Blasting Begins on Coal River Mountain

We have been told, and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has confirmed, that blasting has begun at Coal River Mountain. Coal River Mountain is the tallest mountain ever slated for mountaintop removal, and remains the very last mountain in the Coal River Valley that is still in tact. This is Coal River Mountain (intact) as viewed from Kayford Mountain, one of the largest mountaintop removal sites in Appalachia.

Enormous and intensive blasting will take place directly adjacent to the Brushy Fork impoundment, the largest of its kind in the world, which holds 8.2 billion gallons of toxic sludge. The dam holding back the contents of the Brushy Fork impoundment is a Level C dam, which places it on Standby Alert, and means the "dam has specific problems that could lead to failure." Residents of Pettus, WV - the nearest town - if timely notified, will have only 12 minutes to evacuate in the event of a catastrophic failure.

Mountaintop removal has already buried and polluted nearly 2000 miles of America's headwater streams according to government data. EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers, and scores of stream ecologists have acknowledged the immense and irreversible damage which comes from destroying these headwater streams and filling them with arsenic, selenium, mercury, and other heavy metals and chemicals.

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