by Jeff Biggers, Author,
The United States of Appalachia
Huffington Post
28 April 2009
What does a Wyoming rancher, a Navajo elder, a
Southern community organizer, a Latino immigrant organizer from
Chicago, a young indigenous Ottawa woman from Michigan, and an
Appalachian coal miner's widow have in common?
All of their neighborhoods are under deadly
assault from King Coal. And all of these six American heroes have
journeyed to Washington, DC this week, on their own dime--unlike
the paid hacks from King Coal's payrolls--as part of the First 100
Days of the Power Past Coal movement to testify to representatives
from Congress, the EPA and the Council on Environmental Quality
about their outrageous living conditions under government
regulated coal mining operations and coal-fired plants.
In Mr. King Coal's neighborhood, these are
their daily burdens: Mercury poisoning, gall bladder disease,
black lung disease, devastated and impoverished strip-mined
communities, depleted and contaminated watersheds, and
toxic-draped and ailing neighborhoods.
If Washington, DC doesn't have time to journey
to the coalfield neighborhoods and toxic corridors of coal-fired
plants, then the coalfield neighbors and coal-fired plant
residents have journeyed to Washington, DC to bring a bit of truth
and clarity to the clean energy debate.
In truth, it's time for top level public
servants--like Nancy Sutley, Lisa Jackson and Ken Salazar--who are
slowly determining the fate of our nation's oldest and most
diverse mountain range and its abuse by one of the most scandalous
human rights and environmental violations, to actually see
firsthand the horrific impact of mountaintop removal on our
nation's citizens in Appalachia, and stripmining operations and
coal-fired plants in other parts of the country.
It's easier to compromise with King Coal
representatives inside the comfort zone of the Beltway, than in
one coal-slurry contaminated area around Prenter, West Virginia,
for example, where 98 percent of the residents have had their gall
bladder removed.
In the meantime, these are some of the stories
Washington, DC representatives heard yesterday:
L.J. Turner is a rancher and member of the
Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC), a network for
grassroots organizations from seven states that include 10,000
members and 45 local community chapters. L.J. runs the ranch his
family homesteaded in 1918, in Campbell County, Wyoming. Strip
mines encroach on one edge of his ranch, while oil and coal bed
methane development deplete and pollute the water resources vital
to his operation. Aquifers have been destroyed and stock water
wells impacted. The loss of water threatens the ranch's viability.
L.J.'s story is far from unique in the west, as irresponsible
energy development scars private and public lands in rural
communities. Strip mine pits have displaced grazing cattle and
shattered the western landscape's iconic imagery. L.J. is working
to be part of the energy solution and is negotiating to develop a
utility scale wind farm on his ranch. He is one of many cowboys
who have been fighting to keep their way of life for over 30
years. For a virtual visit to L.J. Turner's neighborhood, see:
www.worc.org
Marie Gladue Dine comes from the Black Mesa
region of northeastern Arizona, where she works with the Black
Mesa Water Coalition to fight Peabody Energy's controversial Black
Mesa coal mine and to promote green jobs and clean energy among
the Hopi and Navajo communities. Peabody 's coal mining operations
on Black Mesa have for more than 35 years been dependent on a sole
source of drinking water for Navajo and Hopi communities. Between
1969 and 2005, Peabody pumped an average of 4,600 acre-feet of
water annually from the Navajo Aquifer, resulting in significant
damage to community water supplies. According to Gladue, the coal
mining operations have taken sacred lands. Her Indigenous
community recognizes Black Mesa as a female mountain, water as her
lifeblood, and the coal as her liver. Respect for Mother Earth
would mean leaving the coal in the ground. For a virtual visit to
Marie Gladue's neighborhood, see:
www.blackmesawatercoalition.org
Mike Cherin, a resident of Rutherford County,
N.C., lives 16 miles from the Cliffside Coal Plant, the site of an
800-megawatt coal-fired facility currently under construction by
Duke Energy. The plant, if allowed online, would emit 6 million
tons of additional carbon dioxide annually, threatening the health
of nearby residents, and causing significant environmental
concern, including global warming and mercury contamination.
Cherin and many of his neighbors are diagnosed with Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and oppose the Cliffside
Coal Plant for its threat to public health. Cherin and his wife,
an R.N. at the local hospital, are community organizers with the
Canary Coalition, a clean air advocacy group in western N.C. which
recently helped rally several hundred community members in
opposition to the Cliffside Coal Plant, resulting in the highest
number of arrests in protest of coal in American history.
Recognizing that his region has one of the highest unemployment
rates in the nation, Cherin is an outspoken advocate for green
collar jobs to build solar panels and wind turbines, which could
fill the region's empty factories. For a virtual visit to Mike
Cherin's neighborhood, see:
www.canarycoalition.org
Towana Yepa is 22 and a member of the
Indigenous communities of Jemez Pueblo and The Little River Band
of Ottawa Indians. She is fluent in the Towa language and knows
the traditional life ways of the Desert Peoples cultures and the
Great Lakes cultures. Her tribes' lands are on the eastern shore
of Lake Michigan, where the deposition of mercury from coal-fired
power plants across the lake has ruined the tribes' water supplies
and rendered the water unusable for drinking or fishing. The
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians fought off a proposed coal
plant four years ago in Filer Township, MI. Now, the Indigenous
Tribes in Michigan are facing eight more proposed coal plants.
Lorelei Scarbro is a community organizer at
Coal River Mountain Watch. Lorelei is the granddaughter, daughter,
and widow of West Virginia coal miners. The home in which she
lives was built by her late husband, who passed away due to black
lung. He was an underground coal miner for 35 years. He is buried
in the family cemetery which is adjacent to their home. Lorelei's
land, home, the family cemetery, and surrounding environment are
now faced with the threat of mountaintop removal coal mining on
Coal River Mountain. There is a 6,600 acre mountaintop removal
site proposed above her home - but she is joining with local
residents to promote a 328 MW wind farm instead. More than 15,000
acres in Lorelei's community have already been destroyed by
mountaintop removal - Coal River Mountain is the last remaining
mountain with wind potential in that area. The Coal River Wind
project would preserve her family's land and history for
generations to come, as well as prevent further destruction in her
community. For a virtual visit to Lorelei Scarbro's neighborhood,
see: www.crmw.net,
and
www.coalriverwind.org
Samuel Villaseņor is the Clean Power organizer
with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization
(LVEJO), in the southwest side of Chicago. Samuel arrived to
Little Village from Huerta Vieja, Iguala, Guerrero in Mexico, when
he was two years old. Little Village, Chicago is the second
largest Latino community in the nation outside of East L.A., with
a population of 100,000 within a 5 mile radius. In Little Village
alone, 40 deaths, 2800 asthma attacks and 500 emergency room
visits annually are attributed to the two coal-fired power plants
situated near the residential area. To bring attention to the
health problems associated with coal burning, Villaseņor has
helped to organize the Coal-Olympics, a creative community event
that pressures the Mayor to invest in long term green jobs, public
transit, and housing, instead of Chicago's Olympic bid.
Villaseņor's campaign also trains young people in the community on
weatherization and retrofitting, to help older residents make
their homes energy efficient. The multi-generational activity
promotes alternatives to coal and job creation in the city. LVEJO
saw a major victory last year when the Chicago Mayor publicly
recognized Little Village's two coal plants as responsible for
half of the city's pollution. For a virtual visit to Samuel
Villaseņor's community, see:
www.lvejo.org
Or, check out the inspiring work of his compa