Ronnie Ellis, a journalist who attended our recent mountain witness tour with the members of the House A & R committee, wrote a fantastic op-ed about his experience and the people (KFTC members) he met.

Rep. Harry Moberly is right: It’s one thing to listen to testimony about mountaintop removal — it’s another to witness its effects firsthand.

But the physical evidence at Montgomery Creek in Perry County pales compared with the eloquence of those who spoke to lawmakers Monday during a tour of a mountaintop removal site. McKinley Sumner, Evelyn and Sam Gilbert, Truman Hurt, Ricky Handshoe and Carl Shoupe aren’t your everyday environmental activists. They aren’t in all cases the most worldly or sophisticated spokespeople for a cause. But they have lived the experience of coal — most of them from both sides.

“I have a complicated history with coal,” author and musician Silas House said. “My family was able to rise above poverty in large part because of the jobs provided by the coal industry.” His mother was proud to be a coal miner’s daughter and his grandfather lost a leg to coal mining, but six months later returned to the mines and worked in them another 20 years.

Read the whole piece here.

Monday, December 3 was a momentous day for KFTC members and particularly for residents of eastern Kentucky living in the shadows of mountaintop removal coal mining.  About a dozen state legislators, most members of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, got to see and hear firsthand the devastating consequences of mountaintop removal as they toured sites in Perry County with KFTC.

KFTC member Evelyn Gilbert testifies to a packed church.

The day began with KFTC staff and members gathering with legislators at the Wendell Ford airport in Hazard. KFTC Chair Doug Doerrfeld kicked off the fact-finding trip with a statement concerning KFTC’s position on coal.  KFTC Fellow Teri Blanton followed up with an eye-opening presentation about the mechanics of mountaintop removal and why it is so devastating to people and the environment.  Kentucky author Silas House was also present and gave a powerful argument about why this type of mining has gone too far in its destructiveness.

While legislators did not get to participate in a fly-over of mountaintop removal sites because of adverse weather conditions, they were able to see a valley fill up close in Vicco.  Traveling to the fill site in a caravan of cars, legislators passed three enormous coal trucks on Vicco’s narrow roads, a visual testament to what those in eastern Kentucky face every day.  John Roark of Montgomery Creek, a retired coal truck operator, spoke to the crowd atop one of the valley fills surrounding Vicco.
 

They [coal companies] take advantage of people in eastern Kentucky.  They just want the money.  To me, the biggest problem is our water.  They’re hurting for water downstream, and we’re up here destroying it.      -John Roark

Echoing those sentiments, Teri Blanton spoke against the damaging effects of mountaintop removal and valley fills to Kentucky’s streams, and why legislators ought to support the Stream Saver bill.

Water is a natural resource we should be protecting.  We’ve allowed one industry to come in and destroy those waters.   -Teri Blanton

Legislators listened to community testimony at the Kodak Church of the True and Loving God concerning the importance of stopping the dumping of mines wastes in streams and enforcing current coal-related laws.  Pastor Truman Hurt impressed upon the legislators that, “…all they [people of eastern Kentucky] want to do is live a normal life, raise their kids, and make a decent living; just like all of us. We need to save our streams; we need to save our water. We understand people have different thoughts and points-of-views, but we all want to live,” urged Hurt.

Others gave their personal stories about coal mining and how it has impacted their quality of life.  Legislators seemed to be affected and impassioned by what they witnessed and heard throughout the day.  Representative Charlie Hoffman voiced continued support of the Stream Saver bill, and Rep. Arnold Simpson claimed he would, “…side with the people on this one.”   Committee Chairperson Rep. Harry Moberly had this to say about his experience of the day:

I was very affected by what we saw today.  It's one thing to hear it in testimony and another thing to see it up close and hear from the people directly affected.  What I think it demonstrates is that there's been a lot of failure on the part of the government of Kentucky both in the Executive and Legislative Branch.  And that legislators should have been here before, but better late than never.  I think that what we have seen and heard today from these affected people will give us great inspiration as we move forward with the Stream Saver Bill.

House A & R Chair Moberly welcomes committee members

The tour came about because of the powerful testimony about the consequences of mountaintop removal given by KFTC to the House A&R Committee in August.  Representatives were so informed and moved by that testimony they decided to come see firsthand the devastating effects of strip mining in eastern Kentucky.

Overall, the day was a great success for KFTC and, more importantly, for members of eastern Kentucky. KFTC hopes to make the Stream Saver Bill an issue of vital importance in the upcoming legislative session. Yesterdays’ events were a milestone toward that goal.

KFTC members from the community of Island Creek in Pike County have scheduled a Mountain Witness Tour December 1st, from noon to 4:30.  This will be a great opportunity to see the abuses of coal mining first-hand and to speak with people who must live with these abuses every day. 

Our Mountain Witness Tours are open to the public.  Contact your local organizer if you are interested in carpooling.  For more information about the tour, please visit the event page or contact our Canary Project organizer, Kevin Pentz.

Susan Williams, Lowell Shepherd and Silas House. Lowell is pointing out where Miller Brother's Coal Company pushed all the trees from off the hillside and burned them. Lowell suspects they used old tires to burn the green trees.

On a hot August afternoon several KFTC members gathered at the Graceway Methodist Church in Maytown to discuss the impacts of surface mining on a couple of Floyd County communities, Wilson Creek of Maytown and the Raccoon area of Hueysville.

However all of the discussion could wait until after a wonderful pot-luck lunch was shared by everyone. After a wonderful lunch that included pork barbecue, garden-fresh tomatoes, a wonderful pasta salad, and homemade gingerbread cake, Maytown resident Beverly May informed participants of the mining planned for Wilson Creek.

Beverly explained how right now residents are taking the "checker board" approach to preventing the mining. They know that no coal company wants to come in and mine 30 acres here and another 40 acres somewhere else, they want at least a few hundred acres. So for right now the main strategy is to keep community members talking and to make sure that everyone doesn't sell or lease their land to the coal companies. "This was why we fought to pass the Broad Form Deed Amendment back in the 80's, now we're making it work for us," said Beverly May.

Then Rick Handshoe told everyone about the effects the active Miller Brother's mine in Raccoon is having on residents that live nearby. He told about how this one mining operation is affecting the headwaters of three major rivers in eastern Kentucky, the Licking River, the Big Sandy River, and soon the Kentucky River.

Beverly May and Clinton Handshoe talking about how the quality of life have been destroyed since they started deep mining next to his home

Rick then went on to talk about how KFTC members have come together to challenge a valley fill proposed on a new amendment applied for by Miller Brother's Coal Company.

After the discussion members went on a driving tour of Wilson Creek where they got to see some old strip mining done before the Broad Form Deed Amendment was passed. But, in general, the creek looked clean with fish and holler looked like a pleasant place to live.

Next tour participants drove to the Raccoon community of Hueysville and visited with KFTC member Lowell Shepherd. He invited people into his home to show them how the floors of his home have started to hump up. Rick said,"My kids would have loved living here because the hills on the floor would be great for matchbox cars."

Then Lowell took everyone up the hill behind his house to show them where Miller Brother's Coal Company has begun work on a valley fill and settlement pond. Lowell told everyone that he signed a lease to let them put the valley fill and settlement pond on his property, but if he'd have known how many problems they were going to cause he never would have let them start that mine. Lowell said, "The worst part is we're experiencing all these problems from blasting and overloaded coal trucks and they haven't even started to mine very close to us. What's going to happen when they start mining down both sides of Route 7 directly behind everyone's homes? What will life be like then?"

The Settlement Pond and proposed valley fill behind Lowell Shepherd's home.

We finished the tour by visiting Clinton Handshoe, Rick's father. He lives near by and has a deep mine entrance about 300 feet from his front door.  That deep mine has destroyed two of his wells along with wells on his daughter property and his neighbor's property. They've all gone for weeks at a time with out having water. And now because of the mining they all have methane gas seeping into their wells. Clinton told about how they had a state inspector come out to see if the level's of methane were dangerous.  The inspector said the level's were to high for his meter, but that was still safe. Then the inspector asked that they not allow anyone to smoke near the well.

For one Saturday afternoon some people got a first hand account of what it's like to live in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky.