Mountaintop Removal Blasting Sends Boulder Into Local Home: EPA Considers More Permits for Mountaintop Removal in the Region
Last week Frasure Creek Mining Company set off a mining blast that dislodged a massive boulder sending it cascading down the mountain into a nearby home.
The dislodged boulder rolled directly into the bedroom of two local Floyd County residents, who were away from the home at the time of incident. According to state mining officials, the company has been assessed charges of around $10,000. For the coal industry, this equals about 2 coal train car loads of coal in profit.
The incident comes at a time when the EPA is reviewing dozens of proposed Mountaintop Removal permits, including more for Floyd County where the boulder rolled into a home. The EPA is anticipated to release their decisions on the pending permits as soon as mid-September.
To see the full list of pending Mountaintop Removal permits under consideration by the EPA, see: http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Coal_Mining_Tracker&autologin=true
Take urge the EPA to deny any further Mountaintop Removal permits, you can take action, here: https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2313
my only reply at this moment is a string of explitives…. use yer imagination… how is this allowed to continue???????
This is by no means the first time this has happened. In 2004 a young child named Jeremy Davidson was killed by a boulder that rolled off a strip mine and into his house in southwestern Virginia. It was actually this event that was partially responsible for bringing together coalfields groups to start the Mountain Justice movement