CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Fourteen people were cited by State Police today in two separate protests against Massey Energy's mountaintop removal operations in Southern West Virginia.
Early this morning, five activists chained themselves to heavy equipment at a Massey Energy strip-mining operation near Pettus to protest the company's plans to blast apart Coal River Mountain. A sixth person at the protest identified himself as a member of the news media, but was also cited, police said.
All 14 people were given tickets for misdemeanor trespassing, said Sgt. M.T. Baylous, a spokesman for the State Police. The violation carries a fine of up to $100, according to state law.
The actions by the groups Climate Ground Zero and Appalachian Mountain Justice are part of a campaign to block Massey's mountaintop removal plans and put a windmill operation at the site instead.
At the mining site, the activists hung one banner that said, "Windmills, Not Toxic Spills" and attached windmill blades to an excavator at the Massey operation near Pettus.
"The governor and county legislators have failed to act, so we're acting for them," said one of the activists, Rory McIlmoil, who has led the Coal River Wind Project campaign.
"They shouldn't allow the wind potential on Coal River Mountain to be destroyed, and the nearby communities endangered, for only 17 years of coal," McIlmoil said. "There is a better way to develop the mountain and strengthen the local economy that will create lasting jobs and tax revenues for this county, and that's with wind power."
Massey Energy officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment this morning.
Citizen groups are opposing Massey's latest mining operation along Coal River Mountain ridges. They argue a windmill project would provide more long-term jobs without blasting apart the hilltops and burying nearby streams. In December, Coal River Mountain Watch issued a report by consulting group Downstream Strategies that concluded a wind operation in the area would provide more jobs and tax revenue than a mountaintop removal mine.
Massey officials have said if environmental groups think wind projects are such a good idea, they should buy land, obtain permits and build such projects themselves.
Gov. Joe Manchin has declined to intervene in the DEP permit reviews for the Massey operation, or to voice any public support for putting a wind project at the site instead. Last year, Manchin aides said the mining already had all of the required approvals. But it turned out that DEP had not signed off on several permit changes and authorizations. DEP has since issued those approvals, and the Sierra Club and Coal River Mountain Watch have appealed them to the state Surface Mine Board.
Previous rallies four years ago led to arrests outside Massey's Goals Coal Co. operations adjacent to an elementary school at Sundial, Raleigh County, and at Massey's headquarters in Richmond, Va. And in March 2007, 13 people were arrested after they occupied the reception area outside Manchin's office at the state Capitol to draw attention to Massey's plan to build a new coal silo near that school.
Citizen groups said today's action was also aimed at protesting Massey's plans to begin blasting at the Coal River Mountain operation, which is near the company's huge Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment.
"Massey could flood the towns of Pettus, Whitesville and Sylvester with toxic coal sludge," said Judy Bonds of Rock Creek. "Blasting at a multi-billion-gallon sludge lake over underground mines could cause the sludge to burst through and kill thousands of people."
