Spring Break
Gibson will carry powerful message about mountaintop removal in area
Jared Story
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: ViewPoint
More than 14,000 people have visited Larry Gibson on Kayford Mountain to see the tragic moonscape surrounding what is left of his ancestral home.
Coal companies have blasted away more than 12,000 acres of Kayford Mountain by the most destructive form of surface mining - mountaintop removal.
In this process, trees are clearcut and then up to 800 feet of elevation are blown off the tops of ridges with millions of pounds of explosives to expose thin seams of coal. After massive draglines scrape out the coal, the resulting waste is dumped into adjacent valleys, burying headwater streams.
In Appalachia more than 500 mountains have been destroyed and approximately 2,000 miles of headwater streams have been buried. The blasting damages homes and dries up wells. The valley fills cause extensive flooding. In addition to the dumping of waste in streams, the coal-cleaning process results in poisoned water.
During fall break, eight ETSU students attended Mountain Justice Fall Summit in Rock Creek, W. Va.
The annual weekend event brings college students to the coalfields to learn from coalfield residents and activists how they can take action against mountaintop removal. On Saturday morning, we drove to Kayford Mountain to visit Larry Gibson and view the devastation that surrounds what's left of his ancestral home. We were privileged to be able to sit and talk with Gibson in his cabin. To hear Gibson speak about the history of his family, their land, coal and resistance, is to hear the story of so many central Appalachian communities.
Though we were able to return the next day for a clear view of the mountaintop removal at Kayford Mountain, fog prevented us from seeing just how expansive the devastation was on this visit. While standing at what Gibson calls "Hell's Gate," the border between life on his family's remaining land and the destruction wrought by the coal companies, Larry pleaded with the crowd of students to take some kind of action. Gibson said, "you may leave here only having seen fog, but I've seen the future. If you leave here and don't do anything about what you've seen though, then you never should have come."
Coal companies have blasted away more than 12,000 acres of Kayford Mountain by the most destructive form of surface mining - mountaintop removal.
In this process, trees are clearcut and then up to 800 feet of elevation are blown off the tops of ridges with millions of pounds of explosives to expose thin seams of coal. After massive draglines scrape out the coal, the resulting waste is dumped into adjacent valleys, burying headwater streams.
In Appalachia more than 500 mountains have been destroyed and approximately 2,000 miles of headwater streams have been buried. The blasting damages homes and dries up wells. The valley fills cause extensive flooding. In addition to the dumping of waste in streams, the coal-cleaning process results in poisoned water.
During fall break, eight ETSU students attended Mountain Justice Fall Summit in Rock Creek, W. Va.
The annual weekend event brings college students to the coalfields to learn from coalfield residents and activists how they can take action against mountaintop removal. On Saturday morning, we drove to Kayford Mountain to visit Larry Gibson and view the devastation that surrounds what's left of his ancestral home. We were privileged to be able to sit and talk with Gibson in his cabin. To hear Gibson speak about the history of his family, their land, coal and resistance, is to hear the story of so many central Appalachian communities.
Though we were able to return the next day for a clear view of the mountaintop removal at Kayford Mountain, fog prevented us from seeing just how expansive the devastation was on this visit. While standing at what Gibson calls "Hell's Gate," the border between life on his family's remaining land and the destruction wrought by the coal companies, Larry pleaded with the crowd of students to take some kind of action. Gibson said, "you may leave here only having seen fog, but I've seen the future. If you leave here and don't do anything about what you've seen though, then you never should have come."
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