Marsh Fork Elementary

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.