The BackWoods Drifter

I feel pretty much like crap today and had no intention of even getting on the blog until I realized the date. February 29…

“February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, and is called leap day. This day is added to the calendar in leap years as a corrective measure, because the earth does not orbit around the sun in precisely 365.000 days.”

“Because seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of full days, a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would, over time, drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track.”

from - Wikipedia

Since I can only write on this day once every four years, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Naturally I’m going to take this opportunity to talk a little about the coal industry.

Over the past few weeks I have had a few different friends stop by who are unemployed. Not because they don’t want to work or are lazy or anything. Because for one reason or another they can’t - or are having a very tough time getting a job in the coal industry. There was a new coal processing plant built at Eccles not long ago by a company called *ICG (International Coal Group). While the plant was being built all of my friends who are unemployed looked to the new plant as hope for a job. If you were to drive by the front of the building today you would see a banner out front that says Hiring Taking Applications (or something to that effect). If two cars were parked bumper to bumper this banner would cover them both like a blanket.

Two of my friends stopped by yesterday after going to this plant to try and get a job. Sorry - we are not hiring red hats - only black hats. A red hat miner is someone that is inexperienced or new to the mining industry. A black hat miner is an experienced miner. The crazy thing about one of them getting turned down is that he is an experienced electrician on mine equipment. I think the new coal company is not looking to bring jobs to this area but is instead trying for other companies already employed miners. So in other words - you’ve got two or three coal giants in the area and all of those are passing back and forth the same miners.

I think it should be a prerequisite that a new plant hire a certain percentage of inexperienced miners. If we have to live with King Coal then a lot more than a select few should benefit. With all the money floating around in the coal industry - there shouldn’t be an able bodied willing worker unemployed on Coal River.

That makes me think of something else. Keep in mind, in the coalfields, the coal industry is the only industry. What do you think some of these able bodied unemployed workers do to make money? They hunt ginseng and various other roots from the mountains. What’s happening to the mountains? Mountaintop removal - so now the same industry that is keeping these people unemployed is also taking the only means for them to make money legally. By doing what West Virginians have been doing for generations digging ginseng, yellow root, blood root, black kohosh - to name a few.

And they call coal a win win for everybody. If that is the case then I think the term everybody needs to be revised -

eve·ry·bod·y, pron. - Every person; everyone. REVISED ADDITION - every person; everyone except in the coalfields.

I guess I can’t complain too much, as long as I am able to scrape up the money to pay my power bill each month. Because we all know - coal keeps the lights on…

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*More to come on ICG and the Eccles mine. There is actually a lot of history concerning the mine and I’m going to tell you about a tragic event that happened there once upon a time. I have to get a photo of a memorial first.

What is a mocking cold? It is a cold virus people catch who claim not to be able to catch a cold. Usually caught right after making such a claim. Myself for example - I don’t remember the last time I had a cold. I credit that to a good immune system and to the fact I’m not an overly public guy. In other words I’m not usually in a position to catch the cold bug. But lately I’ve been spending a lot of time at the doctors office and really what better place to catch a virus.

The first sure sign for me that a cold is oncoming is a small un-scratchable itch right between my shoulder blades. Most times if I start fighting the cold when the itch starts I can bypass the major symptoms and kill it before it gets started. But other times it is more persistent than my ex-wife and is determined to make life rough for a little bit.

A few days ago I woke up with the itch and started taking cold medicine right away. Like I said though sometimes I can avoid the full blown cold if I treat the symptoms soon enough - sometimes. This time I’m not going to be so lucky. The rest of the symptoms accompanied the itch yesterday - cough, sinus problems, crappy feeling - the whole nine yards.

Today I have a full blown cold. I’m the guy that doesn’t catch a cold. I’m usually the guy that doesn’t get sick period when a bug is on the prowl. Well - I have caught a mocking cold. A cold that is a slap to the face and tells me in no uncertain terms that I am definitely not immune to the cold virus regardless of how much I like to think I am. But on the other hand - a cold about once every five years or so - I can deal with it.

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Mocking cold is not some kind of slang found in the mountains. I made it up last night and it began with a couple of letters in mocking different. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

I hear it all the time - I’ve never seen so many deer and bear in this area.

I wonder what those same people thought would happen when you destroy thousands of acres of natural wildlife habitat. When bears come out of the mountains to eat out of garbage cans and dumpsters then there is a problem somewhere. Of course living in the mountains you would expect the occasional animal run in. But when a bears fear is overcome by its hunger and that bear lives in the mountains - don’t you think it odd he would chance garbage can visits?

I actually walked nearly right up on a bear a couple years ago in Peachtree. She had two cubs with her and she couldn’t wait to leave the area. She actually left the immediate vicinity leaving her cubs behind. I’m sure she didn’t go far but the point is - that is a lot of fear to overcome for no reason. If a bear lives in West Virginia’s backwoods and he comes into populated areas because he is hungry then we have a definite problem.

In the past 10 years the wildlife population in the Bolt Mountain area has grown like never before. Lots of deer and bear. It seems common sense to me these animals are migrating away from the destruction just down river where thousands of acres have been left in ruin. I watched a video not long ago that showed a bear crossing an MTR site and he was at a dead run the entire time. It was pretty obvious he didn’t like the new surroundings as he made for the nearest tree line.

Mountaintop removal affects every living thing in the coalfields from those of us that walk upright all the way down to the cartoon talking bug. I put cartoon talking bug in italics because it is not actually a living thing - even though Walker Machinery would love for us to believe it is.

I’ll be posting the video of the bear as soon as I find it again. The only reason I haven’t posted it before now is because it is of very poor quality but still obviously a bear. The video was taken on Kayford Mountain.

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Adding - the video I was talking about is from Schumate Branch and not Kayford Mountain. I’m displaying it here smaller than actual size. In order to see the bear you may need to open the video in Youtube.

Did you know the only bombs to ever drop within the United States were dropped on coal miners during The Battle for Blair Mountain in 1921? Did you know the term redneck stems from the coal wars of the 1920’s and 30’s? Miners wore red bandannas around their necks so they could differentiate between friend and foe.

I’ve been forced to think about the coal mine wars of the early days from having stories told to me about bunkers that exist to this day around Kayford Mountain. I had intended to get photos of the bunkers and other historic sites for a post about the mine wars. Since the weather was so bad, my last trip to Kayford, I decided to wait for a better photo friendly day to get bunker photos.

Blair mountain is once again the scene of a battle only this time it is a battle to save a national treasure - Blair Mountain itself.

I will be posting more about the battle for Blair Mountain - past and present. For now though I wanted to put some links to the story here so anybody interested can read up on it themselves.

The Battle over Blair Mountain Roanoke Times
Correspondence - Logan Coal Operators Association
Historic Blair Mountain Prepares for Its Last Stand

Sometimes I can get a little bit lax on doing meme’s and things. I don’t mean to it is just finding the right time to do them. At any rate this tag comes from my friend Hanna.

Here are the rules:

You are about to send a virtual Message In a Bottle across the Blog Ocean. Leave a message in the sand or on the bottle. Write anything you wish. Be a pirate or a poet. Serious or silly. Anonymous or not. What message would you like to send out to the universe?

Message In A Bottle Meme

1. Compose a message to place in your virtual bottle.
2. Right click and SAVE the blank graphic below.
3. Use a graphics program of your choice to place the message on the picture.
4. Post the Message In a Bottle meme and your creation on your blog along with these rules.
5. Tag a minimum of 5 bloggers - or your entire blogroll - to do the same. Notify them of the tag.

Your virtual bottle will remain afloat in the blogosphere ocean for all blogernity.

Go over to Mimi’s and ADD your site to her Mr. Linky list and place your blog’s name and url in a comment HERE TO LET MIMI KNOW YOU’VE COMPLETED THE MEME. Mimi will add it to the master list of message bottles. Have fun!

–I didn’t copy the blank graphic due to some copyright issues explained and not understood.–

My Message -

I’m not going to tag anybody, but if you would like to play, follow the links.

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A smile to share -

Git-R-Dun

“Hello, is this the Sheriff’s Office?”

“Yes. What can I do for you?”

“I’m calling to report ’bout my neighbor Virgil Smith….* He’s hidin’ marijuana inside his firewood! Don’t quite know how he gets it inside them logs, but he’s hidin’ it there.”

“Thank you very much for the call, sir.”

The next day, the Sheriff’s Deputies descend on Virgil’s house. They search the shed where the firewood is kept. Using axes, they bust open every piece of wood, but find no marijuana. They sneer at Virgil and leave.

Shortly, the phone rings at Virgil’s house.

“Hey, Virgil! This here’s Floyd….Did the Sheriff come?”

“Yeah!”

“Did they chop your firewood?”

“Yep!”

“Happy Birthday, buddy!”

(Rednecks know how to git-R-dun)

One thing a reader to my blog needs to keep in mind when I talk about mountaintop removal I’m looking at it not only as a resident of the coal fields but also as an avid hiker. This blog is entitled The BackWoods Drifter because I love to hike West Virginia’s backwoods. Being as that is the case it is only natural I get fired up concerning mountaintop removal and even the gas companies in some instances. The mountains are quickly becoming impassable.

A lot of people look at MTR for the obvious destruction. I look at it and the collateral damage it causes. In the following photos a right of way has been cut by the coal company for high tension power lines. This is what they do with the trees. These pictures only show a very small part of the destruction. The right of way could be potentially miles long. Notice most of the trees are laying in what would normally be a natural drainage path during rains. If this were a clearing for an MTR site those trees would be at the bottom of a valley fill.

Something I think about - furniture companies, paper mills, etc. buy everyday what we cut down and leave to rot.

Looking at this with a hiker’s perspective - this land will be useless for generations. There will be no hiking or crossing the entire length of this right of way. It will be a place of briar thickets, rattle snakes, and broken bones.

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Sometimes I wonder -
When the coal is gone, what are we going to do with all this dirt?

I’ve done a marginal amount of talking concerning the Marsh Fork school. The school is highly controversial. It is actually controversial in a couple of different aspects.

The first being it’s vicinity to a coal silo and prep plant. The plant generates a lot of airborne coal dust and they actually spray chemicals on the coal to keep it from freezing and clumping together in the silo and in coal cars - all of this about 300 feet from where the kids learn and play.

First of all, I can’t understand why risk the children’s health regardless of how much the coal company tells us the kids are safe? *If the kids are safe then why did Elk Run have to put their stock pile under a dome? The reason was because the residents of Sylvester sued the coal company because of all the dust in and on their homes.

I actually was working as an electrician for a contractor hired to repair the electrical inside the dome when it fell in a storm. The coal company had to have a person who’s sole job was to watch a wind indicator. If the wind got above 10mph then operations had to stop as long as the dome was down. This plant is the same as Elk Run. There is nothing here protecting the kids. They don’t even have the luxury of distance.

I have a serious problem with the people that say there is nothing to worry about. The evidence would suggest otherwise.

The photo above is ceiling tiles directly over the rear entrance to the school. It is made of porous material and obviously holds the coal dust very well. The dust in these panels, unlike the stains on the walls, are strictly airborne particles. In that I mean the dust in the panels settled there from the air and the stained walls are from dust settling on the sill and then getting washed off with rain.

This school has no type of special filtering for the school air. Even the cheap air conditioners are a great entry place for dust into the school. If you want to know what coal dust just by itself can do to a person - check out black lung.

I don’t even have kids going to this school and I worry about them. I think everybody should be worried about the kids. Why do the kids have to suffer in the battle for the mountains? One reason I despise the ground Don Blankenship walks on is because of his disregard for our children. As much money as Massey has spent trying to fight the parents they could have done the right thing and built the kids a school somewhere a little safer. But then again that would be doing the right thing and we all know the coal industry is and always have been incapable of doing the right thing.

The other issue with the school is its vicinity to a slurry impoundment with a 3 billion gallon capacity. God forbid it were to ever happen - if the impoundment broke it would take the school second. The first would be the coal plant and it would be washed over the school. There is no kind of warning. If it were to go, it would be devastating on so many levels. And I’m going to tell you a secret - anything man made has a defined lifetime and will eventually fail - anything. With Massey’s track record of dishonesty and not playing by the rules - who’s to say these dams are in good shape? The coal company?

This photo is from the schools main gate.

This photo is about 100 yards up the road.

The big flat horizon behind the plant is the face of the slurry impoundment. There used to be a valley there. The point is not the missing valley but this impoundment is set in such a way that if it were to fail it would funnel directly towards the school and Big Coal River.

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*Elk Run is the location of a Massey Energy prep plant. The town of Sylvester, which is located just below the plant sued Massey because of the amount of dust produced by the coal processing. After the case was settled Massey was required to cover the largest contributor to the airborne dust which was a stockpile and transfer point for coal. Basically the coal came to the plant on belt lines and stockpiled in one location. Under the stockpiles there are underground feeders and more belt lines taking the coal to either the plant or directly onto a train.

I don’t have any photos of the dome showing its entirety but I will make it a point to get some in the near future. This is the side of the dome and the point where this belt enters the stockpile area.

The next photo is just inside the door on the above belt line. The light which is less than 30 feet away is a 1000 watt flood light. Very similar to the ones used in stadiums. I could barely see it through the coal dust. There was a very large bulldozer working the stockpile directly under me and I couldn’t see it at all.

The Elk Run photos are intended to give you and idea of the amount of dust created from simply transferring coal from one point to another. This is all happening before the coal even enters the plant.

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Side note - I didn’t really mean for this post to go so far but I was out and about today and stopped at the school for some photos. I was also able to visit with Larry Gibson on Kayford Mountain today. It was really foggy up there but I did get some photos I want to show and I had the pleasure of listening to Larry talk with college students for awhile. Anyway expect a new post on the Stop MTR blog concerning my trip to Kayford. Most likely tonight or tomorrow.

In 2001 there were 713 coal slurry impoundments in the US most of those in West Virginia, Virginia, and Kentucky. http://www.geotimes.org/dec01/NNcoal.html

Imagine how many of these slurries exist today. I often wonder if these toxic ponds can ever be reclaimed. Some slurry ponds are the same as valley fills and can hold a few billion gallons of coal waste.

“In addition to fine coal and waste rock, here is a partial list of typical products used in coal prep plants - Anionic flocculants –work with negatively charged ions Cationic flocculants–work with positively charged ions; Reagent flocculants; lime; natural and modified starches; caustic starch; sulfuric acid-ph adjuster;alum (aluminum sulfate) –ph adjuster; anhydrous ammonia…”

from - http://www.anthropology.eku.edu/martincounty/Webpage/MCPARC1/Mcptsction5.pdf

I look at a coal slurry impoundment and think of a tar pit. I also look at them as an accident waiting to happen. I mean, let’s face it the coal industry is allowed to get away with whatever they want so who’s to say the coal miners make good dam builders. In one instance there is a school sitting directly in the path of about 3 billion gallons of coal slurry should an “act of God” take the dam. I’m amazed the school is controversial. That seems like a no-brainer to me.

If you want to know how strong of a hold the friends of coal has on the community go ask the principal of the school how she feels about the looming danger. She will tell you “s–t happens“, not exactly in those words but the ones she uses say the same thing. I wonder which plant her hubby works at?

I do wonder, are these dams just going to be sitting there forever or will they finish with them - spray their miracle grass on top and call them reclaimed? To date - I haven’t found any information to answer that question one way or the other. I can guarantee you this - you will not find a shopping center on a reclaimed sludge impoundment.

This is the impoundment at Elk Run, WV. That sure looks like miracle grass growing on the sludge. Believe me - the fact the grass is growing there is definitely not strange. I’ve seen this mixture sprayed onto a creosote covered power pole and grow just fine. Residents call it grass seed on steroids or camouflage. It could be sprayed on the cliff face in the photo and a couple weeks later the cliff face would look like a green hillside meadow from the sky or from a distance.

Sludge Safety - Coal Sludge Impoundment

These last few days I really haven’t been in the blogosphere very much or even on this blog for that matter. I had to step back and refocus on the task of spreading the word about mountaintop removal. My posts went from informative to borderline ridiculous.

Ask anybody that knows me and they will tell you I am quick to say what is on my mind - usually regardless of the consequences. Except in the case where speaking my mind would directly hurt someones feelings, I won’t do that. If I feel strongly enough about a subject I literally can’t shut up about it. I think in posting about MTR on this site, I let myself get too passionate. Like I said in an earlier post or comment or something - I don’t like a bully and all this nonsense with mountaintop removal and the friends of coal make me think of a bully. Although they haven’t attacked me directly, they have attacked the collective intelligence of all my friends and neighbors. So naturally, being that I am somewhat outspoken, I felt the need to strike back. I think I get that from my Mom. She’s a feisty 5 foot redhead and believe me you do not want to cross her.

Anyway - I’ve gotten my second wind and will be returning to more informative posts about mountaintop removal. I will guarantee you this, if the friends of coal attack me or my neighbors I will strike back with the only weapon at my disposal - the ability to write a blog. In other words, you’re still liable to hear me rant from time to time.