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Bo Knows Mountaintop Mining

October 29, 2008

Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
coal, coalmining, mountaintopmining, mountaintopremoval

Forgive me, but I thought it worth sharing comments posted in response to my blog yesterday about Massey Energy's role in mountaintop removal coal mining.

"Rob, I can't thank you and NRDC enough for involving yourselves in the struggle to end mountain top removal. I live underneath the horrible mountain top removal mess that Massey is making above Marsh Fork Elementary

"School in the Coal River Valley of WV. We are getting bombed every day.

"The blasting is so great that my walls shake. I can feel the floor move beneath my feet. My Labrador Retriever paces back and forth and my grand kids ask me why I can't make them stop. I am fearful of boulders and mud slides coming down the mountain and killing us. This is really bad and needs to stop. What they are doing to the environment is bad enough, but what they are doing to me, my family, and my community is terrorism. I realize this may be hard to believe to some because this is America and WV is part of these United States.

"If anyone is a Viet Nam Veteran as I am, I can best describe the blasting here as like the artillery round that hit so close to you that you wondered why you were still in one piece.

"Our state environmental agency does nothing to stop this injustice. If you call to complain they tell you the coal company has seismographs and they check them to make sure they are blasting within the approved mining plan."

The man who posted these comments is Bo Webb -- a veteran, citizen, father and genuine hero in Appalachia. For years he has been leading the fight to protect his daughter and her classmates at Marsh Fork Elementary from a Massey mountaintop mining operation that directly threatens the health and safety of the school children.

Learn more and consider supporting Bo's Pennies of Promise crusade.

Thank you, Bo!!

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Rob Perks
Rob Perks
Director, Center for Advocacy Campaigns
Washington, D.C.
I run NRDC's Center for Advocacy Campaigns. Our shop exists to guide NRDC's policy and...
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