As I write this my good friends and fellow climate activists, Kim Teplitzky and Liz Veazey are joined with more than 60 students and community members inside the offices of West Virginia Governor Manchin demanding that he build a safe school for the Marshfork elementary school students, not located 400 yards below a coal sludge dam and 225 feet from a massive coal silo poisoning their future.
You can help. Call Governor Manchin RIGHT NOW and ask him to build a safe school for the Marshfork Community!
888-438-2731
Liz and five others are planning to stay in the Governor’s office today, risking arrest, to bring attention to the issue and stand up for the students of Marshfork. The actions come at the height of Mountain Justice Spring Break, a week of trainings and demonstrations in support of justice for Appalachan communities affected by mountain-top removal coal-mining. On Tuesday the scenario for these students got even worse than it already was when the West Virginia Surface Mine Board overturned a WV Dept of Environmental Protection ruling and granted Massey Energy’s application to build a second coal silo beside Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, WV. By Massey’s own determination, the second silo will add tons of coal dust to the air the kids breathe.
The children of Marsh Fork Elementary need a new school in their community now more than ever! They are already breathing coal dust that includes toxic chemicals, and it will only get worse with an additional coal silo within 300 feet of the school.
TAKE ACTION!
Call Governor Manchin’s office: 1-888-438-2731 (toll free) or 1-304-558-2000.
Send a FAX 1-304-342-7025 - instructions on how to send a free fax from the web below!
Email the Governor’s office: Governor@WVGov.org.
TALKING POINTS
* The kids at Marsh Fork Elementary need a new school in their own community now more than ever.
* Every child deserves a safe and healthy school in their own community.
* Forget a new silo - build the kids a new school!
* Massey’s own air quality permit predicts an increase in the amount of coal dust (3.49 tons per year) emitted by operating a second silo.
*Neither the state Department of Education nor the US Environmental Protection Agency determined coal dust levels in the school. The EPA’s test was not done during normal operation of the coal plant.
*The state has the money for a new school and the Raleigh County Board of Education is willing to accept it.
*The sludge dam just 400 yards above the school holds 20 times the volume of the Buffalo Creek sludge dam disaster that killed 125 people in 1972.
More Background
Marsh Fork Elementary School sits just 225 feet from a coal loading silo that releases chemical-laden coal dust and 400 yards from a 385 foot tall leaking sludge dam with a nearly 3 billion gallon capacity. Independent studies have shown the school to be full of coal dust.
Massey Energy who owns the coal processing facility has been attempting to build a second coal processing plant near the school for years, but community opposition, action and research led the Department of Environmental Protection to reject Massey’s permit request for the second silo.
On Tuesday March 13 the state Surface Mine Board overturned the Department of Environmental Protection order that blocked the silo.
Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/ypx39z
Community members have been working for years on getting a new school for the children that attend Marsh Fork Elementary in their community so that they don’t have to breathe coal dust and toxic chemicals daily. The grandfather of a recent Marsh Fork graduate walked from West Virginia to DC to raise support for a new school and to meet with Senator Byrd to request a new school in the community. And elementary students around the world have written letters to Governor Manchin and collected pennies to help build a new school.
Find out more here:
surprise delivery of letters to Governor Manchin: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/1033
Governor avoids meeting with children: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/1010
Pennies of Promise launch with deliver of pennies to the capitol: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/322
Ed’s walk from WV to DC: http://duke.securenet-server.net/~mnoerpel/pennies/blog.php
Send a free web based fax:
To send a written fax, go to and fill out the following information. http://faxzero.com/
Sender Information
Fill out Name: YOURS
Company: Put Anything
Number: 3048549101
Email : YOURS
Receiver Information:
Name: Governor Joe Manchin
Company: People of West Virginia
Fax Number: 3043427025
Fax Information: Type your message or attach a saved document: Include name and address on fax if from WV
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Dear Josh,
Arthur let me know about this and i was glad to send a fax in solidarity. I also posted this article on my blog climate change action. Keep up the good work!
Just an alteration to the post, the youths involved are trying to work in support of the community groups that are trying to get a new school built in the area around Marsh Fork Elementary. The first paragraph should read that youths & students are supporting the community groups, not that other people are supporting the students. Students are not leading efforts to build a new school or stop mountaintop removal, but rather supporting the people & groups of Appalachia who are trying to do those very thing.
Good post, very glad to see this up on this page! I’m grateful that the itsgettinghotinhere page is around!
-Danny Chiotos
WV SEAC - Mountain Justice Spring Break