Fighting Back Against Mountaintop Removal Mining in West Virginia

I was catching up on Facebook when I saw a post from a local news station: “DEP Issues Mining Permit for Surface Mining Operation Located Near State Forest.” What really caught my eye was the attached graphic. My house is just to the left of the “M” in “Mountaintop” in the graphic. In real life, the distance is about 2000 feet. That was how I found out that our new neighbor was going to be a 414-acre mountaintop removal mine.

(kanawha map copy)

I’ve been asked, “How could you not know?” The answer: because I’ve been kept in the dark.

The permit has been in the works since 2009. We didn’t move here until 2012. But even my father-in-law, who has lived here since 1966, didn’t know. Neither did my other neighbors. We knocked on over 200 doors in the Loudendale Community, and just about all of us were in the dark until until May 1st, when the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection finally saw fit to issue a press release.

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http://greenpeaceblogs.org/2014/06/10/fighting-back-mountaintop-removal-mining-west-virginia/?utm_source=gpusfb&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=mtr