We've had some work done--major structural repairs in 2023 at the Judy Bonds Center for Appalachian Preservation, Coal River Mountain Watch’s solar-powered office and community center on the environmental justice frontlines in Naoma, WV. Lots of skilled labor, massive custom timbers, hardware, etc went into fixing and supporting our building, across the street from the post office and a half mile from an active mountaintop removal site.

Coal River Mountain Watch Holds Lexington Coal Company Accountable for Environmental Violations 

Please stand with us in opposing new mountaintop removal permit number S300721 by 7 PM Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Email Laura.B.Claypool@wv.gov or attend the conference either in person or virtually. Details below. Artie, W.Va.—Alpha Metallurgical Resources subsidiary Republic Energy has proposed a 942-acre mountaintop removal site within a half mile of most Artie homes, between White Oak Creek and Fulton Creek. The Fulton East permit, S300721, would have 3 valley fills, including one right behind Stover Cemetery. It would impose the usual MTR hazards to the community, including blasting, with clouds of carcinogenic dust, and increased risk and severity of flooding. It would extract 4,765,000 tons of coal.

And you can, too, regarding the Twilight MTR surface mine permit, S502396, 2,455 acres of former lush Appalachian forest, now a feeble attempt at reclamation by Lexington Coal Co. This permit is part of the 12-square-mile Twilight complex on Cherry Pond Mountain on the border of Boone and Raleigh Counties, WV. WV Dept. of Environmental Protection cited this permit July 29, 2021 for failure to "reclaim all secions of highwall within 180 days of final mineral removal." As of Oct. 27, 2022, WVDEP had granted 16 extensions, with the most recent "abate by" date of Nov. 29, 2022. In June, July, and August 2022, WVDEP's inspector wrote that Lexington had "ceased reclamation activities." On Oct. 27 he wrote that Lexington had "one piece of equipment that alternates between two adjacent permits..." It's worth noting that Lexington has had 9 violations on this permit since July 2021, and that WVDEP suspended two adjacent permits, the Crescent 2 permit and Twilight III-A permit, on Sept. 12, 2022, and Aug. 15, 2022, respectively. The Twilight III-A permit had just been renewed four months earlier on April Fools' Day, 2022, over our objections. In March and June, we had urged stronger action, such as revoking the permits, based on Lexington's multiple patterns of violation at these permits. The suspension order on Crescent 2 has since been lifted. 

Fifty years ago, a coal processing waste sludge dam operated by Pittston Coal Company gave way, releasing 125 million gallons of coal waste, killing 125 West Virginians and leaving 4,000 homeless. Pittston called the disaster "an act of God." Then-Gov. Arch Moore, father of current US Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, banned journalists from the area and said, "The only real sad part is that the state of West Virginia has taken a terrible beating that is worse than the disaster." Today, we still have over a hundred active coal sludge dams in West Virginia. Among them are the Shumate’s Branch impoundment just 400 yards upstream from the old Marsh Fork Elementary School and the Brushy Fork impoundment above the communities of Pettus and Whitesville.At 2.8 billion gallons, Shumate’s is more than 20 times the volume of the Buffalo Creek disaster. At around 8 billion gallons, Brushy Fork holds more than 60 times the volume. Brushy Fork holds the added distinction of being built over abandoned underground mines, the same way, and by the same company, as the Martin County, KY, sludge dam that broke through in 1994 and again in 2000. Brushy Fork is also adjacent to the Bee Tree mountaintop removal site, which is “inactive” for now but could resume operations, including heavy blasting, whenever the coal company, Alpha Metallurgical Resources, feels like it. But never fear! The coal company’s hired expert has assured them that, even if the underground mines collapsed, everything would be fine. And WV Dept. of Environmental Protection engineer Greg Demyan has stated that blasting next to a dam can be good for it; he googled it.Coal River Mountain Watch outreach coordinator CRMW's Junior Walk, who attended the old Marsh Fork Elementary School and lives downstream of Brushy Fork, had this to say about the 50th anniversary: