PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Mountain Justice Summer (MJS), an anti-MTR campaign occurring in a number of Appalachian states, is working to raise public awareness about the adverse environmental, economic, and health effects of this form of strip mining, and to pressure the corporations involved into ceasing their destruction of one of the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems.  Volunteers have come from as far away as Arizona and Seattle to join local organizers and residents of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and southwest Virginia.

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

During the rally, MJS activists presented Bill Caylor, President of KCA, with a silver platter of toxic sludge collected at the October 2000 slurry spill in Martin County, Kentucky.  Caylor dipped his finger in the goo and stuck it in his mouth, to the bewilderment of onlookers.  In April of 2004, at a Kentucky University panel discussion, Caylor had accepted a challenge to eat sludge after claiming that it was as harmless as dirt.  Sludge, the carcinogenic, heavy-metal-filled by-product of the coal cleaning process, is often stored by the billions of gallons behind dams at MTR sites that are directly above houses and even elementary schools.  The Martin County spill has been called "the worst environmental disaster in the southeastern United States" by the Environmental Protection Agency, and Massey Energy, the coal company responsible, was fined $5,500.

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

Earlier in the week, MJS organized a screening at the Kentucky Theater of films relating to strip mining in Appalachia, including Mucked, To Save the Land and People, Kilowatt Ours, Sludge, and The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream. Roughly 200 people attended the educational event, and stayed for the ensuing question and answer session with Lexington organizer Dave Cooper.

Throughout the week, the MJS activists engaged people on the street in conversation about MTR, gathered signatures for local non-profit Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), tested streams affected by mining sites, and interviewed coal truck drivers to compile information on dangerously overloaded trucks.  Said MJS activist Kenlan Chiosso, "Seeing the local children hold anti-MTR signs at the rally was one of the most rewarding parts of the week."