Panel discusses mountaintop removal
By ALEC RADER, Staff WriterArticle Photos
Minds from a variety of fields sat on a panel to discuss and take questions about mountaintop removal. The discussion was introduced by a short presentation from Matt Kupstas, who provided a brief background of mountaintop removal as well as some information on its overall effects.
Panel members included Director of the Center for Sustainability Studies Professor Russ McClain, visiting author Karen McElmurray, Augusta Heritage Folk Arts Coordinator Gerald Milnes, co-founder of the Appalachian Music and Dance Club and student activist Becky Hill and Mountain Justice member Joe Oeverton. Each member spoke briefly as to why they were included on the panel.
McClain shared with the group some of the statistics concerning mountaintop removal and the coal industry. According to McClain's research, West Virginia receives more than $14 billion annually from the coal industry. This has been increased over the past decade as the price of and demand for fossil fuels has risen. As an environmental scientist, McClain said he stresses to his students the importance of finding a replacement to such energy sources.
"We need to think about solutions and not just damning one particular means," the professor stated.
After reading part of her essay about mountaintop removal near her hometown in Kentucky, which was included in the anthology "We All Live Downstream," McElmurray said she finds mountaintop removal metaphorically intriguing. In the essay, she shares the striking similarities between the loss of her mother's childhood home to the mother's advancing Alzheimer's. McElmurray's emotional reading received a warm applause from the audience.
Milnes, who travels across the Appalachian region collecting folk art, music and stories, sees mountaintop removal as something deeper than a search for fuel. Milnes believes that culture is a product of generations of "learned behaviors" amongst a certain environment. His suggestion as to the topic of mountaintop removal is that opponents should come at it from a "moral or religious" angle. Milnes said it is much harder to form a strong argument against that approach than others. The morality issues come into play from pulling people out of familiar surroundings.
"All the sudden (when mountaintop removal comes in) there's an assault to their identities," Milnes said.
Spending the summer with Mountain Justice and at various mountaintop removal sites, Hill returned to Davis & Elkins College where she is perusing a degree in English. Although she was not in favor of the practice before the summer, Hill still wasn't prepared to see the physical damage done to the earth.
"Once I was out there and saw it face to face, it really shook me awake," she said.
When the panel began taking questions, McClain and Oeverton fielded most. Many of the questions were related to the environmental impact of the "overburden" - the earth removed from the top of the coal seam - and the "slurry" - the mixture of water and chemicals after the coal is washed. Also, community member Spinner O'Flaherty informed the panel of an informational movie, "Coal Country," that will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel on Nov. 14 as well as at venues in Tucker County.
The presentation was a part of the D&E Writers' Series and sponsored by the Center for Sustainability Studies and the Appalachian Music and Dance Club.
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WhatMeWorry
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10-30-09 9:43 PM
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MTR is blasphemy pure and simple.
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Bowden
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10-30-09 8:45 PM
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It is a shame that so much land has been destroyed to remove coal. Mountain top removal is the cheapest way to remove coal but the price will be paid by the rest of us for as long as we live. I only wish that coal could be deep mined and not by mountain top removal.
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