"No child left behind": What they really mean by that!

Mine road where Va. boy died lacked permit


By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

An operator of a Virginia strip mine did not have a permit for the road construction that caused a boulder to roll off the mine site and kill a 3-year-old boy, officials said Wednesday.

A&G Coal Corp. did not submit plans for the construction or receive approval from the state for the work, said Mike Abbott, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy.

Agency inspectors discovered the lack of a permit as they continued to investigate the Aug. 20 incident in Wise County, Va.

Jeremy Davidson was asleep when the rock burst through the wall of his family’s modular home at about 2:30 a.m. and landed on top of him.

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Series/Mining+the+Mountains/200408261?pt=0

I guess these kids in Virginia didn't have a "RIGHT TO LIFE"!

Here is some GREAT information about what Bush's pals are doing to our beautiful state! Looks like GOPer MORALITY IS alive and well, here in hillbilly heaven!

Mining the Mountains

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Series/Mining+the+Mountains

Hunters...what good are your hunting weapons, if there is no place in the state left to hunt, or fish? The fools even want to destroy the New River and Blackwater canyons now! "THIS AGGRESSION SHOULD NOT STAND!"

Even worse than the situation in Somerset PA with the trapped miners, who were nearly drowned because the prior mining company had dug farther than they were supposed to in order to make a few extra bucks but then did not update the maps (which is illegal as hell). Funny that the MSM hasn't reported on that, now that the circus show outside the mine is over.

People who have been following the mountaintop mining debate have been saying for decades that something like this would happen eventually. After all, people have been ending up with boulders in their backyards for years, and the MSHA hasn't done a goddamn thing about it.

Oh, and Hubie, don't you know that the Right to Life™ ONLY applies to middle- and upper-class white Christians? The pro-lifers don't give a shit about trailer-trash up in a holler.

Progress my ass!

Carpetbaggers are still alive and well here in West By Gawd!

Gawd's gonna' get 'em for this!

How it was then:

http://www.patc.net/history/archive/virg_fst.html

They want to ruin it all over again!

&rcurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wvhighlands.org%2FBWcampaign&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wvhighlands.org%2FBWcampaign&p=logging+blackwater+canyon&type=jpeg&no=2&tt=4

MORALITY?

(Mods, please note that this text is coming from a small newspaper whose Web access doesn't allow for static links. Hence, why I'm copying more than 4 paragraphs.)

From today's Times-West Virginian:

100- ton boulder nearly flattens house while family inside

MALDEN ( AP) — A family has begun moving out of their Malden- area home after a 100- ton boulder from entries to abandoned coal mines crashed into their driveway and split into two large chunks right outside their living room.
Terry and Lisa Lucas were watching television at their home on Georges Creek when the boulder, mostly slate, crashed about 9: 15 p. m. on Wednesday, shaking the house, waking the Lucas’ 9- year- old daughter Briann and 6- year- old son T. J. and scaring the family cat, Spot.
“ His hair was standing on end,” Lisa Lucas said.
The couple immediately took their children to spend the night with Terry Lucas’ parents. They began moving out of their house early Thursday while a contractor stabilizes the nearby hillside.
The family could be out for at least six weeks.
“ When we bought the house in late 1997, we didn’t realize there were abandoned mines there,” Lisa Lucas said.
“ There were vines and kudzu growing all over the hillside.”
The Lucas’ noticed water was often running down their driveway. The state Department of Environmental Protection determined it was mine water, Terry Lucas said.
A company called Nichols Coal worked in the area near the Lucas home until the 1950s, said Mike Richardson who leads emergency reclamation for the DEP, using federal Abandoned Mine Land funds.
“ Coal companies were punching holes every place for years,” Richardson said.
“ That valley was not mapped very well at all.”
The DEP has hired four different contractors to work on the hillside since late 1998.
The agency had already done three phases of work, including to take care of some overhanging rock, but problems have continued, Richardson said. The DEP received approval from the federal Office of Surface Mining to treat the situation as an emergency and build a new retaining wall behind the Lucas home.
“ I know they are very upset.
I am upset,” Richardson said.
“ They feel like we have dragged our feet. But we have responded by the rules we have to go by.” “ Whatever damages were caused by the rocks will be repaired by the contractors,” Richardson added. “ We will work continually and hope to be done in about 60 days.”
The 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act requires coal companies to pay a fee for every ton of coal mined to clean up mines closed before the act was passed. The act created the Abandoned Mine Lands program.

I know Terry Lucas's dad very well. I'd seen the story on TV!

Look at this MONSTER upstream from where I live now...

http://www.ohvec.org/galleries/mountaintop_removal/001/index.html

I came home one day and found this flier that the UMWA folks placed in my mail box!(pdf)

http://www.ohvec.org/issues/slurry_impoundments/articles/umwa_brushy_fork.pdf

The next Buffalo Creek disaster waiting to happen and this one may wipe people out downstream for fifty miles!

I worked rebuilding the bridges on Buffalo creek after the horrid disaster over there and the amount of damage damage was almost unbelievable to look at! I was there several months after the flood and the place still looked like an atom bomb had gone off! The people were still in a state of shock a year after the disaster.

Here are some pictures:

http://www.wvculture.org/history/buffcreek/buff1.html

Table of Contents

Introduction
Background
The Flood
The Reaction
The Aftermath
The Politics
Epilogue
In Memoriam
Additional Resources

http://www.wvculture.org/history/buffcreek/bctitle.html

The Martin County Kentucky disaster of 2000!

http://www.anthropology.eku.edu/MCSPIRIT/Martin_Cnty_Final_Report.html

OVEC

Sludge Impoundment Articles and Reports

http://www.ohvec.org/issues/slurry_impoundments/articles/