Take Action: Ask the Obama Administration to save Coal River Mountain

Ask the Obama Administration to save Coal River Mountain

Save Coal River Mountain and help preserve our clean energy future. Contact the Obama Administration today.

Two weeks ago Massey Energy began blasting Coal River Mountain and with it, the hopes of citizens who have developed plans for a green wind project on the mountain.

The people of Coal River Valley need your help. They need your help to preserve hope in a clean energy future. They need your help because the blasting of Coal River Mountain is endangering their lives.

Dynamiting Coal River Mountain could destabilize the largest coal slurry in the country, unleashing eight billion gallons of toxic sludge on homes, jobs and schools. Were the dam to fail, and many have, Massey Energy's own assessment indicates that more than a thousand men, women and children would have less than five minutes to save their lives.

We can no longer allow the fossil fuel industry to continue building more pipelines, belching out more pollution, and destroying more mountains as we envision a clean energy future. The Obama Administration can and will intervene if we decide that Coal River Mountain is where we draw the line in the sand.

Thousands of requests to stop the blasting to West Virginia's governor, Joe Manchin, have been ignored, we need your help to call on the Obama Administration today. We are looking to Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency, Nancy Sutley of the White House Council of Environmental Quality, Kenneth Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, and Terrence C. Salt. Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army Corp of Engineers to step in and intervene immediately.

Subject:

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

(Edit Letter Below)

As a signatory of the Memorandum of Understanding on Appalachian Surface Coal Mining, we are writing to ask that you put a stop to mountaintop removal coal mining operations on Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia, which is the area's last mountain untouched by mountaintop removal. The blasting not only threatens communities in the vicinity, it will also destroy the potential for a wind project that had rallied local residents as a prime opportunity to create permanent jobs, strengthen the local economy and provide renewable energy to the region.

Coal River Mountain has enough wind potential to house a 328-megawatt wind farm.  Every blast reduces the existing potential for clean energy, permanent jobs, and a stronger and more diverse regional economy.

Furthermore, the blasting is occurring near the Brushy Fork slurry impoundment, which holds 8.2  billion gallons of toxic coal slurry.  Should the blasting cause the impoundment to fail, nearby residents would have just minutes to evacuate before they were overtaken by a 50-foot wall of coal slurry that could cost more than 1,000 lives.

Not only does blasting near this unlined impoundment increase the risk of failure, but it will almost certainly cause more of the toxic coal slurry to enter the groundwater.  In nearby Prenter Hollow, dozens of residents have become ill from drinking water contaminated with coal slurry.

The entire nation is watching and waiting for you to take action now.  You have the power to direct your agency to halt the blasting, defend the safety of the nation's citizens, and preserve some of Appalachia's most valuable resources.  This is the sort of change that people in the Appalachian coalfields, and the rest of the nation, can believe in.

Thank you,
Judyth Piazza

Take Action on this Issue

Obama Administration

Acting Assist. Secretary, Army Corps of Engineers Terrence C. Salt
Chair,White House Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson
Secretary, US Department of the Interior Ken Salazar

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