Warning: Doing the Labor Day Wango Tango with Don Blankenship may be fatal.

by: One Citizen

Sun Aug 23, 2009 at 13:45:17 PM EDT

That'll certainly be some "Labor Day Wango Tango¹" if God decides to send a three and a half story high wave of sludge roaring down the hollow just as Don Blankenship introduces the most upper of upper crust Lord Christopher Monckton, Third Viscount of Brenchley to one of the poorest areas in the United States.².  But it wouldn't be the first time God drowned a bunch of folks in Southern WV coal sludge.

I know, I know. The dam at Buffalo Creek was owned by Pittston, and that was a long long time ago. Plus, Massey Energy would never, ever let a coal sludge dam break, would it?  Because Massey is such an environmentally responsible corporation, right?

Although Blankncheck hasn't warned anyone pre-registering to attend his "I HEART COAL" fest³, folks planning to go really should be made aware that there are more coal sludge impoundment dams per square mile around this doodah than anywhere else in the US.

Just one of the many nearby toxic sites holds an incredible 4.74 billion gallons of deadly slime soup behind a 345 ft. high dirt wall. By comparison, that's quadruple the amount of muck released in Tennessee's giant TVA spill not so long ago. The amount of toxic sludge spilld across Tennessee was reportedly 100 times larger than the famous Exxon Valdez disaster! According to the Coal Impoundment Location and Information System website⁴ there are absolutely NO evacuation plans filed with the state of WV, or with either of the counties of Mingo or Logan for an event the size of the one planned by Blankenship and his pals. NONE. Nor are there any instructions to the public on Blankenstein's spiffy "Friends of America" website warning folks of the imminent dangers. So good luck to all those Ted "Crusty Pants" Nugent fans when he starts machine gunning the crowd to clear them out of HIS way even as they trample each other to keep from drowning in liquified mercury, lead, arsenic, and selenium.

One more thing. While friendsofamericarally.com website advises everyone pre-registering to bring a lawn chair, do NOT plan to sit directly or go barefoot on any reclaimed site. The chemicals sprayed across reclaimed quarry topsoil in an attempt to force it to be "green" can be both caustic AND toxic.

Have fun!

Please see my footnotes below the jump