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OPINIONS
Julian Martin: Coal supporters are real extremists in West Virginia
This is in response to the column on Dec. 7 by Roger Nicholson, senior vice-president of International Coal Group. Typically, he included name-calling in his defense of mountain top removal strip mining. Those opposed to this madness he calls extremists. He would be smart not to bring attention to the word "extremist," since there is nothing more extreme than destroying mountains.
He dismisses the massive valley fills as gullies that are merely storage sites for natural dirt and rock. Those storage sites amount to 1,000 miles of filled streams, longer than the Ohio River.
To dismiss the vital headwaters of our streams as "gullies" shows a profound ignorance of basic ecology and biology. Those "gullies" are the beginning of life for all downstream aquatic organisms. And indeed the mine waste dumped in these headwater streams is toxic. The fish with twisted spines and both eyes on one side of their bodies testify to the toxicity of selenium, just one of the poisons dumped into the headwaters.
Nicholson brags about how they follow the regulations and laws in blowing the mountains apart. Regulations and laws are meaningless when the end product is massive and irreversible destruction.
He claims that many "reclaimed" strip mines are loaded with all kinds of good things. In reality less than 5 percent of the 500,000 acres destroyed by mountain top removal has any economic development at all. The non-native grasses on so-called reclaimed strip mines are food for no native wildlife.
A group of bird watchers did a survey on Kayford Mountain and found more than 40 species of birds in the natural woodland that is surrounded by mountain top removal. At the edge of the natural woodland and the mountain top removal site, they found only three species.
The root of this evil is money, and as Paul the Apostle said, the love of money is the root of all evil.
Come with me, and I will show you active and "reclaimed" mountain top removal and you can decide for yourself. For individual or group tours contact me at martinjul@aol.com.
Julian Martin is vice president for state affairs for the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
