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94-year-old Ken Hechler, Daryl Hannah, James Hansen join coalfield residents

Live at Coal River—mass arrests against mountaintop removal  

http://www.grist.org/article/live-at-coal-river-mass-protest-against-mou...

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James Hansen getting arrested on June 23 at an anti-mountaintop-removal protest.Antrim Caskey

Note: This blog will be updated during the day, with dispatches, video and photos being filed by Stephanie Pistello.)

“When I get to the other side, I shall tell God Almighty about West Virginia!”—Mother Jones

UPDATE: “The Sword of Damocles hangs over Marsh Fork Elementary
School.”
“I started out an as activist, but founded it necessary to be a hell
raiser. We are going to need hellraisers to stop this devastating
practice.”—Ken Hechler
UPDATE: Video of former US Representative Ken Hechler (D-WV), who
introduced the first bill to end mountaintop removal and stripmining in
1971. As a hero to coal miners, Hechler led the campaign for better
mining workplace safety and black lung laws and compensation. The
94-year-old Hechler was arrested at the Coal River action, along with
coalfield residents and parents, 88-year-old West Virginia activist
Winnie Fox, Daryl Hannah, and James Hansen, and Goldman Prize Award
winner Judy Bonds, RAN director Michael Brune and many others.

UPDATE: 6pm EST. Goldman Prize Award Winner Attacked. During the
rally in front of the Massey Energy coal property today, Coal River
Mountain Watch co-director (and 2003 Goldman Prize Award winner) Judy
Bonds was reportedly assaulted by a Massey supporter. While Bonds was
engaged in a nonviolent protest, the Massey supporter lunged from the
line without any provocation and roughly slapped Bonds on the head, ear
and jaw. The Massey supporter also attempted an attack on another
protestor, Lorelei Scarbro, a coal miner’s widow and local community
organizer. The Massey supporter was immedidately apprehended by the
police and charged with battery, according to news reports.
For more information on Judy Bonds, see:
http://www.goldmanprize.org/node/84
The crowd included dozens of Mountain Justice participants who have
been active in similar protests since 2005, including getting arrested
at the same site. (http://mountainjustice.org/)

UPDATE: 2:30 PM EST: Ken Hechler, the 94-year-old
legendary West Virginia congressman and coal miner hero who has been
battling mountaintop removal since 1971, was arrested in a non-violent
protest with NASA’s celebrated climate scientist James Hansen, actress
Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune (the executive director of Rainforest
Action Network), Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds, Vietnam veteran Bo
Webb, and dozens of other coalfield residents after they crossed onto
the property of leading mountaintop removal coal mining company, Massey
Energy—purposely trespassing to protest the destruction of mountains
immediately above the Coal River Valley community.

In the face of recent Obama administration actions to regulate and
not abolish mountaintop removal, which has wiped out 500 mountains and
destroyed historic communities, the action launched a yearlong national
campaign to bring mountaintop removal to an end.

“I am not a politician; I am a scientist and a citizen,” said Dr.
James Hansen. “Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures if
they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our
representatives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is
right, not what is politically expedient. Mountaintop removal,
providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be abolished.”

In an interview posted on Huffington Post last month, Hechler made a
special appeal to President Barack Obama to stand by his word and end
mountaintop removal. That post is here.

Here is today’s scene for the historic nonviolent direct action and
march in Coal River Valley, in West Virginia: A 2.8 billion gallon
toxic coal sludge impoundment behind the earthen Shumate Dam hovers
just a couple of football fields above the Marsh Fork Elementary
School, while massive mountaintop removal blasts boom daily within a
few feet, and where hundreds of concerned parents, families and
citizens from around the country have gathered to call to an end to
mountaintop removal—for the sake of the children, the coalfield
communities, and the Appalachian mountains.

Actress Darryl Hannah at the June 23 anti-mountaintop-removal protest in West Virginia.Antrim CaskeyAlong
with with NASA climatologist James Hansen, long-time environmental
activist and actress Daryl Hannah, retired coal miner Chuck Nelson, and
many other national environmental and political figures, the rally and
march from Marsh Fork Elementary School to a Goals Coal Prep Plant and
Massey Energy mountaintop removal site will be joined by two legendary
West Virginia titans: 88-year-old activist Winnie Fox, and 94-year-old
former US Representative Ken Hechler.

UPDATE from Stephanie Pistello: 1:30pm EST: The
state police allowed the coal supporters to line up along the road and
then to proceed into playing field to intermingle with activists.  The
coal supporters are generally being aggressive towards other rally
participants and chanting slogans such as “this is our state”.  The
state police have general allowed aggressively (shouting, physical
intimidation, standing very near/sitting on vehicals/equipment)
activity and only intervene when asked to (including allowing power
cords to be ripped out of the wall to silence the PA system).  There
are around 10 local media outlets on the scene including 2 live
broadcast trucks.  Several old time bands played from 11 to 12. 
Speakers started around noon and include Rev. Jim Lewis (who coal
supporters taunted and tried to shout down), retired coal miner Chuck
Nelson and Appalachian Voices biologist Matt Wasson (former US Rep. Ken
Hechler and Daryl Hannah will speak later.)

Over 500 mountains, 1.5 million acres of hardwood forests, and 1,200
miles of streams, along with historic mountain communities, have been
destroyed by mountaintop removal. In a study the last fall by the
Ashby-Tucker environmental firm, air quality experts found that the
coal dust blanketing the Marsh Fork Elementary School exceeded accepted
limits.

According to the study, Dr. D. Scott Simonton reported: “My concern
about the school is that dust levels not only appear to exceed human
health reference levels, but that the dust is largely made up of coal. 
Coal dust contains silica, trace metals, and polynuclear aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAH), many of which are known human carcinogens.  PAH’s
have been found in dust samples taken at the school.  Inhalation of
coal dust is known to cause adverse health effects in humans, however,
studies of coal dust toxicity are understandably mostly of adult
populations.  Children are particularly at risk from dust exposure in
general, so it is reasonable to assume that coal dust creates an even
greater risk for children than it does adults. The sampling to date
certainly indicates that dust levels and composition at the school
reach a level of concern.  Particulate matter at levels found at the
school has been shown to cause adverse effects in children.”

According to the evacuation plans, if the Shumate Dam and coal
sludge impoundment failed—as happened in eastern Kentucky in 2000 and
at the TVA coal ash pond—the school children and communities below
would have THREE MINUTES to flee.

Over
500 mountains, 1.5 million acres of hardwood forests, and 1,200 miles
of streams, along with historic mountain communities, have been
destroyed by mountaintop removal. Antrim CaskeyBorn
in the eastern Kentucky coalfields, Winnie Fox’s first protest took
place in 1930, when she insisted on drinking from a segregated water
foundation in Huntington, West Virginia, where her family moved when
she was a child.  A former board director of the Ohio Valley
Environmental Coalition (ohvec.org)—one of the main organizations in
the battle against mountaintop removal—Fox has been involved in
stopping reckless pollution in the rivers and watersheds for decades,
dating back to her earliest movement against Ashland Oil’s pulp mill
dumping of toxic material in the waterways.

Fox will be in a wheelchair today, but that will not stop her from risking arrest at the coal prep plant and Massey Energy site.

In a 2007 interview with Shannon Bell, Fox declared that her battle
against mountaintop removal would be a lifelong commitment: “I would
never give up, I will never stop. Because to me, that would be
betraying everything that I am and everything I’ve ever been and
everything I ever hoped to be. And I’ve seen too much suffering by
these women [who are involved]. Too many sad stories.”