00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:22.590
You look up to the
mountains, and it's

00:00:22.590 --> 00:00:25.330
like, they cause you to look
up your eyes to the heavens,

00:00:25.330 --> 00:00:28.520
and you know why God put
those mountains here.

00:00:28.520 --> 00:00:32.549
And he gave us a wondrous
place, and these people,

00:00:32.549 --> 00:00:36.010
we don't want them
to leave this place.

00:00:36.010 --> 00:00:41.630
It's so deeply rooted
in our heritage.

00:00:41.630 --> 00:00:44.320
We don't wanna go
anywhere, anywhere.

00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:46.993
I wouldn't live any place
that wasn't a mountain.

00:00:46.993 --> 00:00:51.526
But I specifically want to
stay in the mountain I know.

00:00:51.526 --> 00:00:54.930
The Hollow I've always known.

00:00:54.930 --> 00:00:59.520
Go to the most peaceful,
beautiful place in the world

00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:04.340
that you could
imagine, and just let

00:01:04.340 --> 00:01:06.903
yourself feel like that
you've spent your life there.

00:01:19.230 --> 00:01:22.640
And then watch somebody
drop a bomb on it.

00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.198
That's basically what's
happened right here.

00:02:10.260 --> 00:02:12.010
(SHOUTING INTO MEGAPHONE)
What do we want?

00:02:12.010 --> 00:02:13.504
(CROWD SHOUTING)
Coalfield justice!

00:02:13.504 --> 00:02:14.996
When do we want it?

00:02:14.996 --> 00:02:15.496
Now!

00:02:15.496 --> 00:02:16.990
What do we want?

00:02:16.990 --> 00:02:17.986
Coalfield justice!

00:02:17.986 --> 00:02:18.982
When do we want it?

00:02:18.982 --> 00:02:20.560
Now!

00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:21.810
How did things go today?

00:02:21.810 --> 00:02:22.580
Ah, they're goin'.

00:02:22.580 --> 00:02:24.730
And the way we
expected, we're not

00:02:24.730 --> 00:02:28.038
being-- they're not
paying attention to us,

00:02:28.038 --> 00:02:31.192
but they can't
[? hardly. ?] no worries.

00:02:31.192 --> 00:02:32.650
What are the key
things you think--

00:02:32.650 --> 00:02:33.610
if they did get
something out of it,

00:02:33.610 --> 00:02:35.460
what would be the key things
you would want them to get out

00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:35.960
of it?

00:02:35.960 --> 00:02:39.050
I'd want them to get
out the fact that we're

00:02:39.050 --> 00:02:40.760
being destroyed in
our homes, and they're

00:02:40.760 --> 00:02:41.884
making the money off of it.

00:02:41.884 --> 00:02:45.258
If that's OK with them.

00:02:45.258 --> 00:02:47.140
When you look at our
industry and what

00:02:47.140 --> 00:02:50.770
we have accomplished
here for the world,

00:02:50.770 --> 00:02:52.990
in terms of establishing
technology--

00:02:52.990 --> 00:02:56.130
I mean truly Star
Wars technology,

00:02:56.130 --> 00:02:59.640
in the sense of
extracting mineral out

00:02:59.640 --> 00:03:03.510
of the ground that the good Lord
put in these mountains for us

00:03:03.510 --> 00:03:05.400
to take advantage of.

00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:09.240
Now, yeah, looking
back from 2000,

00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:12.260
there's a lot of things you
could have done differently.

00:03:12.260 --> 00:03:14.520
But we got to be
smart enough in 2000

00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:16.170
to look forward and
make sure that we

00:03:16.170 --> 00:03:18.090
don't make the same mistakes.

00:03:18.090 --> 00:03:21.320
And to make sure we capitalize
on all the economic activity

00:03:21.320 --> 00:03:24.070
that surrounds the
extraction of coal.

00:03:24.070 --> 00:03:26.540
Because right now, we're
making more than-- helping

00:03:26.540 --> 00:03:29.932
to make more than half the
electricity in this country.

00:03:29.932 --> 00:03:33.404
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03:59.250 --> 00:04:04.900
And I would like to say that the
poorest people in the poorest

00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:10.620
state in the richest country
live in the coalfields of West

00:04:10.620 --> 00:04:11.260
Virginia.

00:04:11.260 --> 00:04:12.830
And people have to
understand that we

00:04:12.830 --> 00:04:15.710
are the poorest people in the
poorest state in the richest

00:04:15.710 --> 00:04:16.690
nation.

00:04:16.690 --> 00:04:18.790
We watch millions and
millions of dollars

00:04:18.790 --> 00:04:23.040
worth of coal right down the
road by our homes every day.

00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:24.350
And that's our coal.

00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:26.630
That belongs to us, the people.

00:04:26.630 --> 00:04:30.320
And it should be
mined responsibly,

00:04:30.320 --> 00:04:32.870
for the people of West
Virginia, and for our children.

00:04:32.870 --> 00:04:35.330
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:04:49.046 --> 00:04:50.670
But when you go to
these mines, and you

00:04:50.670 --> 00:04:52.590
see people that are
college graduates that

00:04:52.590 --> 00:04:56.040
are working at the face, running
remote control equipment,

00:04:56.040 --> 00:04:59.770
that truly-- I mean
you've got cutting heads

00:04:59.770 --> 00:05:03.150
on a machinery that
have computers in them.

00:05:03.150 --> 00:05:06.460
And nobody in this
world is extracting coal

00:05:06.460 --> 00:05:07.800
like we are in West Virginia.

00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:14.574
(SINGING) Sad the day when I
saw the stream shovels a-comin.

00:05:14.574 --> 00:05:21.613
The clank of their wheels
as they clattered along.

00:05:21.613 --> 00:05:29.460
Deep in my heart a voice seemed
to be sayin', Goodbye my sweet

00:05:29.460 --> 00:05:29.960
home--

00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:32.415
No reason for anybody
to allow the senseless

00:05:32.415 --> 00:05:34.629
killing going on on our river.

00:05:34.629 --> 00:05:37.212
The destroying of our mountains,
and leaving us with the ruins

00:05:37.212 --> 00:05:38.510
is wrong.

00:05:38.510 --> 00:05:39.820
It is dead wrong.

00:05:39.820 --> 00:05:43.425
You cannot continue to kill our
children, kill our community,

00:05:43.425 --> 00:05:44.510
kill our heritage.

00:05:44.510 --> 00:05:47.785
We have-- I have three
generations of heritage

00:05:47.785 --> 00:05:49.095
in our mountains here.

00:05:49.095 --> 00:05:52.940
In the same Hollow they're
getting ready to destroy now.

00:05:52.940 --> 00:05:55.467
But typically, the last
10, 12 years, the favor

00:05:55.467 --> 00:05:57.050
has been to the
Southern West Virginia

00:05:57.050 --> 00:06:00.040
coals, the coals that are
found in Eastern Kentucky,

00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:02.260
and Southwestern Virginia.

00:06:02.260 --> 00:06:05.480
Because of the sulphur content,
because of the ash content.

00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:08.730
So a variety of
physical characteristics

00:06:08.730 --> 00:06:10.530
that cause it to be attractive.

00:06:10.530 --> 00:06:13.380
Over the past 20 years,
mountaintop removal mining

00:06:13.380 --> 00:06:16.610
has blasted away hundreds
of mountain peaks in search

00:06:16.610 --> 00:06:18.670
of thin seams of coal.

00:06:18.670 --> 00:06:20.050
Rugged Appalachian
Mountains that

00:06:20.050 --> 00:06:22.070
were once a comforting
home had become

00:06:22.070 --> 00:06:24.450
barren and alien landscapes.

00:06:24.450 --> 00:06:27.370
Over 244 plant
and animal species

00:06:27.370 --> 00:06:30.812
are affected as mature
hardwood forests are destroyed.

00:06:30.812 --> 00:06:32.520
[INAUDIBLE] there's
nothing for me to do.

00:06:32.520 --> 00:06:35.492
It's a stripped [INAUDIBLE]
can't be turned back.

00:06:35.492 --> 00:06:39.864
Unless they permission,
we're going to destroy it.

00:06:39.864 --> 00:06:41.280
How do you think
it affects people

00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:44.062
psychologically or emotionally?

00:06:44.062 --> 00:06:46.190
Well, myself, it bothers me.

00:06:46.190 --> 00:06:49.485
In the area up the Holler
here from where I live,

00:06:49.485 --> 00:06:53.563
the Black Castle
Mining, [INAUDIBLE]

00:06:53.563 --> 00:06:55.614
whatever you wanna call it.

00:06:55.614 --> 00:06:57.280
My grandpa used to
take me to [? move ?]

00:06:57.280 --> 00:07:00.330
when I was a kid,
six, seven years old.

00:07:00.330 --> 00:07:03.450
I met my brother-in-law.

00:07:03.450 --> 00:07:05.470
[? It ?] tells
different places to go,

00:07:05.470 --> 00:07:10.815
to [? root. ?] That's
aggravating when you sit

00:07:10.815 --> 00:07:14.220
and think about your--
you know, my grandpa.

00:07:14.220 --> 00:07:16.650
He knew every inch
of these woods.

00:07:16.650 --> 00:07:18.865
He's almost 94 years old now.

00:07:18.865 --> 00:07:21.310
I think if he'd
just go and see what

00:07:21.310 --> 00:07:26.800
they've done to the
mountains-- it's terrible.

00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:29.800
The coal industry continues
to advocate for mountaintop

00:07:29.800 --> 00:07:32.715
removal, although it is
opposed by the majority of West

00:07:32.715 --> 00:07:33.465
Virginia citizens.

00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:49.430
In Appalachia, coal
is mined in two ways.

00:07:49.430 --> 00:07:52.210
Underground mining,
digging tunnels and rooms

00:07:52.210 --> 00:07:55.730
inside mountains to remove
coal, and surface mining,

00:07:55.730 --> 00:08:00.540
blasting away land to reach
seams of coal near the surface.

00:08:00.540 --> 00:08:02.640
The most aggressive
type of surface mining

00:08:02.640 --> 00:08:04.810
is mountaintop removal mining.

00:08:04.810 --> 00:08:07.160
Mountaintop removal
requires blasting off

00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:10.920
the entire top of a mountain
to expose seams of coal.

00:08:10.920 --> 00:08:13.090
When bedrock is
disrupted, it expands

00:08:13.090 --> 00:08:16.650
in volume, producing thousands
of tons of blasted material

00:08:16.650 --> 00:08:18.270
that must be disposed of.

00:08:18.270 --> 00:08:20.040
The coal industry
puts this waste

00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:23.080
in valleys between mountains,
creating valley fills

00:08:23.080 --> 00:08:25.580
that cover headwater streams.

00:08:25.580 --> 00:08:27.750
In West Virginia,
underground mining

00:08:27.750 --> 00:08:30.750
represents 64% of all mining.

00:08:30.750 --> 00:08:33.789
Surface mining represents
36% of all mining.

00:08:33.789 --> 00:08:36.700
Mountaintop removal mining
skyrocketed in popularity

00:08:36.700 --> 00:08:40.750
in the 1990s, and by
1997, accounted for 2/3

00:08:40.750 --> 00:08:42.240
of all surface mine permits.

00:08:56.627 --> 00:08:58.002
A few times they
put off a blast,

00:08:58.002 --> 00:09:03.140
it vibrated our house real
bad, and this big cloud of dust

00:09:03.140 --> 00:09:06.680
would come down
on us, and I mean

00:09:06.680 --> 00:09:11.710
it would just make the
whole community just

00:09:11.710 --> 00:09:15.100
a big cloud of dust.

00:09:15.100 --> 00:09:19.050
And most of all this dust--
this was a seven-day-a-week,

00:09:19.050 --> 00:09:24.670
24-hour-a-day thing,
365 days a year.

00:09:24.670 --> 00:09:28.560
There was just no relief from
it, until the job shut down.

00:09:35.830 --> 00:09:39.450
About 400 yards away, I'm
standing across the valley

00:09:39.450 --> 00:09:40.835
over on the [INAUDIBLE] strip.

00:09:40.835 --> 00:09:42.960
When they put off a shot,
I can feel the concussion

00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:45.550
in my chest, a
visceral concussion.

00:09:45.550 --> 00:09:48.360
They got guys that--
they literally

00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:51.770
think you have to set off an
H bomb or something up there

00:09:51.770 --> 00:09:53.729
to bust that rock up.

00:09:53.729 --> 00:09:55.770
They want to shoot it up
in the [INAUDIBLE] dust,

00:09:55.770 --> 00:09:59.000
and they just can't do it.

00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:00.920
Not without some sort
of ramifications.

00:10:00.920 --> 00:10:03.910
And the communities
were suffering.

00:10:03.910 --> 00:10:06.835
Anyway, for a long time,
we have records and dates

00:10:06.835 --> 00:10:09.880
from when it started.

00:10:09.880 --> 00:10:12.810
They've been blasting
and have shaken our home.

00:10:12.810 --> 00:10:14.480
We've had to
replace our windows,

00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:18.840
our foundation has some
cracks in the blocks.

00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:21.590
They came and took pictures,
but it was after the fact.

00:10:21.590 --> 00:10:23.120
They got around to
us after they've

00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.330
been blasting for a while.

00:10:25.330 --> 00:10:27.490
And there was some
structural damage inside,

00:10:27.490 --> 00:10:31.810
which they took pictures
and said it already existed.

00:10:31.810 --> 00:10:36.430
But actually, we believe that
it was because of the shaking

00:10:36.430 --> 00:10:38.080
and rumbling of our house.

00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:41.070
This type of mine
complex or setting,

00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:44.340
where you have one mountaintop
mine beside another mountaintop

00:10:44.340 --> 00:10:48.500
mine, three of them in
plain view from here--

00:10:48.500 --> 00:10:51.360
if you live down in the Hollow,
you simply can't see it.

00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.580
You can't see up over
the canopy of trees

00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:57.000
that you can now see
from this vantage point.

00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:59.410
But people can't see what's
going on right up above them.

00:10:59.410 --> 00:11:02.320
Until these mines move
into close proximity,

00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.890
and the blasting starts damaging
their homes, or their wells,

00:11:05.890 --> 00:11:08.580
a lot of people don't even
know that mines of this scale

00:11:08.580 --> 00:11:10.100
are going on over here.

00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:12.580
[? Lisette ?] and I were
watching TV one evening,

00:11:12.580 --> 00:11:15.710
and right after a
shot, this glass just

00:11:15.710 --> 00:11:19.800
fell out on the ground,
just busted it off.

00:11:19.800 --> 00:11:23.670
I called up [? B ?] [? Sales, ?]
and complained about it,

00:11:23.670 --> 00:11:26.490
and they just flatly told me,
if I want to do something about

00:11:26.490 --> 00:11:27.660
it, get a lawyer.

00:11:27.660 --> 00:11:29.550
Well, I ain't got
that kind of money.

00:11:29.550 --> 00:11:31.459
And I just can't
afford-- you know,

00:11:31.459 --> 00:11:33.250
you can't afford to
fight people like that,

00:11:33.250 --> 00:11:34.260
when you ain't got the money.

00:11:34.260 --> 00:11:36.010
And then I spent some
time talking to some

00:11:36.010 --> 00:11:37.630
of the people in the community.

00:11:37.630 --> 00:11:40.410
And they began telling me
about the blasting, what

00:11:40.410 --> 00:11:44.930
it does to their home, what
it does to their nerves, what

00:11:44.930 --> 00:11:47.177
it does to their community.

00:11:47.177 --> 00:11:48.760
They then began
talking about the dust

00:11:48.760 --> 00:11:52.340
after the blasting, what the
dust does to their homes,

00:11:52.340 --> 00:11:56.530
and we met with people
whose children had asthma,

00:11:56.530 --> 00:11:57.797
what it had done to them.

00:11:57.797 --> 00:11:59.380
And how many times
they had complained

00:11:59.380 --> 00:12:02.360
to the state officials, how
many times they had complained

00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:03.750
to the coal officials.

00:12:03.750 --> 00:12:07.260
They talked about
the long wall sites,

00:12:07.260 --> 00:12:09.350
and also when the
blast would come

00:12:09.350 --> 00:12:11.720
and how long they'd
be without water.

00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:14.385
And they kept blasting,
and blasting, and blasting.

00:12:14.385 --> 00:12:18.225
And this is [INAUDIBLE] It goes
down a hundred and some feet,

00:12:18.225 --> 00:12:22.290
they crack the water breaks
on, and the water went down.

00:12:22.290 --> 00:12:24.950
The well ran for 20
years, at ground level,

00:12:24.950 --> 00:12:27.520
the water stayed in, that
one was ground level.

00:12:27.520 --> 00:12:32.870
So we called the
VP, they asked us

00:12:32.870 --> 00:12:35.490
if we had a pre-blast survey,
well we had all of our ducts

00:12:35.490 --> 00:12:39.314
in the pond, we had all that
stuff before, prior to this.

00:12:39.314 --> 00:12:40.730
So then we called
the mine office,

00:12:40.730 --> 00:12:42.790
and this guy says
he-- [? Miquel ?]

00:12:42.790 --> 00:12:46.530
says he's not in the
business to do wells.

00:12:46.530 --> 00:12:48.802
He's in the stripping business.

00:12:48.802 --> 00:12:52.450
And then from that, we
went to State Department,

00:12:52.450 --> 00:12:54.350
they made them put
in a well again.

00:12:54.350 --> 00:12:57.802
But they said they put it all
on good neighbor behavior, that

00:12:57.802 --> 00:12:58.510
was their policy.

00:12:58.510 --> 00:13:00.450
It wasn't that we
forced them to fix it,

00:13:00.450 --> 00:13:02.912
but their good neighbor policy.

00:13:02.912 --> 00:13:04.745
And there are a lot of
people in the Hollows

00:13:04.745 --> 00:13:07.090
that got damages-- a
lot of won't say nothing

00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:09.135
about it because some
of them work for Massey.

00:13:09.135 --> 00:13:10.760
If you want to work
for Massey, they

00:13:10.760 --> 00:13:12.310
ain't gonna say
nothing 'bout it.

00:13:12.310 --> 00:13:13.935
Because they know
they won't have a job

00:13:13.935 --> 00:13:17.200
to work no more if they do.

00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:19.360
So, basically, Massey
runs the place.

00:13:24.390 --> 00:13:28.380
Between 1992 and 1998,
Arch Coal, a leading coal

00:13:28.380 --> 00:13:30.870
corporation, purchased
half of the homes

00:13:30.870 --> 00:13:34.300
in Blair, West Virginia, after
citizens complained repeatedly

00:13:34.300 --> 00:13:39.180
about dust and blasting problems
from nearby surface mines.

00:13:39.180 --> 00:13:42.360
The local school was closed, and
many of these newly purchased

00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:44.355
homes mysteriously
burned to the ground

00:13:44.355 --> 00:13:45.480
in the middle of the night.

00:14:01.050 --> 00:14:04.430
I intend to hold on to the land.

00:14:04.430 --> 00:14:06.680
I want to stay here
because this is my home,

00:14:06.680 --> 00:14:08.180
this is where I was
born and raised,

00:14:08.180 --> 00:14:14.174
and this is-- what can
I say, it's my home.

00:14:14.174 --> 00:14:19.160
And it breaks my heart to see
it destroyed the way the Arch

00:14:19.160 --> 00:14:20.615
Coal has done things.

00:14:23.740 --> 00:14:26.000
The company, like I
said, they just want

00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:29.910
everybody out of here, so
that they could mine this coal

00:14:29.910 --> 00:14:35.210
in here the way they wanted
to without-- I guess they just

00:14:35.210 --> 00:14:37.942
want everybody out of here, so
they could do what they want

00:14:37.942 --> 00:14:40.930
to do, and there were
just a few people

00:14:40.930 --> 00:14:44.800
left that kept
after the DP there

00:14:44.800 --> 00:14:49.465
to try to make
them go by the law.

00:15:01.345 --> 00:15:03.190
We had issues, obviously.

00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:04.860
Always have issues--
in a coal mine,

00:15:04.860 --> 00:15:08.930
you're always going
to have issues.

00:15:08.930 --> 00:15:12.400
You have blasting issues,
dust issues, AMD issues, this,

00:15:12.400 --> 00:15:13.260
whatever.

00:15:13.260 --> 00:15:16.630
You always will, always
have, always probably will.

00:15:16.630 --> 00:15:19.390
Your idea is you
issue good permits,

00:15:19.390 --> 00:15:24.500
and after if there are problems,
you get them dealt with.

00:15:24.500 --> 00:15:27.045
But there were some issues
with large-scale mines

00:15:27.045 --> 00:15:34.160
to do with blasting, involving
people, and dust, and stuff

00:15:34.160 --> 00:15:35.380
like that.

00:15:35.380 --> 00:15:36.370
That's my house.

00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:42.040
It's five years old.

00:15:42.040 --> 00:15:47.960
And every room in it's cracked
in the corners from the shots.

00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:50.780
We'll sweep that up and
take it down and show it

00:15:50.780 --> 00:15:52.330
to Mister [? Eli ?]

00:15:56.314 --> 00:15:58.300
Got to scrub it good.

00:15:58.300 --> 00:16:00.380
I wouldn't scrub it.

00:16:00.380 --> 00:16:03.410
We need to make it back on
state, tell them to come

00:16:03.410 --> 00:16:05.137
and scrub it.

00:16:05.137 --> 00:16:07.220
I ought to go down there
and [INAUDIBLE] this coal

00:16:07.220 --> 00:16:08.760
with a damn ball
bat on them people.

00:16:08.760 --> 00:16:09.596
Shut up now.

00:16:09.596 --> 00:16:11.350
[INAUDIBLE] talking like that.

00:16:11.350 --> 00:16:14.420
Well, that's what
it's going to come to.

00:16:18.560 --> 00:16:22.080
And they took videotapes
virtually every day,

00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:23.610
every night.

00:16:23.610 --> 00:16:27.450
They documented very
clearly what was going on,

00:16:27.450 --> 00:16:31.270
and at that point, DP
couldn't ignore them.

00:16:31.270 --> 00:16:36.470
And they started issuing sort
of slap-on-the-wrist citations

00:16:36.470 --> 00:16:37.880
to the company.

00:16:37.880 --> 00:16:42.310
But until there was that
videotape documentation,

00:16:42.310 --> 00:16:44.910
DP was-- basically,
the inspectors

00:16:44.910 --> 00:16:47.670
would arrive hours
later, and say, well, I

00:16:47.670 --> 00:16:50.840
don't see anything
going on right now.

00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:54.020
So it was self
help to the extent

00:16:54.020 --> 00:16:57.370
that people really tried
to protect their homes.

00:16:57.370 --> 00:17:02.230
And they tried to get the
government to enforce the law.

00:17:02.230 --> 00:17:08.480
And it didn't work-- the
system didn't work for them.

00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:10.480
Can't even see Ms.
Mullens' house.

00:17:12.611 --> 00:17:14.069
(SHOUTING) Right
there, [? John, ?]

00:17:14.069 --> 00:17:16.054
I mean I can't even
see you on the porch.

00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:23.950
I'm going to take this film, run
over and show them right now.

00:17:27.369 --> 00:17:31.380
The situation where
people had no choice.

00:17:31.380 --> 00:17:36.270
If they wanted to get
anything out of their houses,

00:17:36.270 --> 00:17:40.920
and leave that
untenable situation,

00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:43.110
they had to go to
the coal company.

00:17:43.110 --> 00:17:46.080
And the coal company
had the money budgeted,

00:17:46.080 --> 00:17:48.876
but they never told people that.

00:17:48.876 --> 00:17:50.250
They had their
target acquisition

00:17:50.250 --> 00:17:54.100
map that identified
the properties they

00:17:54.100 --> 00:17:57.360
wanted to purchase, but they
didn't tell the homeowners.

00:17:57.360 --> 00:18:01.220
They waited until
the homeowners came

00:18:01.220 --> 00:18:05.500
begging them to buy them out.

00:18:05.500 --> 00:18:11.630
And they bought 'em out at the
price that the company set,

00:18:11.630 --> 00:18:15.360
which in my view wasn't a
fair market value price.

00:18:15.360 --> 00:18:19.600
And more than that,
they banned them

00:18:19.600 --> 00:18:22.190
from living in the area for
the rest of their lives.

00:18:22.190 --> 00:18:24.730
They had to sign what
the company termed

00:18:24.730 --> 00:18:29.510
an option-to-purchase
agreement that

00:18:29.510 --> 00:18:33.640
made the homeowners
promise never

00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:38.180
to buy property in 11
communities or 11 watersheds

00:18:38.180 --> 00:18:40.850
from the crest of Blair
mountain to the Boone County

00:18:40.850 --> 00:18:43.820
line for the rest of the lives.

00:18:43.820 --> 00:18:46.520
Places where many
of those families

00:18:46.520 --> 00:18:49.760
had lived for a century.

00:18:49.760 --> 00:18:53.390
And basically, these
people had no choice.

00:18:53.390 --> 00:18:55.720
They either closed the door
of their house and left,

00:18:55.720 --> 00:18:57.830
or they crawled to
the coal company

00:18:57.830 --> 00:19:01.080
and took what the coal company
was willing to give them.

00:19:01.080 --> 00:19:04.510
In July 1998, citizens
from Blair, West Virginia

00:19:04.510 --> 00:19:06.360
and West Virginia
Highlands Conservancy

00:19:06.360 --> 00:19:08.640
sued the US Army
Corps of Engineers

00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:11.460
and West Virginia Department
of Environmental Protection

00:19:11.460 --> 00:19:15.040
in a landmark case known
as Bragg versus Robertson.

00:19:15.040 --> 00:19:16.690
The lawsuit charged
that thousands

00:19:16.690 --> 00:19:18.850
of acres of mountaintop
removal mines

00:19:18.850 --> 00:19:22.830
had been permitted in violation
of federal environmental laws.

00:19:22.830 --> 00:19:24.690
I think the juries
will rule in our favor.

00:19:24.690 --> 00:19:28.505
Because of the
devastation that it

00:19:28.505 --> 00:19:33.110
is doing to our
mountains and the future.

00:19:33.110 --> 00:19:35.840
The case would once again
place West Virginia citizens

00:19:35.840 --> 00:19:37.930
in conflict with
the coal industry,

00:19:37.930 --> 00:19:42.346
a dominant economic force in
Appalachia for over 100 years.

00:19:42.346 --> 00:19:45.832
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:17.290
In the early part
of the century,

00:20:17.290 --> 00:20:19.470
many farmers,
immigrants, and laborers

00:20:19.470 --> 00:20:22.390
worked in harsh and dangerous
conditions in underground coal

00:20:22.390 --> 00:20:23.455
mines in West Virginia.

00:20:29.630 --> 00:20:33.150
Miners organized by John
L. Lewis and Mother Jones

00:20:33.150 --> 00:20:36.680
won difficult and bloody
battles for fair working hours,

00:20:36.680 --> 00:20:39.705
the right to be paid in US
dollars, not company scrip,

00:20:39.705 --> 00:20:41.330
and the right to
collective bargaining.

00:20:43.870 --> 00:20:46.390
By the 1950s, oil
and gas threatened

00:20:46.390 --> 00:20:49.260
to make coal obsolete.

00:20:49.260 --> 00:20:52.230
(TV) 20 tons of coal a
minute ride this conveyor

00:20:52.230 --> 00:20:54.610
to the crushers.

00:20:54.610 --> 00:20:58.500
Finally, pulverized to the
consistency of talcum powder,

00:20:58.500 --> 00:21:01.500
the coal is mixed with air,
and blown into the furnace

00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:04.287
through 16 burners,
giving a whirling movement

00:21:04.287 --> 00:21:05.480
to the flames.

00:21:05.480 --> 00:21:07.240
But the coal industry
found its niche

00:21:07.240 --> 00:21:10.530
in the electricity market,
supplying cheap, reliable fuel

00:21:10.530 --> 00:21:12.990
to coal burning power plants
that provide electricity

00:21:12.990 --> 00:21:15.350
to millions of people
across the nation.

00:21:15.350 --> 00:21:17.790
These power plants have come
under harsh critical review

00:21:17.790 --> 00:21:21.780
for producing dangerous
air pollutants.

00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:23.950
In the '50s and
'60, the industry

00:21:23.950 --> 00:21:26.130
began reducing its
workforce, as the market

00:21:26.130 --> 00:21:30.840
became more competitive, and new
machinery replaced coal miners.

00:21:30.840 --> 00:21:34.110
When mines closed in
poor and isolated towns,

00:21:34.110 --> 00:21:36.960
communities would fall
into abject poverty.

00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:38.920
Federal programs like
the war on poverty

00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:41.820
were created to
address these problems.

00:21:41.820 --> 00:21:44.414
This person
[INAUDIBLE] meanness,

00:21:44.414 --> 00:21:48.230
power, and none of the power,
and they're number one.

00:21:48.230 --> 00:21:50.704
And what [INAUDIBLE]
no more to say.

00:21:53.566 --> 00:21:55.240
They've got nothing
to live for, they've

00:21:55.240 --> 00:21:57.323
got no way to get any
[INAUDIBLE] his mother's got

00:21:57.323 --> 00:21:58.790
no way to get any.

00:21:58.790 --> 00:22:01.430
And seems to me that they
had been taught that they

00:22:01.430 --> 00:22:02.900
can't have these things.

00:22:02.900 --> 00:22:06.540
They've been disappointed
so many times.

00:22:06.540 --> 00:22:11.250
If this be a dark night,
that's a nice night for 'em.

00:22:11.250 --> 00:22:13.940
In the '70s, surface
or strip mining

00:22:13.940 --> 00:22:16.624
gained popularity as a
cost-effective alternative

00:22:16.624 --> 00:22:17.540
to underground mining.

00:22:22.140 --> 00:22:26.289
I was concerned in seeing
the strip mining, the contour

00:22:26.289 --> 00:22:28.080
mining, in those days,
where they just went

00:22:28.080 --> 00:22:30.440
through and dumped
the overburned down

00:22:30.440 --> 00:22:33.110
over the mountains and
destroyed the timber below,

00:22:33.110 --> 00:22:36.390
and sedimentation
was unbelievable.

00:22:36.390 --> 00:22:40.130
And that was in the '60s.

00:22:40.130 --> 00:22:43.345
I'm not-- not an educated man.

00:22:46.650 --> 00:22:49.960
Don't know how to speak much.

00:22:49.960 --> 00:22:54.560
But I'm here to state
the facts of what's

00:22:54.560 --> 00:23:01.091
happening in Raleigh
County of West Virginia.

00:23:01.091 --> 00:23:04.290
I've been had by the strippers.

00:23:04.290 --> 00:23:08.022
I have 65 acres of land.

00:23:08.022 --> 00:23:11.970
This land is almost washed away.

00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:22.610
During the process of
mining and cleaning coal,

00:23:22.610 --> 00:23:24.540
liquefied waste is created.

00:23:24.540 --> 00:23:27.420
This waste is disposed
of in impoundments,

00:23:27.420 --> 00:23:30.426
or slurry ponds held in
place by man-made dams.

00:23:38.300 --> 00:23:43.100
In 1972, disaster struck
Buffalo Creek, West Virginia,

00:23:43.100 --> 00:23:45.280
when two poorly
constructed dams owned

00:23:45.280 --> 00:23:49.280
by Pittston Coal collapsed,
unleashing a wall of coal waste

00:23:49.280 --> 00:23:51.040
onto local communities.

00:23:51.040 --> 00:23:55.340
In minutes, 126 people were
dead, 1,100 were injured,

00:23:55.340 --> 00:23:57.385
and over 4,000
were left homeless.

00:24:01.992 --> 00:24:04.450
We were carrying the old people,
the children were running,

00:24:04.450 --> 00:24:06.940
people were screaming,
people were yelling,

00:24:06.940 --> 00:24:09.090
and behind us was
this coal black water

00:24:09.090 --> 00:24:13.007
rising, inch by inch and
foot by foot, right behind us

00:24:13.007 --> 00:24:14.340
as we were running up this hill.

00:24:14.340 --> 00:24:15.850
I remember the
first body I found

00:24:15.850 --> 00:24:19.050
was sitting out in front of the
school as I came up the hill.

00:24:19.050 --> 00:24:20.310
April White.

00:24:20.310 --> 00:24:21.942
April White was a
classmate of mine.

00:24:21.942 --> 00:24:23.400
The reason I know
April so well was

00:24:23.400 --> 00:24:24.775
because we went
to the same grade

00:24:24.775 --> 00:24:28.050
school, met in junior high,
in seventh grade together.

00:24:28.050 --> 00:24:29.640
But we were square
dance partners,

00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:33.080
from-- [INAUDIBLE] Elementary
we were square dance partners.

00:24:33.080 --> 00:24:35.300
For a couple years, our
fifth and sixth grades.

00:24:35.300 --> 00:24:36.300
That's what we did.

00:24:36.300 --> 00:24:37.992
So I'm helping carry her body.

00:24:37.992 --> 00:24:39.700
That's the first one
I found, and the mud

00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:41.700
was caked in her
mouth, on her eyelids.

00:24:41.700 --> 00:24:43.920
You couldn't tell who
these people were,

00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:46.380
until their faces were
washed, or until you

00:24:46.380 --> 00:24:49.270
wiped their face a little bit,
because the coal black soot had

00:24:49.270 --> 00:24:50.561
covered their whole body.

00:24:50.561 --> 00:24:52.560
Some of them, their clothes
had been ripped off.

00:24:52.560 --> 00:24:55.980
Some of them were just stuck
in mud banks, and some of them

00:24:55.980 --> 00:24:58.810
were partially
decapitated or dismembered

00:24:58.810 --> 00:25:00.380
in some way or another.

00:25:00.380 --> 00:25:02.480
So that was what we saw.

00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:04.890
I was twelve years old,
and the other men and women

00:25:04.890 --> 00:25:05.950
in the community.

00:25:05.950 --> 00:25:09.030
Although federal laws
appeared to have been broken,

00:25:09.030 --> 00:25:12.300
no indictments were returned
against Pittston Coal.

00:25:12.300 --> 00:25:14.850
The disaster fueled the
demand for more accountable

00:25:14.850 --> 00:25:17.221
politicians, and stricter
regulations for the coal

00:25:17.221 --> 00:25:17.720
industry.

00:25:20.880 --> 00:25:23.300
There's a new spirit
of determination

00:25:23.300 --> 00:25:26.720
abroad in West Virginia
now that is demanding

00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:30.790
that public officials,
administrative officials assume

00:25:30.790 --> 00:25:33.980
the responsibility which
is theirs under the law,

00:25:33.980 --> 00:25:37.660
and protect human lives
rather than corporate profits.

00:25:37.660 --> 00:25:41.100
Because there was a lot of
controversy during that period,

00:25:41.100 --> 00:25:45.700
the late '60s and of course up
into '77, when they actually

00:25:45.700 --> 00:25:47.110
changed the law.

00:25:47.110 --> 00:25:49.920
It's been a long and lonely
struggle for lots of us folks

00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:51.070
in West Virginia.

00:25:51.070 --> 00:25:52.460
Well, I'm very proud of it.

00:25:52.460 --> 00:25:56.270
In 1977, Congress passed
the Surface Mining Control

00:25:56.270 --> 00:25:58.570
and Reclamation Act, and
President Jimmy Carter

00:25:58.570 --> 00:25:59.590
signed it into law.

00:26:02.700 --> 00:26:04.910
The Surface Mining Control
and Reclamation Act

00:26:04.910 --> 00:26:06.650
provided a set of
rules to protect

00:26:06.650 --> 00:26:08.670
citizens and communities
from strip mining

00:26:08.670 --> 00:26:10.690
damages and pollution.

00:26:10.690 --> 00:26:12.380
The act stated that
mining companies

00:26:12.380 --> 00:26:15.250
must get detailed mining
permits from the government,

00:26:15.250 --> 00:26:18.490
protect water quality,
conduct studies regarding

00:26:18.490 --> 00:26:20.950
the environmental
impact of strip mines,

00:26:20.950 --> 00:26:22.830
and restore mined
land so that they

00:26:22.830 --> 00:26:25.000
provide equal or better
uses for communities.

00:26:28.820 --> 00:26:33.060
I'm not completely satisfied
with the legislation.

00:26:33.060 --> 00:26:34.840
I would prefer to
have a stricter--

00:26:34.840 --> 00:26:38.340
[APPLAUSE]

00:26:40.752 --> 00:26:46.736
I would prefer to have a
stricter strip mining bill.

00:26:46.736 --> 00:26:47.620
I'm concerned--

00:26:47.620 --> 00:26:51.727
[APPLAUSE]

00:26:51.727 --> 00:26:53.560
I'm concerned with some
of the features that

00:26:53.560 --> 00:26:56.930
had to be watered down during
this session to get it passed.

00:26:56.930 --> 00:26:58.975
But I think that
this provides us

00:26:58.975 --> 00:27:00.700
a basis on which we
can make improvements

00:27:00.700 --> 00:27:03.896
in the bill in
the years to come.

00:27:03.896 --> 00:27:06.850
The Surface Mining Coal
and Reclamation Act

00:27:06.850 --> 00:27:08.750
allowed for mountaintop
removal mining

00:27:08.750 --> 00:27:10.910
only if the coal
companies rebuilt

00:27:10.910 --> 00:27:12.910
the flattened
mountaintop to within 50

00:27:12.910 --> 00:27:15.790
feet of its original
height, or submitted plans

00:27:15.790 --> 00:27:19.710
for future economic development.

00:27:19.710 --> 00:27:22.570
Equipment's gotten
larger for surface mines.

00:27:22.570 --> 00:27:24.150
The equivalent for
underground mine

00:27:24.150 --> 00:27:27.200
has what is called
longwalling, and there you

00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:29.330
can get the coal out
more efficiently.

00:27:29.330 --> 00:27:33.420
And that's dropped the cost
of underground mining as well.

00:27:33.420 --> 00:27:40.230
It's also not-- your
question isn't quite right,

00:27:40.230 --> 00:27:43.340
because there are cases where
underground mines can produce

00:27:43.340 --> 00:27:45.700
coal more cheaply
than in surface mines,

00:27:45.700 --> 00:27:47.785
although your
generalization is correct,

00:27:47.785 --> 00:27:51.266
that by and large,
surface mining is cheaper.

00:27:51.266 --> 00:27:55.380
In the Powder River Basin,
which is a Western coal mining

00:27:55.380 --> 00:28:00.780
area-- and that has the biggest
equipment I've ever seen.

00:28:00.780 --> 00:28:07.140
Everything is being pushed
to the limit in terms of how

00:28:07.140 --> 00:28:08.420
big you can make equipment.

00:28:08.420 --> 00:28:10.100
My understanding
is that trucks are

00:28:10.100 --> 00:28:15.290
limited by the ability of a
railroad car the haul a tire,

00:28:15.290 --> 00:28:19.660
or the ability to get
a tire under a trestle.

00:28:19.660 --> 00:28:22.140
So the whole game
has been to move

00:28:22.140 --> 00:28:24.130
to larger and larger
equipment, and you

00:28:24.130 --> 00:28:26.800
can do more of that with surface
than with underground mining.

00:28:26.800 --> 00:28:28.550
But I expect there
will be more technology

00:28:28.550 --> 00:28:30.430
developments in both areas.

00:28:30.430 --> 00:28:33.630
In the 1980s, the coal industry
brought large-scale surface

00:28:33.630 --> 00:28:36.080
mining techniques from
lower population states,

00:28:36.080 --> 00:28:38.460
like Wyoming, to
the steep slopes

00:28:38.460 --> 00:28:42.020
of Central Appalachia,
areas settled by generations

00:28:42.020 --> 00:28:44.540
of families and communities.

00:28:44.540 --> 00:28:48.150
In 1998, a scientific study
conducted by the US Fish

00:28:48.150 --> 00:28:51.410
and Wildlife Service
announced that over 900 miles

00:28:51.410 --> 00:28:55.200
of headwater streams had been
covered by valley fills in West

00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:58.590
Virginia and Kentucky.

00:28:58.590 --> 00:29:00.620
The Environmental
Protection Agency

00:29:00.620 --> 00:29:02.740
under the Clinton
administration agreed

00:29:02.740 --> 00:29:04.770
that no one in the state
or federal government

00:29:04.770 --> 00:29:07.610
was adequately studying large
mountaintop removal sites

00:29:07.610 --> 00:29:08.800
and valley fills.

00:29:08.800 --> 00:29:10.370
The world's oldest
mountain range

00:29:10.370 --> 00:29:13.860
was being permanently blasted
apart on a grand scale,

00:29:13.860 --> 00:29:16.660
with no efforts to predict
the effect on waterways,

00:29:16.660 --> 00:29:18.425
ecosystems, or
mountain cultures.

00:29:21.220 --> 00:29:22.980
Citizens and
environmental groups

00:29:22.980 --> 00:29:25.640
turned to lawsuits like
Bragg versus Robertson

00:29:25.640 --> 00:29:27.930
to pressure regulatory
bodies to enforce

00:29:27.930 --> 00:29:31.680
federal laws created to protect
citizens and the environment.

00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:33.950
In Bragg versus
Robertson, citizens

00:29:33.950 --> 00:29:36.440
demanded that environmental
regulatory bodies

00:29:36.440 --> 00:29:39.230
stop allowing the coal
industry to cover streams

00:29:39.230 --> 00:29:40.690
with mine waste.

00:29:40.690 --> 00:29:43.715
They argued that mine waste
was pollution, and therefore

00:29:43.715 --> 00:29:44.215
illegal.

00:29:49.470 --> 00:29:51.950
Bottom line is, you got
more dirt after you dug

00:29:51.950 --> 00:29:53.890
your hole than you had before.

00:29:53.890 --> 00:29:56.960
And that excess oil has
to be put somewhere.

00:29:56.960 --> 00:29:59.310
And what they do
in West Virginia

00:29:59.310 --> 00:30:03.220
is they put it in between
two hills in the valley.

00:30:03.220 --> 00:30:05.190
And the way they build
it is called a valley

00:30:05.190 --> 00:30:07.930
fill, so it's basically
a soil disposal,

00:30:07.930 --> 00:30:12.670
or spoil disposal area
between two mountains that's

00:30:12.670 --> 00:30:14.010
in a valley.

00:30:14.010 --> 00:30:17.180
Ridiculous to think of
these things as engineering.

00:30:17.180 --> 00:30:17.680
Miracles.

00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:19.895
I mean, anybody can
look at the slopes

00:30:19.895 --> 00:30:21.270
on the face of
these valley fills

00:30:21.270 --> 00:30:23.940
and say, hey, that valley
in Southern West Virginia

00:30:23.940 --> 00:30:26.830
got deeply incised by
natural erosional forces.

00:30:26.830 --> 00:30:30.310
Gee, I wonder if that
artificially made fill

00:30:30.310 --> 00:30:33.350
right there is going to be able
to withstand those same forces.

00:30:33.350 --> 00:30:35.015
I think that's a no-brainer.

00:30:35.015 --> 00:30:36.640
Obviously, these
people are not working

00:30:36.640 --> 00:30:40.240
on the same geological time
scale that I'm thinking about.

00:30:40.240 --> 00:30:42.700
In Bragg versus
Robertson, citizens also

00:30:42.700 --> 00:30:44.610
charged that no
new development was

00:30:44.610 --> 00:30:46.610
being planned on
mountaintop removal sites

00:30:46.610 --> 00:30:49.760
as required by the Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation

00:30:49.760 --> 00:30:50.750
Act.

00:30:50.750 --> 00:30:53.476
In 1998, the Charleston
Gazette reported

00:30:53.476 --> 00:30:56.840
that 75% of active
mountaintop removal mines

00:30:56.840 --> 00:31:00.970
were left flat, with no plans
for economic development.

00:31:00.970 --> 00:31:03.760
The majority of the sites
were left as large pastures

00:31:03.760 --> 00:31:04.800
of foreign grasses.

00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:12.620
We got the DP to
fly us to about-- I

00:31:12.620 --> 00:31:14.070
suppose we were
over six or seven

00:31:14.070 --> 00:31:16.480
different, maybe eight
or 10 different counties.

00:31:16.480 --> 00:31:19.240
Southern West Virginia
wound up in Somerville,

00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:22.060
and going through
Beckley to Somerville,

00:31:22.060 --> 00:31:25.850
and it was like a big
checkerboard down below.

00:31:25.850 --> 00:31:28.280
The mountains were
decapitated and filled,

00:31:28.280 --> 00:31:31.830
and we sat down on five
or six different sites

00:31:31.830 --> 00:31:34.110
that were supposedly reclaimed.

00:31:34.110 --> 00:31:36.000
And they looked from
the distance green,

00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:38.430
but when you got there,
and walked in 'em,

00:31:38.430 --> 00:31:41.330
even the fescue and
lespedeza were pretty thin.

00:31:41.330 --> 00:31:43.850
And the sites that were
actively being mined

00:31:43.850 --> 00:31:47.990
were just-- I mean,
engineering-wise, it's

00:31:47.990 --> 00:31:50.400
a fantastic feat, those
engineers, no wonder they're

00:31:50.400 --> 00:31:51.940
proud of what they're doing.

00:31:51.940 --> 00:31:55.420
It's probably bigger than the
Panama Canal construction,

00:31:55.420 --> 00:32:00.385
which I've seen six and 800
foot elevations decapitated.

00:32:03.210 --> 00:32:04.940
It's a hardpan.

00:32:04.940 --> 00:32:08.230
What they typically
do is just track it

00:32:08.230 --> 00:32:11.570
in with these big dozers,
to make it hardpan,

00:32:11.570 --> 00:32:13.200
it's all mostly level.

00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:15.610
You don't have much acreage
on the sides of hills.

00:32:15.610 --> 00:32:17.710
Most of your acreage
is in the level.

00:32:17.710 --> 00:32:23.250
So they compact that, and
then they hydroseed it

00:32:23.250 --> 00:32:29.460
with the lime, and the fescue
and lespedeza, and mulch,

00:32:29.460 --> 00:32:31.780
and it comes back green.

00:32:31.780 --> 00:32:35.960
But the things
they're doing wrong

00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:39.440
is the trees need to have a
pH, an acidity, a slightly

00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:46.900
acid soil of between five
to six and a half pH.

00:32:46.900 --> 00:32:48.710
Seven is neutral.

00:32:48.710 --> 00:32:51.340
And in order to
grow these grasses,

00:32:51.340 --> 00:32:55.700
they throw the lime on there
to make it more than neutral,

00:32:55.700 --> 00:32:58.730
seven plus, and it
makes grass grow,

00:32:58.730 --> 00:33:01.740
but [INAUDIBLE] trees
never grow in there.

00:33:01.740 --> 00:33:05.910
They just don't grow in
those soil conditions.

00:33:05.910 --> 00:33:09.520
I'm for the environment as
much as anyone could be.

00:33:09.520 --> 00:33:10.950
But we can't have
the environment

00:33:10.950 --> 00:33:12.780
without turning
off the electricity

00:33:12.780 --> 00:33:15.650
or throwing miners out of work.

00:33:15.650 --> 00:33:19.260
This has become a
very difficult issue.

00:33:19.260 --> 00:33:22.760
We have four federal agencies
involved, each one of them

00:33:22.760 --> 00:33:24.960
goes in a different
direction, we

00:33:24.960 --> 00:33:29.680
have a lawsuit filed by
environmental extremists.

00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:31.930
And in the Underwood
situation, when

00:33:31.930 --> 00:33:36.060
I started making some waves
about mountaintop removal,

00:33:36.060 --> 00:33:39.135
and the effect it
had on a forest,

00:33:39.135 --> 00:33:42.390
he didn't reappoint
me for about a year.

00:33:42.390 --> 00:33:45.496
And finally, he
did reappoint me,

00:33:45.496 --> 00:33:47.620
because I had a lot of
friends I reckon in the wood

00:33:47.620 --> 00:33:49.630
industry that supported me.

00:33:49.630 --> 00:33:52.810
And then ultimately,
you had to resign.

00:33:52.810 --> 00:33:55.390
I didn't have to resign.

00:33:55.390 --> 00:33:58.950
I resigned because I wanted
to make a point of my being

00:33:58.950 --> 00:34:00.670
against mountaintop removal.

00:34:00.670 --> 00:34:04.190
I tried to fix the system,
but then I couldn't.

00:34:04.190 --> 00:34:06.160
And I could afford
to resign as well,

00:34:06.160 --> 00:34:11.084
but I mainly wanted to do it
to make a statement that I

00:34:11.084 --> 00:34:13.209
didn't feel this was for
the state's best interest.

00:34:22.780 --> 00:34:26.150
So you had all this--
it's what I say-- today,

00:34:26.150 --> 00:34:29.110
looking back in
the year 2000, we

00:34:29.110 --> 00:34:32.139
can look back and say,
man, if we had only

00:34:32.139 --> 00:34:36.170
done-- if we had planted more
trees, we'd have been OK.

00:34:36.170 --> 00:34:40.780
Well, there's not any
erosion to speak of,

00:34:40.780 --> 00:34:43.199
the vegetation's there,
there's not as many trees,

00:34:43.199 --> 00:34:45.115
because that's something
you can run back here

00:34:45.115 --> 00:34:47.630
and say, oh they didn't
do that, naughty, naughty.

00:34:47.630 --> 00:34:50.989
Well, there's the
reason we didn't do it.

00:34:50.989 --> 00:34:53.710
The system was set, I'm
not blaming anybody,

00:34:53.710 --> 00:34:56.630
it was easier to plant grass.

00:34:56.630 --> 00:34:58.320
And we're in the
coal mining business,

00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:00.020
so we were in the
reclamation business,

00:35:00.020 --> 00:35:03.880
and we were having great
success with vegetation.

00:35:03.880 --> 00:35:05.620
I'm talking about
grasses and shrubs.

00:35:08.940 --> 00:35:12.060
But grasses and shrubs
are a poor substitute

00:35:12.060 --> 00:35:15.300
for the rich hardwood
forests of West Virginia.

00:35:15.300 --> 00:35:19.040
The Appalachian deciduous forest
is the second most biodiverse

00:35:19.040 --> 00:35:20.950
ecosystem in the world.

00:35:20.950 --> 00:35:24.290
Only the tropical rainforest has
more plant and animal species.

00:35:26.840 --> 00:35:29.360
Many major East Coast
rivers have headwaters

00:35:29.360 --> 00:35:32.609
in West Virginia, and tourism
is one of the state's fastest

00:35:32.609 --> 00:35:33.400
growing industries.

00:35:38.680 --> 00:35:41.880
The Southeastern United States
is the second most diverse

00:35:41.880 --> 00:35:43.500
region in the world.

00:35:43.500 --> 00:35:49.230
We have more tree species,
more salamander species

00:35:49.230 --> 00:35:50.870
than anywhere in the world.

00:35:50.870 --> 00:35:53.200
Fish species,
macroinvertebrates,

00:35:53.200 --> 00:35:56.970
other insects, and plants.

00:35:56.970 --> 00:36:00.130
This is one of the world's
most diverse regions.

00:36:00.130 --> 00:36:02.200
And certainly, in many
of these little nooks

00:36:02.200 --> 00:36:06.090
and crannies and hollows up in
the head of these West Virginia

00:36:06.090 --> 00:36:09.270
watersheds, there are species
up there that have yet

00:36:09.270 --> 00:36:11.134
to be described to science.

00:36:11.134 --> 00:36:15.086
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:36:44.110 --> 00:36:46.550
West Virginia's long and
rich cultural heritage

00:36:46.550 --> 00:36:48.390
is based in traditions
that are heavily

00:36:48.390 --> 00:36:51.726
influenced by its remote
natural habitats and mountains.

00:36:51.726 --> 00:36:55.198
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:37:16.526 --> 00:37:20.494
[CROWD SINGING RELIGIOUS MUSIC]

00:37:38.430 --> 00:37:43.700
I think that the main
association between the people

00:37:43.700 --> 00:37:45.600
and their connection
with the land

00:37:45.600 --> 00:37:54.780
here is not only the
familiarity of it,

00:37:54.780 --> 00:37:58.400
it's the heritage,
and the culture.

00:37:58.400 --> 00:38:04.090
They're determined to pass these
traditions on to their children

00:38:04.090 --> 00:38:05.900
and to their grandchildren.

00:38:05.900 --> 00:38:09.590
And without the mountains,
these traditions are gone.

00:38:09.590 --> 00:38:13.840
I mean, the traditions
of going into spring

00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:16.250
and collecting mushrooms,
and going into spring

00:38:16.250 --> 00:38:18.560
and collecting the
ramps, and then you've

00:38:18.560 --> 00:38:22.150
got your ginseng
and yellow root.

00:38:22.150 --> 00:38:25.410
A lot of herbal cures
come out of our mountains.

00:38:25.410 --> 00:38:30.680
And if this is destroyed, then
we don't have it to pass on.

00:38:30.680 --> 00:38:32.980
And my children may
never know the things

00:38:32.980 --> 00:38:35.110
that I know about
the wilderness.

00:38:35.110 --> 00:38:40.030
And it truly is devastating,
because it's changing

00:38:40.030 --> 00:38:44.240
an entire culture of people.

00:38:44.240 --> 00:38:49.330
It's destroying a heritage that
could very well be passed down

00:38:49.330 --> 00:38:51.000
for generations.

00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:55.320
My mother, when we lived
on Cook's Mountain,

00:38:55.320 --> 00:38:57.490
we'd walk to my
grandmother's, it takes, like,

00:38:57.490 --> 00:38:59.350
two miles through a hollow.

00:38:59.350 --> 00:39:03.080
And so she started ginsenging
through the hollow,

00:39:03.080 --> 00:39:05.400
and she said, I'm
gonna start ginsenging,

00:39:05.400 --> 00:39:07.600
do y'all wanna start
ginsenging with me?

00:39:07.600 --> 00:39:08.560
We told her, yeah.

00:39:08.560 --> 00:39:12.060
So she started ginsenging,
she'd show it to us,

00:39:12.060 --> 00:39:15.590
and we'd carry leaves through
the hills for hours on hours

00:39:15.590 --> 00:39:17.620
tryin' to find it ourselves.

00:39:17.620 --> 00:39:20.760
And finally, we
learned how to do it.

00:39:20.760 --> 00:39:22.970
Same we've been
doing it ever since.

00:39:22.970 --> 00:39:28.120
When I dig it and then I dry it,
I usually take it and sell it,

00:39:28.120 --> 00:39:33.130
and lay my grandkids' and my
daughter's Christmas presents

00:39:33.130 --> 00:39:37.255
away, so that helps a lot.

00:39:54.900 --> 00:39:57.510
In October 1999,
after settling most

00:39:57.510 --> 00:39:59.980
of the charges for
Bragg verses Robertson,

00:39:59.980 --> 00:40:03.060
Federal Judge Charles Hayden
shocked the coal industry

00:40:03.060 --> 00:40:05.000
and made national
news by declaring

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.750
that valley fill
material was pollution,

00:40:07.750 --> 00:40:09.780
and that thousands of
acres of mountaintop

00:40:09.780 --> 00:40:12.580
had been mined in
violation of the law.

00:40:12.580 --> 00:40:14.580
He also ordered
the EPA to perform

00:40:14.580 --> 00:40:17.100
a large environmental
impact statement that

00:40:17.100 --> 00:40:20.150
would study the effect of
mountaintop removal coal mining

00:40:20.150 --> 00:40:25.250
on the environment, communities,
and economy in West Virginia.

00:40:25.250 --> 00:40:28.020
The coal industry fears
layoffs by the hundreds,

00:40:28.020 --> 00:40:30.172
business blames the
recent federal ruling.

00:40:30.172 --> 00:40:31.130
Good evening, everyone.

00:40:31.130 --> 00:40:32.546
I'm Bill Robertson,
Kelly Crawford

00:40:32.546 --> 00:40:34.230
is on assignment tonight.

00:40:34.230 --> 00:40:38.210
We are talking about more
than 600 possible layoffs

00:40:38.210 --> 00:40:40.920
at Arch Coal mines and
Logan and Boone County.

00:40:40.920 --> 00:40:43.640
And this was a really drastic
decision for Southern West

00:40:43.640 --> 00:40:45.170
Virginia, particularly
for somebody

00:40:45.170 --> 00:40:49.880
like Hayden, who had everybody
see him as a Republican,

00:40:49.880 --> 00:40:52.350
and a conservative
Republican at that.

00:40:55.280 --> 00:40:58.080
Republican governor Cecil
Underwood, a former coal

00:40:58.080 --> 00:41:00.720
executive, declared a
state of economic emergency

00:41:00.720 --> 00:41:03.670
after the ruling, and
froze the state's spending,

00:41:03.670 --> 00:41:05.670
leading some to
accuse him of creating

00:41:05.670 --> 00:41:07.670
a false economic crisis.

00:41:07.670 --> 00:41:15.170
When extremists set out to
destroy an entire industry,

00:41:15.170 --> 00:41:19.250
and in its path,
destroy the lives,

00:41:19.250 --> 00:41:22.122
destroy the lives
of tens of thousands

00:41:22.122 --> 00:41:27.005
of workers in the great
state of West Virginia.

00:41:27.005 --> 00:41:28.920
A lot of creative
signs out there,

00:41:28.920 --> 00:41:32.890
I don't see my favorite
one, the acronym for EPA,

00:41:32.890 --> 00:41:36.260
improduction in America.

00:41:36.260 --> 00:41:39.990
I'm not trying to do away
with jobs, I never have been.

00:41:39.990 --> 00:41:42.570
I'm just trying to stop
this destruction right here.

00:41:42.570 --> 00:41:46.114
Larry Gibson's family has lived
on this mountain for 200 years.

00:41:46.114 --> 00:41:47.780
He says Governor
Underwood's predictions

00:41:47.780 --> 00:41:51.505
of economic disaster are
creating a dangerous situation.

00:41:51.505 --> 00:41:54.920
I'm hoping that it works itself
out without any violence,

00:41:54.920 --> 00:41:59.120
but I'm not real
comfortable that it's

00:41:59.120 --> 00:42:00.380
going to happen that way.

00:42:00.380 --> 00:42:01.340
Are you scared?

00:42:01.340 --> 00:42:02.650
I'm uneasy.

00:42:02.650 --> 00:42:03.360
I'm uneasy.

00:42:03.360 --> 00:42:07.110
I mean, you'd be a fool
if you wouldn't be.

00:42:07.110 --> 00:42:10.400
On October 29th, nine
days after declaring

00:42:10.400 --> 00:42:13.570
valley fill material covering
streams to be illegal,

00:42:13.570 --> 00:42:15.930
Judge Hayden
suspended his ruling,

00:42:15.930 --> 00:42:18.300
allowing mountaintop
removal to continue,

00:42:18.300 --> 00:42:19.826
while the state filed an appeal.

00:43:11.906 --> 00:43:13.394
That's it.

00:43:13.394 --> 00:43:17.342
They are full of majesty.

00:43:17.342 --> 00:43:18.758
That's why I came back.

00:43:18.758 --> 00:43:22.380
I came came for the peace,
the quiet, and the beauty,

00:43:22.380 --> 00:43:26.156
the feast of walking around,
that you don't see unless you

00:43:26.156 --> 00:43:29.580
go to a zoo, you know?

00:43:29.580 --> 00:43:32.180
That's why I came back.

00:43:32.180 --> 00:43:34.180
And that's why we
tried to retire here,

00:43:34.180 --> 00:43:38.780
but it looks like we are either
gonna get washed out uphill,

00:43:38.780 --> 00:43:40.010
or into town.

00:43:40.010 --> 00:43:42.540
What is your greatest fear
for what's gonna happen here?

00:43:42.540 --> 00:43:45.090
Floodwater.

00:43:45.090 --> 00:43:48.149
I'm more afraid of
floodwater than anything.

00:43:48.149 --> 00:43:50.690
There was still enough force in
the waters of White Oak Creek

00:43:50.690 --> 00:43:53.850
to sweep away a four-wheeler
and damage roadways.

00:43:53.850 --> 00:43:56.390
Overnight, it had
enough power to kill.

00:43:56.390 --> 00:43:59.360
34-year-old Susan Shea and
her 15-year-old neighbor James

00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:01.480
Stover were swept
into white Oak Creek

00:44:01.480 --> 00:44:04.520
at Artie, 34 miles
southeast of Charleston.

00:44:04.520 --> 00:44:06.250
Jay's mother said she
was returning home

00:44:06.250 --> 00:44:09.990
from church when she disappeared
into the powerful water here.

00:44:09.990 --> 00:44:12.590
The bodies were recovered
a few miles away.

00:44:12.590 --> 00:44:14.860
Floodwaters damaged homes,
bridges, and roadways

00:44:14.860 --> 00:44:16.060
in Raleigh County.

00:44:16.060 --> 00:44:18.170
It was just terrible.

00:44:18.170 --> 00:44:21.800
Just like a cloudburst,
or dam burst,

00:44:21.800 --> 00:44:25.470
water raised five or six foot
in just a few minutes' time.

00:44:25.470 --> 00:44:27.160
Some residents on
White Oak Hollow

00:44:27.160 --> 00:44:30.010
blame strip mining and logging
in part for the flooding.

00:44:30.010 --> 00:44:31.750
We've lost two lives here.

00:44:31.750 --> 00:44:34.760
I think the lawmakers ought
to check into this stuff,

00:44:34.760 --> 00:44:38.370
and I think they ought to do
more about the strippin', how

00:44:38.370 --> 00:44:41.806
it's cared for, and all this
{} that's going on here.

00:44:41.806 --> 00:44:43.180
But state
environmental officials

00:44:43.180 --> 00:44:45.950
say a helicopter check showed
no water impoundments had failed

00:44:45.950 --> 00:44:48.720
or any environmental violation.

00:44:48.720 --> 00:44:51.150
Joe and Judy Barnett, who
witnessed the two deaths

00:44:51.150 --> 00:44:54.580
in the 1997 floods, believe
a large mountaintop surface

00:44:54.580 --> 00:44:57.470
mine above the community, at
the head of White Oak Hollow,

00:44:57.470 --> 00:44:59.100
was partly to blame.

00:44:59.100 --> 00:45:01.830
We do realize there was a lot
of water happened that day.

00:45:01.830 --> 00:45:03.970
It came fast.

00:45:03.970 --> 00:45:05.960
But it's happened over
the years before, there

00:45:05.960 --> 00:45:07.585
had been a lot of
water in this Hollow,

00:45:07.585 --> 00:45:09.960
and it never ever
flooded like that.

00:45:09.960 --> 00:45:12.060
And we tend to
believe that the strip

00:45:12.060 --> 00:45:15.300
job at the head of the Hollow
played a big part in it.

00:45:15.300 --> 00:45:19.772
But naturally, these coal
companies don't accept that.

00:45:25.130 --> 00:45:27.350
In July 2001,
Southern West Virginia

00:45:27.350 --> 00:45:30.120
was hit by its worst
flooding in 60 years.

00:45:30.120 --> 00:45:33.870
Floods destroyed 1,500
homes, damaged 3,500 homes,

00:45:33.870 --> 00:45:37.790
and destroyed 192 roads,
and over 300 bridges.

00:45:37.790 --> 00:45:41.260
The flooding cost the state
$180 million to recover.

00:45:43.850 --> 00:45:45.480
Artie, West Virginia
was hit again,

00:45:45.480 --> 00:45:48.030
but fortunately no
lives were lost.

00:45:48.030 --> 00:45:51.420
Still, Joe Barnett questioned
how large mountaintop mines

00:45:51.420 --> 00:45:52.170
affected flooding.

00:45:56.670 --> 00:45:58.940
Citizens point to
landscape changes,

00:45:58.940 --> 00:46:01.270
including valley
fills, sediment ponds,

00:46:01.270 --> 00:46:04.330
and drainage ditches as
possible causes for flooding.

00:46:04.330 --> 00:46:06.260
They fear that rock
and dirt in valley

00:46:06.260 --> 00:46:08.950
fills above their
communities cause runoff

00:46:08.950 --> 00:46:12.820
that overwhelm sediment ponds,
causing them to fill and break.

00:46:12.820 --> 00:46:14.610
Drainage systems
built to manage runoff

00:46:14.610 --> 00:46:17.700
are sometimes poorly maintained,
and can become blocked

00:46:17.700 --> 00:46:21.180
and eroded, leading to failure.

00:46:21.180 --> 00:46:24.020
After the floods, Coal River
Mountain Watch in Whitesville,

00:46:24.020 --> 00:46:25.880
organized public
meetings where citizens

00:46:25.880 --> 00:46:28.590
could tell the State Department
of Environmental Protection

00:46:28.590 --> 00:46:30.660
their concerns about
surface mine runoff

00:46:30.660 --> 00:46:34.280
and sediment pond overflow.

00:46:34.280 --> 00:46:34.780
[INAUDIBLE]

00:46:55.250 --> 00:46:57.420
DEP official Matthew
Crum confirmed

00:46:57.420 --> 00:47:01.190
that runoff from some mine sites
had caused property damage.

00:47:01.190 --> 00:47:04.650
10 mine sites were cited for
flood-related violations,

00:47:04.650 --> 00:47:07.590
relating to sediment
ponds, drainage ditches,

00:47:07.590 --> 00:47:08.300
and spillways.

00:47:34.630 --> 00:47:38.590
In August 2001, Julia Bonds
of Coal River Mountain Watch

00:47:38.590 --> 00:47:41.810
informed Artie residents that
another large surface mine

00:47:41.810 --> 00:47:45.684
site was planned for yet another
mountain in their community.

00:47:45.684 --> 00:47:46.600
These are classifieds.

00:47:46.600 --> 00:47:51.400
You go back to the classifieds,
in the small, very small print,

00:47:51.400 --> 00:47:53.050
you'll find a permit.

00:47:53.050 --> 00:47:56.540
There's none in the
paper today, I see.

00:47:56.540 --> 00:47:58.340
And the one from
White Oak already

00:47:58.340 --> 00:48:03.600
I found, in the Beckley paper,
I cut it out and copied it,

00:48:03.600 --> 00:48:04.270
and enlarged it.

00:48:04.270 --> 00:48:11.490
This is the enlarged
version of this permit.

00:48:11.490 --> 00:48:14.000
The citizens have already
called an informal conference

00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:17.585
with the DEP on August 18 to
say no to the new project.

00:48:20.415 --> 00:48:21.900
I know that we're right.

00:48:21.900 --> 00:48:25.365
They're probably gonna
rubberstamp this permit.

00:48:25.365 --> 00:48:27.345
But the problem
is, we gotta try.

00:48:27.345 --> 00:48:30.315
We can't sit down and
keep our mouths shut,

00:48:30.315 --> 00:48:33.780
and let this go on.

00:48:33.780 --> 00:48:39.754
That is the same as the person
that's doing the evil deed.

00:48:39.754 --> 00:48:44.173
I got legitimate complaints.

00:48:44.173 --> 00:49:03.322
[INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] flood.

00:49:03.322 --> 00:49:08.174
I always did say that stripping
caused the creek runoff.

00:49:08.174 --> 00:49:10.865
And I still believe it.

00:49:10.865 --> 00:49:14.260
Unless you can prove
to me that it don't.

00:49:14.260 --> 00:49:16.330
You're gonna say it
didn't [? do that? ?]

00:49:16.330 --> 00:49:19.150
You can't prove to me that it
won't cause the [INAUDIBLE]

00:49:19.150 --> 00:49:20.100
to run off.

00:49:20.100 --> 00:49:24.072
We've had three major floods
in the last four years.

00:49:24.072 --> 00:49:27.000
Y'all just don't
see this problem.

00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:29.710
Many citizens spoke out
against the project.

00:49:29.710 --> 00:49:34.248
In fact, not one person at the
hearing spoke in favor of it.

00:49:34.248 --> 00:49:37.741
I had the occasion to
go up a few weeks ago, a

00:49:37.741 --> 00:49:40.838
and to look at the flood.

00:49:40.838 --> 00:49:46.327
And you can see the trace of
gunk coming off of these sites.

00:49:46.327 --> 00:49:48.323
And you tell me.

00:49:48.323 --> 00:49:50.319
It will be tough.

00:49:50.319 --> 00:49:51.320
But I beg you.

00:49:51.320 --> 00:49:53.390
Please do the right thing.

00:49:53.390 --> 00:49:54.762
Please be careful.

00:49:57.926 --> 00:50:00.520
The White Oak Forest
Creek surface mine permit

00:50:00.520 --> 00:50:02.260
was granted later that year.

00:50:15.150 --> 00:50:17.610
In Washington, DC, the
Bush administration

00:50:17.610 --> 00:50:20.550
continued preparation of the
environmental impact statement

00:50:20.550 --> 00:50:23.110
on mountaintop removal
ordered by Judge Hayden.

00:50:23.110 --> 00:50:26.220
In a controversial move, Deputy
Secretary of the Interior,

00:50:26.220 --> 00:50:29.500
J. Steven Griles, recommended
that the environmental impact

00:50:29.500 --> 00:50:33.150
statement be used instead to
streamline the coal mine permit

00:50:33.150 --> 00:50:34.610
process.

00:50:34.610 --> 00:50:36.830
The heart of an environmental
impact statement

00:50:36.830 --> 00:50:40.560
is its analysis of alternatives
to a proposed action.

00:50:40.560 --> 00:50:42.620
And what the Bush
administration did

00:50:42.620 --> 00:50:46.030
was change the whole
definition of alternatives.

00:50:46.030 --> 00:50:48.720
It took away alternatives
that would reduce the damage,

00:50:48.720 --> 00:50:50.750
and substituted
alternatives that

00:50:50.750 --> 00:50:53.170
were purely procedural,
and just changed

00:50:53.170 --> 00:50:55.260
who was the decision maker.

00:50:55.260 --> 00:50:59.320
And this generated vehement
objections within the agency.

00:50:59.320 --> 00:51:03.870
We got internal memos,
including this one from a Fish

00:51:03.870 --> 00:51:07.090
and Wildlife Service scientist.

00:51:07.090 --> 00:51:10.350
The conclusion of a Fish and
Wildlife Service scientist

00:51:10.350 --> 00:51:12.800
was that, quote, "The
alternatives and actions

00:51:12.800 --> 00:51:15.970
as currently written
belie 4 years of work,

00:51:15.970 --> 00:51:19.250
and the accumulated evidence
of environmental harm,

00:51:19.250 --> 00:51:21.200
and would substitute
permit process

00:51:21.200 --> 00:51:32.570
tinkering for meaningful
and measurable change."

00:51:32.570 --> 00:51:35.470
'Cause when they started
in this area, when

00:51:35.470 --> 00:51:38.220
they started Sylvester,
they knew that they

00:51:38.220 --> 00:51:41.212
were going toward Madison.

00:51:41.212 --> 00:51:44.410
And they just won't take it off.

00:51:44.410 --> 00:51:48.530
If they would have
submitted a plan

00:51:48.530 --> 00:51:51.070
to strip 10,000 acres to
[INAUDIBLE] that place

00:51:51.070 --> 00:51:52.930
probably would've went crazy.

00:51:52.930 --> 00:51:58.100
But they do it in little
parcels, 800, 500, 150,

00:51:58.100 --> 00:51:59.050
200 acres.

00:52:02.290 --> 00:52:04.880
State's letting 'em
get away with it.

00:52:04.880 --> 00:52:10.410
Both Democrat and Republican,
it's not one party,

00:52:10.410 --> 00:52:12.360
it's both of 'em.

00:52:12.360 --> 00:52:15.210
Money gets them all.

00:52:15.210 --> 00:52:18.792
Say, I wanna ask 'em, what
is West Virginia gonna do?

00:52:18.792 --> 00:52:20.250
We're not gonna
have any mountains,

00:52:20.250 --> 00:52:21.874
we're not gonna have
any clean streams,

00:52:21.874 --> 00:52:23.650
we're not gonna have any wood.

00:52:23.650 --> 00:52:28.060
We can have that timbering, we
could have furniture stores,

00:52:28.060 --> 00:52:31.810
we could have tourism, we could
build cabins with our streams,

00:52:31.810 --> 00:52:37.320
we could have waters--
sell bottled water, which

00:52:37.320 --> 00:52:40.250
is a hot commodity
right now everywhere.

00:52:40.250 --> 00:52:42.750
When they get finished, we're
not going to have any of that.

00:52:42.750 --> 00:52:45.041
When the coal's gone, we're
not gonna have that either.

00:52:45.041 --> 00:52:49.250
I wanna ask 'em then,
how cheap was that coal?

00:52:49.250 --> 00:52:50.960
How cheap was our site?

00:52:50.960 --> 00:52:54.900
Better yet, how cheap
are our politicians?

00:52:54.900 --> 00:52:57.290
They're not very smart.

00:52:57.290 --> 00:53:00.700
Everybody knows you don't
use up everything you have,

00:53:00.700 --> 00:53:02.720
destroy everything you have.

00:53:02.720 --> 00:53:04.280
And then what are
you gonna live on?

00:53:04.280 --> 00:53:05.840
The supply and
demand of the land

00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:08.070
is so messed up in
Southern West Virginia

00:53:08.070 --> 00:53:12.180
that very non-economic
land that's

00:53:12.180 --> 00:53:15.130
freely held that
can be moved goes

00:53:15.130 --> 00:53:16.530
for an incredibly high price.

00:53:16.530 --> 00:53:19.730
Most of the land is under
control by coal companies

00:53:19.730 --> 00:53:23.480
or out-of-state land companies
or even some in-state land

00:53:23.480 --> 00:53:24.130
companies.

00:53:24.130 --> 00:53:25.970
And they have an incentive
to hold onto the land,

00:53:25.970 --> 00:53:27.780
because they're going
to timber it this year,

00:53:27.780 --> 00:53:29.690
and they're gonna timber
it in 30 more years,

00:53:29.690 --> 00:53:31.100
and they're gonna
timber in 50 more years,

00:53:31.100 --> 00:53:32.925
and they may mine it
20 years from now,

00:53:32.925 --> 00:53:35.040
and they may put some
oil development on it.

00:53:35.040 --> 00:53:37.040
If you've got people on
it or development on it,

00:53:37.040 --> 00:53:38.270
you can't use it.

00:53:38.270 --> 00:53:41.060
So the incentives are wrong,
because the land company

00:53:41.060 --> 00:53:43.850
can sit on it.

00:53:43.850 --> 00:53:47.000
The carrying costs are so
low-- the tax structure in West

00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:49.960
Virginia is so low,
that their incentive is

00:53:49.960 --> 00:53:54.680
to just sit on it and wait
for the trees to grow back.

00:53:54.680 --> 00:53:56.970
The tonnage of coal
mined in West Virginia

00:53:56.970 --> 00:53:59.100
has increased in
the last 100 years,

00:53:59.100 --> 00:54:02.750
but the number of mining jobs
has decreased from 120,000

00:54:02.750 --> 00:54:05.630
miners to around 16,000 today.

00:54:05.630 --> 00:54:09.170
10,000 of those miners work
underground, and only 6,000

00:54:09.170 --> 00:54:10.980
in surface mines.

00:54:10.980 --> 00:54:14.660
With coal producing 55% of
the nation's electricity,

00:54:14.660 --> 00:54:17.440
and West Virginia being the
second largest producer,

00:54:17.440 --> 00:54:19.460
it would seem that
West Virginia's economy

00:54:19.460 --> 00:54:20.830
would be booming.

00:54:20.830 --> 00:54:23.530
Yet in coal-producing counties,
schools and businesses

00:54:23.530 --> 00:54:26.640
are closing, and West Virginia
remains one of the poorest

00:54:26.640 --> 00:54:27.602
states in the nation.

00:54:43.730 --> 00:54:47.230
People are-- we're
very grounded here.

00:54:47.230 --> 00:54:51.440
In our communities,
everybody knows everyone.

00:54:51.440 --> 00:54:53.244
I can turn my kids
loose in the community,

00:54:53.244 --> 00:54:54.910
and if they get into
something then I'll

00:54:54.910 --> 00:54:57.250
have my neighbors calling
me, I guarantee it.

00:54:57.250 --> 00:55:04.300
And that's what makes
it home, is the fact

00:55:04.300 --> 00:55:07.970
that the people here--
you can trust them

00:55:07.970 --> 00:55:08.910
around your children.

00:55:08.910 --> 00:55:11.630
You know where your children's
at, you know who they're with,

00:55:11.630 --> 00:55:13.755
and you've known their
families from years back.

00:55:13.755 --> 00:55:17.290
So to pick me up and set
me in another community,

00:55:17.290 --> 00:55:20.130
I'd just be completely
out of place.

00:55:20.130 --> 00:55:23.230
Because what makes it
home here is the people.

00:55:23.230 --> 00:55:27.120
It's not necessarily
just the place.

00:55:27.120 --> 00:55:30.952
In the spring of 2002, Maria
experienced heavy flooding.

00:55:30.952 --> 00:55:32.410
She learned that
a surface mine was

00:55:32.410 --> 00:55:34.654
in progress behind her
home, and that a valley

00:55:34.654 --> 00:55:36.820
fill had been constructed
at the head of her hollow.

00:55:41.960 --> 00:55:44.840
The rocks, some of them are
as big as houses, some of them

00:55:44.840 --> 00:55:49.620
as small as pebbles,
fill this valley fill.

00:55:49.620 --> 00:55:53.600
And the water, the rain that
falls onto this mountaintop

00:55:53.600 --> 00:55:56.140
removal site is
nothing but runoff.

00:55:56.140 --> 00:55:57.760
There's nothing
there to catch it,

00:55:57.760 --> 00:56:01.570
so it moves very fast
through these rocks.

00:56:01.570 --> 00:56:05.500
And the force of the water and
the amount of the water that's

00:56:05.500 --> 00:56:07.360
coming off this
mountaintop removal site

00:56:07.360 --> 00:56:09.950
has devastated our property.

00:56:09.950 --> 00:56:14.090
I have lost approximately--
five acres of property

00:56:14.090 --> 00:56:16.150
has washed away.

00:56:16.150 --> 00:56:18.290
And the fact that they
permitted this stream

00:56:18.290 --> 00:56:24.010
to be a toxic spillway
just infuriates me,

00:56:24.010 --> 00:56:26.580
because this stream runs
within 90 feet of my well,

00:56:26.580 --> 00:56:27.980
of my drinking water.

00:56:27.980 --> 00:56:30.900
If you keep your pH
up by treating that,

00:56:30.900 --> 00:56:34.190
then that keeps you
from having metals

00:56:34.190 --> 00:56:37.900
in your downstream water.

00:56:37.900 --> 00:56:42.330
The tree continuously-- the
green color's from sulfate.

00:56:42.330 --> 00:56:46.624
And sulfate is
exchanged for hydroxide,

00:56:46.624 --> 00:56:48.915
and so it's [? liberated ?]
so you get a lot of sulfate

00:56:48.915 --> 00:56:50.860
and that gives you
the green color.

00:56:50.860 --> 00:56:52.870
There might be some algae
in some of these also

00:56:52.870 --> 00:56:56.090
that would enhance
that green color.

00:56:56.090 --> 00:56:59.350
These sites will be
treated in perpetuity.

00:56:59.350 --> 00:57:02.760
I mean that's something else
that people don't realize,

00:57:02.760 --> 00:57:06.560
and the coal industry
tries to sweep

00:57:06.560 --> 00:57:13.360
under the cover, or the carpet,
is that these valley fills,

00:57:13.360 --> 00:57:15.241
a lot of these are
perpetual treatment sites.

00:57:15.241 --> 00:57:17.115
We're gonna have to
treat this water forever.

00:57:41.900 --> 00:57:43.890
The changes that the
Bush administration

00:57:43.890 --> 00:57:47.270
is making in these laws to
try to accommodate more valley

00:57:47.270 --> 00:57:49.480
fields and more
mountaintop removal money,

00:57:49.480 --> 00:57:52.930
are changes in national laws
that have effects elsewhere

00:57:52.930 --> 00:57:54.790
in the country.

00:57:54.790 --> 00:57:56.810
The change in the
Clean Water Act rule

00:57:56.810 --> 00:57:59.110
to allow waste to
be dumped in waters,

00:57:59.110 --> 00:58:05.460
which reversed a policy that had
been in place since the 1970s,

00:58:05.460 --> 00:58:08.370
and in order to accommodate
mountaintop removal,

00:58:08.370 --> 00:58:10.220
has changed that
rule nationwide.

00:58:10.220 --> 00:58:14.260
And already, we've seen,
in Alaska, one gold mining

00:58:14.260 --> 00:58:17.320
company proposing
to dump millions

00:58:17.320 --> 00:58:20.430
of cubic yards of
contaminated tailings waste

00:58:20.430 --> 00:58:24.160
in a lake outside
of Juneau, Alaska,

00:58:24.160 --> 00:58:27.960
using the same change in law
that the Bush administration

00:58:27.960 --> 00:58:30.840
made for mountaintop removal.

00:58:48.766 --> 00:58:52.032
In your opinion, what do you
think mountaintop removers

00:58:52.032 --> 00:58:52.740
are trying to do?

00:58:52.740 --> 00:58:53.990
They're destroying everything.

00:58:53.990 --> 00:58:55.750
Yeah, you know they're
destroying 'em.

00:58:55.750 --> 00:58:58.330
Yeah, they're
destroying everything.

00:58:58.330 --> 00:58:59.590
How do they destroy it?

00:58:59.590 --> 00:59:00.380
What happens?

00:59:00.380 --> 00:59:02.970
They strip by strip and then
take the tops off of 'em.

00:59:02.970 --> 00:59:07.180
And what they don't take off,
it destroys all this [INAUDIBLE]

00:59:07.180 --> 00:59:07.900
right here.

00:59:07.900 --> 00:59:11.670
You kill the mountains,
you're killin' the people.

00:59:11.670 --> 00:59:13.810
--Flooded this whole bottom out.

00:59:13.810 --> 00:59:18.270
Appalachia is a region of
extreme poverty and oppression

00:59:18.270 --> 00:59:22.650
in the midst of great will
Those who misunderstand

00:59:22.650 --> 00:59:28.130
and misrepresent our culture
consider us expendable people.

00:59:28.130 --> 00:59:32.480
We are the invisible minority,
the unwanted children

00:59:32.480 --> 00:59:34.020
of America.

00:59:34.020 --> 00:59:38.083
Some people call Appalachians
ignorant hillbillies.

00:59:38.083 --> 00:59:42.680
But we understand that
our children cannot drink

00:59:42.680 --> 00:59:47.423
or breathe money, so who
really is the ignorant one?

00:59:53.340 --> 00:59:57.360
In April 2003, Julia Bonds
won the largest award

00:59:57.360 --> 01:00:00.300
for individual environmental
work in the country.

01:00:00.300 --> 01:00:03.250
Julia won the prize for her
work on mountaintop removal,

01:00:03.250 --> 01:00:06.339
stream pollution from mines,
and the monitoring of large coal

01:00:06.339 --> 01:00:07.172
slurry impoundments.

01:00:11.800 --> 01:00:14.520
In October 2003, the
Charleston Gazette

01:00:14.520 --> 01:00:18.260
reported that nearly 470 square
miles of land in West Virginia

01:00:18.260 --> 01:00:21.600
was currently disturbed by
surface mining, an area roughly

01:00:21.600 --> 01:00:23.420
the size of Boone
County, West Virginia.

01:00:26.370 --> 01:00:29.750
In 2004, Julia, Maria,
and other activists

01:00:29.750 --> 01:00:33.000
won yet another lawsuit
filed in West Virginia.

01:00:33.000 --> 01:00:35.730
Federal Judge Goodwin stated
that mine waste could not

01:00:35.730 --> 01:00:37.570
be placed in streams.

01:00:37.570 --> 01:00:39.290
With Judge Hayden's
earlier rulings,

01:00:39.290 --> 01:00:42.130
this would be the third time a
federal judge outlawed valley

01:00:42.130 --> 01:00:43.220
fills that cover streams.

01:01:14.070 --> 01:01:17.690
In August 2004, the coal
industry and citizen activists

01:01:17.690 --> 01:01:19.870
once again made national news.

01:01:19.870 --> 01:01:23.500
A bulldozer operator working
on a mountaintop mine at night,

01:01:23.500 --> 01:01:26.950
without a proper permit,
dislodged a half-ton boulder

01:01:26.950 --> 01:01:29.920
that killed three-year-old
Jeremy Davidson.

01:01:29.920 --> 01:01:32.625
Jeremy was crushed in his bed
while the family was sleeping.

01:01:47.200 --> 01:01:49.120
It was a shock that the
little boy got killed,

01:01:49.120 --> 01:01:52.200
but as far as the rock fallin',
it really wasn't a shock.

01:01:52.200 --> 01:01:54.370
The way they blastin'
up here, that

01:01:54.370 --> 01:01:57.100
wasn't the first
rock that had fallen.

01:01:57.100 --> 01:02:00.690
If precautions had been taken
when the first rock fell up

01:02:00.690 --> 01:02:05.870
here, that little boy might
still be alive right now.

01:02:05.870 --> 01:02:08.200
I didn't know these
other people were having

01:02:08.200 --> 01:02:10.210
the problems that we were.

01:02:10.210 --> 01:02:12.070
They used the same
excuse here before they

01:02:12.070 --> 01:02:14.420
go, v even the
inspectors tell us,

01:02:14.420 --> 01:02:17.460
well, it won't be long they'll
be going around the curve.

01:02:17.460 --> 01:02:19.001
Well when they went
around the curve,

01:02:19.001 --> 01:02:24.200
and left this part right here,
they started right up there

01:02:24.200 --> 01:02:28.680
building that road, and
that young man was killed.

01:02:28.680 --> 01:02:32.870
And if I had spoke up that
day, and put it more strongly,

01:02:32.870 --> 01:02:35.670
if I had done
something at that time,

01:02:35.670 --> 01:02:40.230
maybe, it could have prevented
something [INAUDIBLE]

01:02:40.230 --> 01:02:43.670
Because you can't
continue to shake

01:02:43.670 --> 01:02:49.125
these mountains to spend
mine, and not expect something

01:02:49.125 --> 01:02:49.625
to happen.

01:03:04.355 --> 01:03:05.870
I notice people leaving.

01:03:05.870 --> 01:03:07.845
And I try to look
them in the eyes

01:03:07.845 --> 01:03:10.230
and show 'em what's happening
in their own communities,

01:03:10.230 --> 01:03:11.410
and they turned their heads.

01:03:11.410 --> 01:03:13.314
Don't let 'em do it.

01:03:13.314 --> 01:03:17.598
Get in their faces, and
say, look what you're doin'.

01:03:17.598 --> 01:03:21.090
So today is the first day of
the rest of our children's

01:03:21.090 --> 01:03:24.780
and grandchildren's lives.

01:03:24.780 --> 01:03:27.970
The death of Jeremy Davidson led
activists and community groups

01:03:27.970 --> 01:03:31.440
to vow multi-state organizing
to increase awareness of surface

01:03:31.440 --> 01:03:33.780
mine violations and damages.

01:03:33.780 --> 01:03:37.270
Activists began preparing direct
actions against coal operators

01:03:37.270 --> 01:03:38.706
to stop mountaintop mining.

01:05:18.682 --> 01:05:21.200
And the trees, all
broken and splintered

01:05:21.200 --> 01:05:24.470
and being bulldozed off the
side of the mountain and stuff.

01:05:24.470 --> 01:05:27.345
And the more I looked
at this, the more

01:05:27.345 --> 01:05:29.200
it just broke my heart.

01:05:29.200 --> 01:05:36.460
And I realized that
Appalachia is a seedbed,

01:05:36.460 --> 01:05:39.000
and that during
the last ice age,

01:05:39.000 --> 01:05:43.120
it helped to reseed the
rest of our continent.

01:05:43.120 --> 01:05:47.530
And now, if there's a
future of big global shifts

01:05:47.530 --> 01:05:49.470
such as global
warming, scientists

01:05:49.470 --> 01:05:52.920
have said that Appalachia is
going to play a major role in

01:05:52.920 --> 01:05:54.830
whether or not we do survive.

01:05:54.830 --> 01:06:00.690
So instead of protecting the
seedbed, we're blowing it up.

01:06:00.690 --> 01:06:03.280
I read a Pentagon report that
said the next big wars are not

01:06:03.280 --> 01:06:07.990
going to be fought over oil
or coal, but over water.

01:06:07.990 --> 01:06:09.000
So what are we doing?

01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:10.790
We're blowing up the headwater.

01:06:22.850 --> 01:06:23.350
[INAUDIBLE]

01:06:40.380 --> 01:06:43.270
Currently 1,200 miles
of streams in Appalachia

01:06:43.270 --> 01:06:45.350
have been covered
by valley fills.

01:06:45.350 --> 01:06:48.520
If the current rate of surface
mining continues, in 10 years,

01:06:48.520 --> 01:06:51.460
2,200 square miles of
Appalachian Mountains,

01:06:51.460 --> 01:06:53.740
an area of the size of
the state of Delaware,

01:06:53.740 --> 01:06:55.630
will be permanently
blasted apart.

01:07:01.130 --> 01:07:04.950
Really, if they would
build us factories here,

01:07:04.950 --> 01:07:06.330
we could have jobs here.

01:07:06.330 --> 01:07:08.420
But they don't want to
invest that kind of money

01:07:08.420 --> 01:07:10.330
because they don't
really want us here.

01:07:10.330 --> 01:07:12.460
They want us to
pack up and leave,

01:07:12.460 --> 01:07:15.590
so that they can have our
properties, and have our homes,

01:07:15.590 --> 01:07:19.470
and just have their way
and do what they want.

01:07:19.470 --> 01:07:26.090
They also know that if they
try to get us to the point

01:07:26.090 --> 01:07:29.210
that we can make a living
here, they know that then we're

01:07:29.210 --> 01:07:30.820
not going to wanna leave.

01:07:30.820 --> 01:07:34.030
They want us out of here
so they can have their way.

01:07:34.030 --> 01:07:37.380
If we don't stop
it, it's gonna look

01:07:37.380 --> 01:07:39.625
like this, the whole
state of West Virginia.

01:07:39.625 --> 01:07:42.725
If we do stop it,
there's a chance

01:07:42.725 --> 01:07:45.994
it'll look something like that.