Press Conference for Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero’s Anti-Mountaintop Removal Actions on May 23rd, 2009

Will Wickham, Glenn Collins, Jared Story, Willie Dodson, Kim Kirkbride, Ash-Lee Henderson, Tanya Turner and Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, activists with Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero, are taken into custody after a 5 hour lock down to machinery on Patriot Coal's mountaintop removal coal operation on Kayford Mountain. Three state authorities arrived on the scene: 6 Kanawha Sheriffs, 2 Boone County sheriffs and 2 WV state troopers.  The protestors were taken to the Boone County seat at Madison and released on their own recognizances.
Will Wickham, Glenn Collins, Jared Story, Willie Dodson, Kim Kirkbride, Ash-Lee Henderson, Tanya Turner and Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, activists with Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero, are taken into custody after a 5 hour lock down to machinery on Patriot Coal's mountaintop removal coal operation on Kayford Mountain. Three state authorities arrived on the scene: 6 Kanawha Sheriffs, 2 Boone County sheriffs and 2 WV state troopers. The protestors were taken to the Boone County seat at Madison and released on their own recognizances. photograph (c) antrim caskey, 2009

Press Conference for Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero’s Anti-Mountaintop Removal Actions on May 23rd, 2009

Contact:   Mike Roselle 304 854-7372

BECKLEY, W.Va.— Mountain Justice will be holding a press conference Tuesday, May 26, about last Saturday’s 17 arrests, which occurred in three separate actions. Residents of West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia – four Appalachian states affected by mountaintop removal – were among the arrestees. All are charged with trespassing. Two of them floated a banner reading “No More Sludge” in seven billion gallons of toxic coal slurry at the Brushy Fork sludge impoundment. They are also charged with littering. Four remain incarcerated, unable to meet the $2000 cash-only bail. It is anticipated that they will be released on Tuesday.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has approved permits, submitted by Massey Energy, for the 6,450-acre surface mine around the impoundment. This plan includes blasting on top of one of the ridges of the dam, which sits above a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines. The emergency evacuation plan for the Brushy Fork sludge dam states that should it fail, a wall of water 50 feet high would hit Whitesville and result in the deaths of at least 998 people. An alternative to the surface mine is the installation of a wind farm on Coal River Mountain, which will provide jobs and energy without increasing the risk of catastrophe associated with the Brushy Fork dam.

Who:    Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero

What:    Press Conference where recently released activists and their supporters will speak

When:  Tuesday, May 26th, 12 pm.

Where:     Raleigh County Courthouse Steps on Prince Street.
Rain Location:  Gazebo at Raleigh County Courthouse on Prince Street.