More on the protest to protect Marsh Fork Elementary School

by: Carnacki

Sun Mar 18, 2007 at 11:06:07 AM EDT

The 50 protestors who were in Gov. Joe Manchin's office's reception area wanted the governor's assurance that the school would be re-located due to the extreme dangers posed by Don Blankenship's Massey Energy coal mining operations way-too-close to the school.

Here's what else the group wants:

In addition to closing the school, the group wants to shut down Goals Coal's preparation plant and a 1,849-acre mountaintop removal mine site and a 2.8 billion-gallon coal sludge dam about 400 yards from the school.

Here's what prompted Saturday's protest:

The protest follows Tuesday's ruling by the state Surface Mine Board that reversed the rejection of a permit for the silo.

Massey Energy Co. subsidiary Goals Coal Co. is seeking a second storage silo for its preparation plant next door to Marsh Fork.

Don Blankenship's subsidiary Goals Coal then submitted a new application, "which was rejected last year because federal and state laws prohibit new mining operations within 300 feet of a school."

So one state agency rejected the process and another reversed the rejection.

Jspiker had great details Thursday on the permit process.

Massey Energy, the WV Surface Mine Board, and the WV Department of Environmental Protection have been raging war on each other for over two years now.
Don Blankenship just doesn't understand the word NO.

Isn't it ironic a man spending millions of dollars under the guise of "For the Sake of the Kids" would pursue such legal proceedings?

In 2005, a court battle over a coal silo near Marsh Fork Elementary School, denied Massey Energy the right to expand operations because it was within 300 feet of the school. The law is intended to protect our children from safety and health hazards associated with coal mining in this area.

Almost a year ago, a Massey Energy engineer testified that he altered the permit boundary shown on official maps when the company sought approval for a new coal silo near the Raleigh County School.

Paul McCombs, an engineer for Massey's Goals Coal subsidiary, said he expanded the map boundary to match what he believed the real permit area should have been, based on a field examination at the site. McCombs told the state Surface Mine Board that he did not seek state Department of Environmental Protection approval for the changes, or notify the DEP that he had made the changes.

In a split decision last week, the state Surface Mine Board overturned a Department of Environmental Protection order that previously blocked the new silo.

A majority of the board - members Henry Rauch, Stephen Capelli, Michael Hastings and Randy McMillion - sided with the company.

They found "the construction of a silo is a tool for decreasing and minimizing dust in high dust areas" and "the construction of the silo will not place a significant burden on public health."

Board Chairman Tom Michael and members Paul Nay and Ed Grafton disagreed. They found, "the construction of the silo less than 300 feet from the school places a significant burden on the public health and the environment of the local community."

Manchin filed an appeal to the Surface Mine Board's reversal of the rejection. In other words, he filed to stop the project.

Manchin's Department of Environmental Protection filed an appeal Thursday challenging the mine board's ruling. DEP lawyer Tom Clarke asked for a stay of the board ruling while the appeal is heard, and argued that the board ruling alone - without a subsequent DEP permit approval under the board's legal standard - does not allow the silo construction to start.

Don Blankenship claims the second coal silo would "protect the environment" are as credible as his claim that he wanted to stock the West Virginia legislature with 42-hand-picked Republicans was "for the sake of the kids."

Here's a comment from Clem Guttata that helps illustrate (with photos) the dangers Blankenship would rather ignore:

This whole situation is just yet another horrible accident waiting to happen.

Above the prep plant, a road zigzags up the face of an earthen dam holding back billions of gallons of coal sludge in Massey's leaking Shumate impoundment. A worker at this site, now alleges he is gravely ill from the chemicals used on site. He says portions of this dam where not constructed properly and Mine Safety and Health Administration records support his statements.

Beyond the impoundment--that black lake of toxic goo--another Massey Energy subsidiary, Independence Coal, is starting an 1,849 acre strip mine. How crazy to have blasting at this strip mine above an impoundment held by a violation-prone earthen dam--just 400 yards from an elementary school!

Here's from Saturday's Gazette-Mail:

Don Blankenship, Richmond, Va.-based Massey's chief executive officer, said the second silo would enable the company to make additional environmental improvements and cut down the amount of coal dust at the site.

But when it denied the silo permit for a second time last year, the DEP noted that there had never been an open coal stockpile in the area where the silos were planned. And in February 2006, the DEP turned down a related Massey permit request to double the allowable air pollution from the Goals Coal site.

In a federal court lawsuit, Blankenship alleges that the DEP is fighting the silo project as part of Manchin's effort to punish Massey for Blankenship's political involvement against the governor.

Activists, however, wanted more assurances from the governor that a new school would be built and the elementary school near the coal site would be closed.

In West Virginia, such decisions are left to county school boards.

Minutes before the arrests, Manchin Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Martin read a statement from the governor to the crowd. The statement said Manchin will encourage the Raleigh County school board to put the decision of building a new school at Marsh Fork to a countywide vote, but stressed that decision is out of the governor's hands.

"Before the state can get involved in issues such as whether a school should be moved or if a new school should be built, a decision must first be made at the local level," Martin read.

Here's Tom Breen of Associated Press describing the events:

During occasionally tense exchanges earlier in the day, Martin tried to persuade the protesters to stop chanting and singing.

At one point, Wiley shouted at Martin, "Enough of this whispering in my ear, telling me to settle this down. We'll raise the roof off the dang place," which was met by cheers from the protesters.

Many of the protesters were from West Virginia's southern coalfields but a substantial number were college students, who said they were from Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Maine. Others came from colleges throughout West Virginia.

The protest appeared organized at least in part by a group called Mountain Justice Summer, which on its Web site bills this week as "Mountain Justice Spring Break" in Charleston. (Clem Guttata posted about Mountain Justice here.)

All of which leads to this terrible scene.
Here's YouTube video of the arrests from West Virginia Public Television:

Lincoln Walks At Midnight has other details.