Personal tools
You are here: Home → Our Work → Canary Project → Campaigns → Island Creek
In this section
 
donate button
 

Island Creek

by netcorps_admin — last modified April-19-2007 09:42 AM
Island Creek

"You're about to enter some rough country.  It used to be some of the most beautiful country you ever did see before the coal company got a hold of it."


                                                                                                            Doug Justice, Pike County

Read about recent mudslides in Island Creek caused by nearby TECO mining operations.

Long time community residents of Island Creek in Pike County are organizing to protect their homes and heritage.  TECO coal has moved in.  This multi-million dollar outfit is throwing its weight around and using the taxpaying citizen's county road to haul their heavy mining equipment.


brenda urias



"I can't tell you how many times I've been run off the road coming back and fourth from work by one of those big pieces of machinery. They run freely without warning."

Brenda Urias, Pike County




The goal in this community is to get Susan Bush, the Commissioner of the Department for Natural Resource to enforce the law and require the coal company to apply for a permit to include the county road as part of the affected area of their mining activity.   If the permit were to be granted the coal company would be accountable for maintenance and required to obey the regulations of the permit.


Community residents are also working to get water.  State Representative Keith Hall, has promised to use allocated monies to extend city water to residents.


erica&makayla

 "The mining they're doing has ruined the land and water.  Our two-year-old daughter can't go swimming in her kiddy pool without being covered in coal sediments."

                                                                    Erica Urias, Pike County



In the mean time community residents are organizing tours of their community.  Educating people from all parts of the state about the true cost of coal. People visit tour points that include examples of dangerous road conditions caused by overloaded coal trucks, poorly reclaimed valley fills, dried up streams that once flowed year round, and a mountain top removal site that leveled community member's ancestoral land.


Island Creek Valley Fill



 "You try to build a future for you and your family and the coal company can take it away in the name of  'cheap' energy.  If you live where I do you'll see how they've mined my and my daughter's heritage away."

                                                                                                  Rully Urias, Pike County

The rest of the story

Posted by Reed Potter at December-12-2009 12:17 AM
Lets try to be a bit balanced here and tell the whole truth. The Island Creek mine has created high paying jobs in an area of the US that needs high paying jobs. Most residents are not against this mine and are in fact excited the the project is producing flatter land near Pikeville for expansion of middle income housing and additional areas for economic development for the County of Pike as post mining land use.

Reply

Posted by Ben at February-25-2010 07:27 PM
True, jobs are created by MTR in an area where jobs are needed, and cherished. Being a Kentuckian, I truly want all of my fellow citizens to have good employment, and amazing education.

However strip mines produced an average of 32% more coal per worker than did underground mines for the period 1995-99.

The jobs that are created by MTR are quick jobs, that after the coal has been extracted, the job is just as soon shifted to another location as the resource has been eliminated.

The land that is "created" by MTR is not stable, and the buildings that are on this land often suffer structural damage from the fresh earth literally shifting below it. (Link: http://tinyurl.com/yg5bbv2)

Ending this practice isn't only the smart thing to do for jobs in Kentucky, it is also the right thing to do for our heritage, our people, and our environment.