By Ashley Southall and Timothy Williams / New York Times Nearly 200,000 people in Charleston, W.Va., and nine surrounding counties were without drinking water on Friday after a chemical spill contaminated supplies, the West Virginia governor’s office said. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said early Friday in a statement that the federal government had approved a … Continue reading Coal-processing chemicals spill into West Virginia river, polluting drinking water for 200,000 people→
By Mountain Justice Three residents of Central Appalachia and supporters with Mountain Justice chained themselves to an industrial tank of black water in front of Alpha Natural Resources’ Bristol, Va., headquarters to protest Alpha’s mountaintop removal strip mining and coal slurry operations across the region. “I’m risking arrest today because mountaintop removal has to end … Continue reading Residents shut down Alpha headquarters with support from Mountain Justice→
By Ken Ward, Jr. / West Virginia Gazette Mail Patriot Coal has agreed to phase out mountaintop removal and other forms of strip mining, in a move Patriot officials say is in the best interests of their company, its employees and the communities where it operates. In a deal with citizen groups and environmentalists, Patriot … Continue reading Patriot Coal concedes to activists, abandons mountaintop removal and strip mining→
Resource extraction is killing families, tearing apart communities, and threatening our very existence on this planet. It is corporations that are perpetrating this ecocide, with the help of local law enforcement acting as their private armies. They must be held accountable for the devastation they are committing. Deep Green Resistance stands in solidarity with those … Continue reading In Solidarity with the Hobet 20→
By Duke University Water pollution from surface coal mining has degraded more than 22 percent of streams and rivers in southern West Virginia to the point they may now qualify as impaired under state criteria, according to a new study by scientists at Duke and Baylor universities. The study, published this week in the peer-reviewed … Continue reading Mountaintop removal mining polluting nearly one in four streams in southern West Virginia→
The activist in this video, Dustin Steele, was beaten by police after being arrested during the Hobet Mine Shutdown Donate to the Mountain Justice Legal Fund Report from the R.A.M.P.S. Campaign 7/29/12 Charleston, W.Va.—More than 50 protesters affiliated with the R.A.M.P.S. Campaign have walked onto Patriot Coal’s Hobet mine and shut it down. Ten people … Continue reading RAMPS Shuts Down Surface Mine, 20 Activists Held on $500,000 Bail→
By Charles Suggs, RAMPS organizer More than 50 protesters affiliated with the R.A.M.P.S. Campaign have walked onto Patriot Coal’s Hobet mine and shut it down. Ten people locked to a rock truck, boarded it and dropped banners: ”Coal Leaves, Cancer Stays.” At least three have been arrested, with another in a tree being threatened by miners … Continue reading RAMPS action in West Virginia shuts down largest mountaintop removal mine→
By Environmental Working Group An independent scientific panel approved by the DuPont company as part of a class action lawsuit has linked an industrial chemical known as C-8 or PFOA to kidney and testicular cancer in humans. “Widespread pollution by PFOA should be a wake-up call that our chemical regulation system is severely broken,” said … Continue reading Carcinogen produced by DuPont found in 99% of people in the United States→
By Dave Cooper / Huffington Post While combating dirty fossil-fuel energy sources like coal and shale gas, activists can sometimes find themselves so intensely focused on one issue that they lose track of important developments in other related fossil fuel campaigns. Mountain Justice Spring Break (MJSB), March 21-28 in northern West Virginia, seeks to build … Continue reading Activists against mountaintop removal and fracking joining forces in West Virginia→
By Jeremy Hance, Mongabay Environmental degradation can have major impacts on a community’s quality of life and a new interactive map of mountaintop mining for coal in the U.S. makes this abundantly clear: based on 21 scientific studies, the map highlights how communities near mountaintop mining have lower life expectancy, higher birth defects, worsening poverty, … Continue reading New map depicts human costs of mountaintop removal mining→
