**Photo by Junior Walk** ###Project Location: West Virginia ##The Project Issue: Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining For well over a century the coal industry has exploited the people and natural resources of West Virginia. The technology they have developed over the past four decades specifically has allowed them to destroy and poison the environment to an almost unbelievable extent, all in the name of maximizing profit. Large scale surface mining, also known as mountaintop removal not only deforests thousands of acres per mine site, but completely destroys the landscape leaving behind only bare rock and rubble. The biologically diverse forests that used to set where these mines now exist can never be replaced, the topsoil that allowed them to exist is now buried under valley fills. The bedrock that once formed some of the oldest mountains on the planet is blasted apart and turned into toxic dust clouds that settle on the communities below. The state regulatory agency, the West Virginia Department of Environmental protection has been in the pocket of the coal industry since its conception. This makes it difficult to hold the industry accountable to the relatively lax environmental laws, but not impossible. Over the years, Coal River Mountain Watch has discovered a handful of methods in the pursuit of chipping away at the profit margins of coal companies. One of the most successful tactics has been in observing, documenting, and monitoring mining activity and reporting on them to the DEP. The intent behind this fellowship team is to support our continued work against the coal industry using drones and other forms of observation to document violations of environmental law, and pressure the DEP to take appropriate action. The fines incurred by the coal company are a pittance and are factored into the cost of doing business. The main goal of this work is to make the companies pull workers and equipment away from actively mining coal in order to fix the problems they created. ###Project Aims In this project, we aim to: - Monitor active mine sites from the ground and via drone. - Research environmental regulations and identify tactics that concerned citizens in communities around surface mines can use to document illegal actions and permit violations by the mining companies. - Communicate our findings to the Department of Environmental Protection and follow up with them to raise the pressure on the agency to take action. - Create a videos examining the state of abandoned and active mines in the area on and around Coal River Mountain, and describe the tactics that can be used to hold the industry accountable. ### People Involved: **Fellows working on this project:** - [Junior Walk](https://publiclab.org/profile/junior_walk1337): Community Fellow and Project Advisor - [Elena Peterman](https://publiclab.org/profile/ekpeterman): [Environmental Policy Fellow](https://publiclab.org/notes/stevie/08-11-2021/seeking-environmental-policy-fellow-for-fellowship-team) - [Jordan Freeman](https://publiclab.org/profile/jfreemanfilm): [Documentation Fellow ](https://publiclab.org/notes/stevie/08-11-2021/seeking-documentation-fellow-for-fellowship-team) - Rotating Field Technicians in West Virginia **Partners and Collaborators:** - Coal River Mountain Watch ### Updates Interested in following along in the project? Subscribe to the tag below to get updates when we post new material. Subscribe to updates on this project __________ ##Project Outputs: Learn about observable permit violations for coal mining with the materials below ####Ground Violations Read more about [common ground related violations here](https://publiclab.org/notes/ekpeterman/02-15-2022/ground-common-permit-violations) ####Water Violations Read more about [common water related violations here](https://publiclab.org/notes/ekpeterman/01-20-2022/common-permit-violations-water) ###Air Violations Read more about [common air related violations here](https://publiclab.org/notes/ekpeterman/03-29-2022/air-common-permit-violations) _______ ###Our most recent posts and videos on this project: [notes:MMMP] ### Sites being monitored: Below is the list of permits and companies monitored this far by the Mountains and Mines Monitoring project. These sites are in Raleigh, Boone, and Kanawha counties, WV. - The Middle Ridge permit, Republic Energy, permit number: S301712 - Bee Tree permit, Marfork Coal Company, permit number: S301004 - Long Ridge 1, Republic Energy, permit number: S300115 - Edwight permit, Alex Energy, permit number: S301299 - Black Eagle deep mine, Marfork Coal Company, permit number: U300118 - Twilight II surface mine, Lexington Coal Company, permit number: S500398 - Twilight South surface mine, Lexington Coal Company, permit number: S502808 - White Oak surface mine, Deep Ford Mining Co Inc., permit number: S010380 - Joe’s Creek surface mine, Panther Creek Mining LLC, permit number: S300108 - Ewing Fork No. 2 surface mine, Republic Energy LLC, permit number: S301803 - Elk Run processing plant, Elk Run Coal Company, permit number: P047000 - Goals processing plant, Goals Coal Company, permit number: O001885 - Horse Creek Eagle deep mine, Marfork Coal Company LLC, permit number: U300104 - Stanley Heritage surface mine, Panther Creek Mining LLC, permit number: S303593 ### Questions [questions:MMMP] ...
Author | Comment | Last activity | Moderation | ||
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chateris | ". The paper argues that such a view is incomplete. One of the key development challenges facing the 21st century is to ensure wider access to clean..." | Read more » | over 1 year ago | |||
itianparwana | "In the United States, coal consumption in the last 12 years has declined from 1,045,140 million short tons in 2007 to 539,420 million short tons in..." | Read more » | almost 2 years ago | |||
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limrs123 | " " | Read more » | about 2 years ago | |||
stevie | "Yikes that looks terrible! I'm sure you're reporting this. let us know how you do it and what happens! " | Read more » | about 2 years ago | |||
julia_e_masters | "Hi there - came across this new resource that also might be helpful! https://medium.com/policy-integrity-blog/how-can-community-campaigns-leverage-..." | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
julia_e_masters | "Hi @ekpeterman our contact at FT suggested: Hollin Kretzman Hkretzmann@biologicaldiversity.org Colin Obrien cobrien@earthjustice.org. Feel free t..." | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
stevie | "What was the 165 pages?! " | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
ekpeterman | "Hi @julia_e_masters! Thanks so much for your reply - this is really helpful. Would love to be connected with the orgs mentioned. @junior_walk1337, ..." | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
julia_e_masters | "Hi again! I reached out to Fractracker to see if they had any insight, and got some helpful pointers. Please let me know if you'd like any connecti..." | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
julia_e_masters | "I totally agree that uplifting imagery is a great way for amplification and awareness of this issue. Could your group link up with other local/reg..." | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
liz | "I feel like we haven't fully mobilized Public Lab's own social media to amplify the "visually striking" footage you reference — do we need to work ..." | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
stevie | "Many more at 4:16 " | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
stevie | "Is there anything to all those downed trees around 3:28? " | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
stevie | "Wow. Can you explain more about the show case hearing process? Why did you start it, how do you go about it, and what are the goals? " | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
Ag8n | "Is there a difference between surface mining and strip mining? " | Read more » | over 2 years ago | |||
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bhamster | "Thanks for posting this, the descriptions of observable violations in this video are super helpful. Could any (or all?) of them also indicate inade..." | Read more » | over 2 years ago |