Non Violent Civil Disobedience Stops Work on Cherry Pond Mountain in the Coal River Valley, southern West Virginia


“We don’t feel like our trespass is nearly as serious as what they’re doing to West Virginia,” Roselle says. “We want this stopped. And we’re going to do whatever we can.”Mike Roselle and James McGuinness halt the movement of coal off Cherry Pond Mountain.
Mike Roselle and James McGuinness halt the movement of coal off Cherry Pond Mountain in Raleigh County, West Virginia. Very close to this MTR site sits 2.8 billion gallons of toxic coal sludge, precariously perched above the Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, WV. This Massey Energy-owned MTR site puts the lives of Coal River Valley residents at risk. Residents contend that blasting will further destabalize the sludge impoundment, while fly rock and rock dust shower the neighboring hollows of Naoma. photograph by Antrim Caskey