The document discusses the negative impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. It notes that the mining has depopulated entire towns, contaminated water supplies, and caused health issues for local residents based on multiple studies. It advocates for supporting legislation like the ACHE Act that would place a moratorium on mountaintop removal permits until further health studies are conducted. The last resident of one mining-affected town is quoted as asking why local residents should have to sacrifice their homes and health for the profits of Wall Street and the coal industry.

1. “We are all down stream of Mountaintop Removal coal
mining in Appalachia this impacts everyone for every
generation to come”
Maria Gunnoe
North American Goldman Prize Winner 2009
www.ohvec.org
www.southwings.org
www.acheact.org

2. As the Mountaintops Fall, a Coal Town Vanishes
By Dan Barry April 12, 2011
The depopulation of Lindytown, WV was covered
by national and international press.
There is now only one family left.

3. William’s MTN

5. Pigeon Roost Holler’

6.  Water is the basis of all life and that includes your
body. Your muscles that move your body are 75%
water; your blood that transports nutrients is 82%
water; your lungs that provide your oxygen are 90%
water; your brain that is the control center of your
body is 76% water; even your bones are 25% water.
 Our health is truly dependent on the quality of the
water we drink.
 There are 722 references to water in the Bible. Most of
which refer to water as THE Gift of Life..
 It is water that unites us globally. Water = Health= Life

8. Every preparation plant (where they wash and
prepare the coal) produces many thousands of
gallons of coal sludge each day, requiring
massive disposal areas. Most sludge is
disposed of above ground in toxic lakes called
impoundments. Not only do these facilities
often leach toxins and cause black water spills
into our streams, there have been several
catastrophic failures resulting in toxic
floods, massive property destruction and even
death. News article where my Aunt (43)
and her grandson(6) died in flash
flood from a surface mining
operation in Boone Co, WV. When
found, they were still embraced.

11. Coal waste
running into
The Big coal
River

14. Sludge not stored above ground is pumped, or "injected," into
abandoned underground mines. Once underground it can
(and does) migrate into the groundwater contaminating
local well water, especially when blasting from surface
mining occurs in the area. Several communities have had
their water supply quietly contaminated by underground
injection causing widespread, often life-threatening
illnesses.
In the town of Prenter, WV, 98 % of the people (including
children) have had their gallbladders removed.

15. Boone County has 16-20
injection sites pumping
millions of gallons per
minute into our aquifers

16. Toilet Bowl
Toilet tank

18. Water
from a
water
heater.

21. Dibutyl phtalate 1,3-Dichlorobenzene
Aniline Diethyl phthalate 1,4-Dichlorobenzene
Acenaphthene Dimethyl phthalate 2,4-Dinitrotoluene
Acenapthylene Dioctylphthalate 2,6-Dinitrotoluene
Anthracene Fluoranthene 2-Chloronaphtalene
Benzidine Fluorene 2-Methylnapthalene
Benzo(a) anthracene Hexachlorobenzene |2-Nitroaniline
Benzo(a) pyrene Hexachloroethane 3-3'-Dichlorobenzidine
Benzo(b) fluoranthene Indeno(1,2,3-c,d) pyrene 3-Nitroaniline
Benzo perylene Isophorone 4-Bromophenyl phenyl
Benzo(k) fluoroanthene N- Nitrosodi npropylamine ether
Benzyl alcohol N- Nitrosodiphenylamine 4-Chloroaniline
bis (2-ethylhexyl)phthalate Naphthalene 4-Chhlorophenyl phenyl
bis (2-chloroethoxy)- Nitrobenzene ether
methane Phenanthrene 4-Nitroaniline
bis(2-chloroethyl)ether Pyrene
bis(2- Acrylamide
Hexachloro-1,3-Butadiene The coal industry
chloroisopropyl)ether
Butyl benzyl phthalate Hexa-Cl-1,3- said that “the
Chrysene Cyclopentadiene contents of coal
Dibenzo anthracene 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene
Dibenzofuran 1,2-Dichlorobenzene sludge is a trade
secret” when asked
what's in this stuff??

22. Chronic exposure to the metals found in coal sludge can
damage virtually every part of the body. Health problems
caused by these metals include intestinal
lesions, neuropathy, kidney and liver failure, cancer, high
blood pressure, brittle bones, miscarriages and birth
defects among others. Studies of the effects of coal slurry
on human cell tissues have found evidence that coal slurry
causes cancerous proliferation, cell death and damage to
kidney cells.
We won a moratorium on sludge injection in the state of WV.
Sludge injection is no longer being permitted, however we
are still dealing with what did get permitted.

23.  There are nearly 5.5 million pounds of blasting material
(ANFO)detonated each day in WV & KY alone.
 The repercussions from blasting cracks home
foundations, breaks windows and rattles the nerves of the
people in nearby homes. It is like living in a war zone.
 The air pollution from the blasting alone is poisoning the
people that live in the valley below these massive
operations.
 Even our gardens are being made unsafe for consumption
by the chemical fall out from MTR.

24. These photos were taken from my yard
Photo by Antrim Caskey

26.  Health Study Articles on the Effects of Coal Mining
 How Many Mountains Can We Mine? Assessing the Regional Degradation of Central Appalachian Rivers by Surface Coal Mining
(July 2012)
 PowerPoint: Atmospheric Particulate Matter in Proximity to Mountaintop Coal Mines (presented in 2012)
 Summary: Atmospheric Particulate Matter in Proximity to Mountaintop Coal Mines (presented in 2012)
 The association between mountaintop mining and birth defects among live births in central
Appalachia,19962003 (May 2011)
 Health-Related Quality of Life Among Central Appalachian Residents in Mountaintop Mining Counties (May 2011)
 Self-Reported Cancer Rates in Two Rural Areas of West Virginia with and Without Mountaintop Coal Mining (July 2011)
 Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal (2011)
 Chronic Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Mountaintop Mining Areas of Central Appalachian States (2011)
 Poverty and Mortality Disparities in Central Appalachia: Mountaintop Mining and Environmental
Justice (2011)
 Residence in Coal-Mining Areas and Low-Birth-Weight Outcomes(January 2010)
 Mountaintop Mining Consequences (January 2010)
 Ecological Integrity of Streams Related to Human Cancer Mortality Rates (April 2010)
 A Comparative Analysis of Health-Related Quality of Life for Residents of U.S. Counties with and without Coal Mining (July
2010)
 Learning Outcomes among Students in Relation to West Virginia Coal Mining: an Environmental Riskscape Approach (2010)
 A geographical information system-based analysis of cancer mortality and population exposure to coal mining activities in West
Virginia, United States of America (2010)
 Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value of Statistical Life Lost (July 2009)
 Higher coronary heart disease and heart attack morbidity in Appalachian coal mining regions (September 2009)
 Relations Between Health Indicators and Residential Proximity to Coal Mining in West Virginia (April 2008)
 Mortality Rates in Appalachian Coal Mining Counties: 24 Years Behind the Nation (2008)
 Mortality from heart, respiratory, and kidney disease in coal mining areas of Appalachia (May 2008)
 Lung cancer mortality is elevated in coal-mining areas of Appalachia(February 2008)
SEE THESE STUDIES AT WWW.OHVEC.ORG

27. Lawyers from the firm Crowell & Moring are attacking the latest study by
Melissa Ahern and West Virginia University’s Michael Hendryx
indicating that people who live near mountaintop removal operations
face a greater risk of birth defects.
But the internet posting from four of the firm’s lawyers was, well, here’s
what it said:
“The studyfailed to account for consanguinity, one of
the most prominent sources of birth defects.”
I had to look this one up…
“consanguinity : of blood relation refers to the
property of being from the same kinship.
Inbreeding

29. WVU: Air pollution at mountaintop
mines may cause heart trouble
A published study by researchers at the West Virginia University School of Medicine and
School of Public Health is the first of its kind to suggest that exposure to air pollution
particles from mountaintop mining sites may impair blood vessels' ability to dilate,
which may lead to cardiovascular disease.
Air pollution particulate matter consisting largely of sulfur and silica was collected
through a vacuum system within one mile of an active mountaintop mining site in
southern West Virginia.
Adult male rats were exposed to the air particles and, 24 hours
following the exposure, their blood vessels' ability to dilate and
function normally was significantly reduced.
"This is the first study of this kind to directly associate mountaintop mining air pollution
with a lack of vascular function. West Virginians who live near mountaintop mining sites
are exposed to comparable levels of air pollution, and, with pre-existing health
conditions in West Virginia, certain populations are pre-disposed to cardiac distress,"
Tim Nurkiewicz, associate professor in the WVU Department of Physiology and
Pharmacology, said.
"It is going to be foreseeably worse for those individuals who live near mountaintop mining
sites," Nurkiewicz said.
The second phase of the study will be to examine specific bodily organs that are affected
or stressed by mountaintop mining air pollution exposure, Nurkiewicz said.
The State Journal

30. Asbury Cemetery Bailey
Cemetery
Jarrell Cemetery
Twilight Surface Mines 25 square miles..

31. This is a scanned page from our children’s history
book it says in reference to surface mining "in some
instances that the land is left in better than
before condition.”
One local 12-year-old child was asked to do a report on
surface mine reclamation and was failed because he
couldn’t come up with anything positive to say about
it. His ancestral cemetery is now inaccessible because
of MTR.
These coal companies are imbedded in our schools.
May 11, 2011
“Coal Curriculum Called Unfit for 4th Graders”
By TAMAR LEWIN
Activities included getting chocolate chips out of cookies with minimal damage
The three groups — Rethinking Schools, the Campaign for a
Commercial-Free Childhood and Friends of the Earth- worked to
have this taken out of scholastic curriculum, using our grass work
as their example why it should be taken out.

32. “Generations of West Virginia coal miners have
dedicated their careers to making Patriot and the
entire coal industry a success. These employees and
retirees have spent decades working hard under the
promise of fair wages, safe working conditions, secure
pensions, and lifetime health-care benefits. I am
therefore troubled that Patriot has indicated that it is
reviewing pension and health-care benefits as
potential sources of savings as it restructures —
especially since all of these benefits were contractually
agreed to or voluntarily assumed by Patriot.”
Senator Jay Rockefeller to Patriot CEO

33. “We gotta fight everyday for
everything, but at the end of the day it’s
worth it all.. We are still at home.
Quinnie Richmond last resident in Lindytown, WV
Why should we be sacrificed for the wealth of
Wall Street? Why should we have to pay with
all evidence that we ever existed?
Is it because we are Hillbillies or because the
coal industry thinks we are stupid Hillbillies?
Larry Gibson 2003 www.keepersofthemountains.org
Last resident of Kayford MTN

34. Regionally we “Proud Hillbillies” have helped to organize community members
to improve their own lives and stop expanding MTR. Through
organizing, awareness, education, non-violent protest, litigation, coalition
building, networking with committed organizations and determined individuals
we have help to change the face of coal nationally. We now have community
members helping to point out non- enforcement of current regulations to
government agencies and government leaders on both federal and state levels.
We have testified in Congressional hearings and lobbied in DC year round. We
have educated the banks that fund this insanity. We have slowed the permit
process for MTR and valley fills in our headwater streams substantially in the past
10 years. All this work began at the grassroots. The coal industry has found it
difficult to obtain valley fill permits and yet currently this same industry has
found loop holes that allows them to continue MTR operations without these
required permits. The people in Appalachia don’t belong anywhere other than
Appalachia. Our roots and our culture is tied to these mountains. If we leave our
culture will die. We value our connection to these mountains as this is how we
have survived for many generations. Through the rise and fall of the coal
industry our people have learned to live from these mountains. We gather food
and medicines in all seasons of the year. These mountains are our churches and
our gift from God who appointed the people as stewards of His creation. We will
always survive as long as we have clean water, healthy air and mountains to
flourish in-- if not we die.

35. Judy Bonds North American Goldman Prize Winner 2003

38. Marsh Fork Elementary..
Debbie and Ed Wiley Grandparents who committed their lives to a
new school in Sundial, WV. www.crmw.net

39. Alpha agrees to $50 million for selenium
treatment
Monday, December 12, 2011
Breaking: Patriot agrees to huge selenium
cleanup
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Headlines from Ken ward at the Coal Tattoo
Because of our victories we have been under violent
attack by industry supporters, including our own
politicians.

40. WV Senator Joe Manchin
“ I will take on anyone who tries to stop us.”
Does he know that it’s WV citizens
standing in his way?
csmonitor.com

41. Army Corps Fails to Consider Human Cost of
Proposed Coal Mine
Groups Contend Army Corps of Engineers Ignored
Health Studies When Issuing a New Mountaintop
Removal Permit in W.Va.
Boone County, W. Va. – The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers failed to account for the negative health
impacts on people living near a massive new mine in
Boone County, according to a lawsuit filed today by the
Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition,
West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and Coal River
Mountain Watch.

42. 112TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION H. R. 5959
To place a moratorium on permitting for mountaintop removal coal mining
until health studies are conducted by the Department of Health and
Human Services, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 19, 2012
14 Congressional Reps introduced the ACHE ACT
Please help support and follow this bill at www.acheact.org
Contact your state Congressional representatives and find out if
they have signed on in support of HR 5959 The Ache Act and if not
ask them to do so.
Join us in the struggle to save all that is Appalachia see www.ohvec.org