Photo by Vivian Stockman
Activists from Climate Ground Zero said this morning that they have “occupied” the offices of Massey Energy subsidiary Marfork Coal Co. to protest violations at the company’s huge Brushy Fork slurry impoundment.
This comes after the WVDEP issued a safety violation directed at the impoundment, following a warning notice issued to the state by the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. (See previous posts on that here and here).
According to the news release describing the action by three Climate Ground Zero activists:
The protestors plan to present a citizen’s arrest warrant and list of violations on the Marfork processing plant, Bee Tree Surface Mine and Brushy Fork sludge impoundment to company president Christopher Blanchard and Massey CEO Don Blankenship.
Map from Climate Ground Zero Web site.
Protesters are concerned about the impact Massey’s blasting at the Bee Tree Mine could have on the stability of the impoundment (shown above). Activists Mike Roselle, Joseph Hamsher, and Tom Smyth said they don’t plan to leave the Marfork offices until Massey agrees to cease the blasting. Roselle added:
I won’t stop breaking the law until they do.
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Does anyone have any good maps on hand showing the underground mines under brushy fork. This one is good at http://auroralights.org/map_project/theme.php?theme=crm&article=primary
Does anyone have any info on where a blow out would most likely occur? There was an incident reported over in horse creek involving mines connected to the impoundment but the slope of the coal seams does not seam to line up with where slurry should be leaking out of the ground.
The seams slope down hill from horse creek mine punch outs to the impoundment, so to me it looks like a punch out in bee tree branch or little marshfork would be likely suspects.
I am also interested in getting some information on the the condition of the mines underneath. I would love to look through some documents on roof conditions. I hear it is a honey comb under there and some good hard facts about its instability would be great get out there.
-rob
Citizens arrest? Give me a break…I am rolling on the floor with this one…thinking of the Andy Griffith episode where Gomer uses a citizens arrest on Barney.
If not for these types of actions by concerned citizens and the Fed Office of Surface Mining the WV DEP would simply ignore citizens complaints. Well, actually they ignore citizens complaints. Next time the coal industry and Joe Manchin says the coal industry is under attack, they need to be reminded that they began the attack on citizens with the DEP ignoring citizen’s complaints. If there is such a thing as coal under attack, it is a counter attack. And,… if we really want to talk about attack, the real attack is by the state school building authority on the kids, teachers and staff at Marsh Fork Elementary.
Rob, here is a link to a study by hydrologist, Rick Eades, on the condition of Brushy Fork and the underground mines below the impoundment.
http://www.ohvec.org/issues/slurry_impoundments/articles/brushy_fork.pdf
The report was written in 2000, so the whole issue of blasting on the Bee Tree permit is not factored into the analysis.
They ought to halt all blasting up there until these issues are addressed.
What a joke….citizens arrest! I guess its to cold for them to hang out in trees…so they go directly to the office of the “culprits”. Way to get your point across. I heard they were drug out by the chains they used to strap themselves to the chairs. By the way chaining yourselves to a chair setting in an office was a good idea. Good Job!!
I wish they would move the governor’s office below this dam.