Breaking: Civil Disobedience at WV Mountaintop Removal and Coal Sludge Impoundment Sites

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MAY 23, 2009
CONTACT: Sludge Watch Collective 304-854-7372

Update: Update 5:23 PM- Nine protesters are still in custody. Two are being held for the action at the Brushy Fork dam, seven for the line crossing at Pettus. Police have informed jail support that bail will be set at $2,000 each- $18,000 needs to be raised in total. Please donate to the bail fund now!!!

COAL RIVER VALLEY, WV– Activists are engaged in two separate civil disobedience actions this morning as part of the continuing campaign to end mountaintop removal. 9 people have locked themselves to mining equipment on a Patriot Coal mountaintop removal mine on Kayford Mountain and another team of activists has spread a 20×60 foot banner on the surface of Massey Energy’s Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment near Pettus, W.Va. The activists are part of a coalition that includes Mountain Justice, Climate Ground Zero and concerned individuals.

At noon today, more protesters are expected to converge at the gate to the Brushy Fork dam with hundreds of pairs of shoes to represent the number of immediate deaths should the dam fail.

More details to follow. Video, still images and breaking news will be posted continually to www.mountainjustice.org.

About Mattie

Mattie is a member of the Ohio Student Environmental Coalition's Steering Committee, an organization he founded at Power Shift 07. He is proud to support a growing statewide network of student groups working for a clean, safe, and just future for all. Mattie originally got involved as a Syracuse University student who saw a pressing need for climate action, later as an Energy Justice Network intern who began to realize the human impacts of coal, and finally as an OSEC organizer committed to building an economy and climate worth fighting for. He also has a degree in women's studies and sociology, is a founding member of the Mountain Justice Spring Break Planning Collective and an intentional community in Columbus, and is the convener of the Energy Action Coalition's Anti-Oppression working group.

6 Responses to “Breaking: Civil Disobedience at WV Mountaintop Removal and Coal Sludge Impoundment Sites”

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1 Scott May 24th, 2009 at 7:12 am

Two of the activists were charged for “littering” because they floated a banner on a toxic sludge pond. LITTERING on a sludge pond? WTF? And they are still in jail with a $2000 cash bond.
2 Scott May 24th, 2009 at 7:17 am

It should be also noted that the activists who locked down on the super-dumpster on Kayford shut the site down for 5 hours. No blasting. No dragline scrapping up the coal. No workers allowed to work. We need more actions like this. Check out climategroundzero.org for how to join the exciting action campaign in West Virginia this summer.
3 insurgent sociologist May 24th, 2009 at 1:52 pm

A point of clarification- The workers at the mines need work, as do many of their un/under-employed brothers and sisters. They have a right to work that supports families does not threaten the surrounding communities or the global climate. This is also part of what Mountain Justice means.

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