you are doing well.
2581 blue:
Egads!Were you giggling to yourself as you typed that tripe? Mountaintop removal requires far fewer miners,but according to you the vast majority of locals supports it.
After the blasting a toxic nightmare of otherworldly land remains,but the locals are in favor of that too?
In lieu of personal insults,2581blue,I award you troll 'o the day.
2581blue is the typical conservative dimwit. Why anyone in their right would want their home destroyed by mountain top removal is Republican denial gibberish. It doesn't take a genius to figure out mountain top removal is going to completely destroy the surrounding area. Leaving the whole area a mess that it will take decades to correct and billions to clean up. Out in my neck of the woods in the west mining has almost destroyed certain areas. These Robber Barons do not like following any Federal regulations and don't want to have to clean up their messes.
Mountaintop removal is the most disgusting, egregious assault on the environment, for a buck. What kind of a monstrous personality is it that sits behind a desk and authorizes such a practice? How can the government - so concerned about global warming - look the other way while corporations rape the environment in this manner?
Dave
http://daveeriqat.wordpress.com/
michyh
I don't know how many of you posted here live in this area or are aware of the intricacies of the problems faced.
ONe of the most challenging aspects of the discussion is to avoid what's happened here: put downs, accusations and name calling. I am an opponent of MTR and always have been. But when you go into the mountains and work with the population there it is very important to be respectful of the folks there and their lives and belief systems. Despite my own distaste for them, having gone to these places many times over many years, I can tell you that this piece here, this division and hostility is one of hte biggest problems that exists beyond the obvious. If you visit an MTR site, or see one from a distance, it will give you a pause much like I have experienced when hearing the individuals tell their stories of surviving genocide. It is my sincerest hope that hostility will be laid to rest here and that solutions can be sought, frustrating as that might be for all involved.
michyh:
Surely you organized your comment poorly and it reads different than you intended?
You write "it's important to be respectful of the folks there and their lives and belief systems." But then this little bombshell-"Despite my own distaste for them". I read that to mean that you're a smug arrogant puke who thinks he's superior to the people in the region.
Your final paragraph is a reasonably skillful use of criticizing people who get riled when Mother Nature is obliterated-no reason for conflict,right? After all your heroes[Massey,Peabody,etc]need a few more years to blissfully extract every resource regardless the consequences.
One of the "intricacies"of the situation you refer to is how "king Coal" has used dastardly tactics to suppress the people for over 100 years.And now that shrub's regime killed the last little bit of protection against MTR,things have never looked worse for widespread,irreversible damage.Fess up,this is the solution you wanted.And it's oh so painless!
The irony is that my father a career coalminer in south Limburg, The Netherlands spent his entire work life BUILDING mountains of coal slag. This byproduct of coalmining was simply dumped hundreds of meters high and left in our communities after the coalmines were no longer profitable and were closed in the 1960s. Cleverly the Dutch recognized an opportunity to re-purpose these eyesores and covered them with topsoil and vegetation. As the highest 'mountains' in the country they now serve a new public purpose as parks and ski resorts. On the downside of coal mining, and there were many, medical statistics show that the people living there during and after coalmine operations ended have the highest mortality rates in the country. Cause and effect? What do you think?