Readers may recall Morgan Spurlock as the Beckley native who became famous with his documentary, "Super Size Me.” Spurlock's "30 Days" segment on coal mining debuted on the Fx channel on June 3, and has been receiving accolades from the coal mining community in its sincere portrayal of underground mining.

Spurlock has a series on the cable channel Fx in which he immerses himself into the lives of people in various professions, situations and conditions for a full thirty days.

Proud of his West Virginian roots, Spurlock wanted to do one of the segments on the life of a West Virginia coal miner to explore the highly dangerous and recently newsworthy occupation of coal mining.

Spurlock was able to take twenty minutes from his schedule in Las Vegas, where he is jury member at Cinema Fest, to talk about his documentary, 30 Days in a Coal Mine for this special Coal Festival Edition of the Coal Vallley News.

“I’ve spent the last five days watching movies; yeah, it’s great,” Spurlock told the CVN about his current gig in Las Vegas.



When asked why he chose to immerse himself in the business of mining coal, Spurlock said, “Being from W.Va., you grow up around this. For every coal miner, there are eight other people whose jobs are affected by this.”



“When the idea for the show 930-Days) first got picked up by Fx, this (30 Days as a Coal Miner) was one of the shows that I wanted to do. People don’t realize how much work goes into providing the energy that powers that light bulb they’re screwing into the wall. People don’t think about that; we are disconnected from it. So, I wanted to show them what it was like,” he said.

When asked what comments he has received both in state and around the nation, Spurlock said, “The responses have been incredibly positive. These coal miners are heroes for what they do. There is also an incredible brotherhood with coal miners. It really touched me how they took me in and helped me. It was an experience that I’m never going to forget,” he said.

“I have such an incredible amount of respect for them and what they do. I really hope everyone realizes how important their jobs are and what they do. We couldn’t survive without them,” Spurlock commented.

When asked if, looking back, there was anything he would do differently with the documentary, Spurlock said, “I’m very proud of the show. It is really hard work. Your muscles hurt every day. Right when my body didn’t ache any more, is when I left,” he said.

“Mom says it best, with you have to have something to fall back on and I think coal mining would be a great thing to fall back on,” Spurlock says with only the slightest chuckle.

“My foreman, Dale Lusk, said I can come back any time and get my black hat. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll take him up on that,” Spurlock said.

Spurlock attained an underground apprentice card in order to be able to work in one of Bluestone’s mines in Wyoming County and he spent more than thirty days with coal miner Dale Lusk and his family.

"Is coal the solution to our growing hunger for energy?" Spurlock asked in the intro. "Or are the personal and environmental risks just too great?"

Spurlock told viewers that coal mining touches all of us because "a whopping 50-percent of our electricity comes from coal." Environmentalist outcries and the recent headlines about mining accidents have made people want to make coal a thing of the past, Spurlock said, but there's so much cheap coal to be had in the U.S., "why stop?"

After a required 80-hour training course, Spurlock was ready to step into the mines. Spurlock's shift was from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., six days a week, and he'd spend those eight hours entirely underground. Inside, Spurlock said he could feel the temperature drop about 20 degrees.

Once underground, his first job was at a conveyer belt that was racing coal back to the surface. Scraps of coal tend fall off the belt and Spurlock's duty was to shovel those scraps back onto the belt.

"I'd like to think that what I'm shoveling here is powering the electricity in a children's hospital," Spurlock told the camera. "But in reality what I'm shoveling here is probably powering some guy masturbating in front of his computer. Got to look on the bright side all the time: Either way, I'm making somebody very happy."

At the end of the first day, Spurlock said he couldn't even begin to explain how tired he was. "I feel like somebody beat me with a shovel for, like, six hours straight. I feel like I was run over by a coal truck today."

“When I first left when I was 18, I was a little ashamed and embarrassed because they learn you’re from West Virginia because where you’re from. But now I have such a large appreciation for the state and I’m proud that I was raised the way I was, where I was,” he said.

Sprulock shared that now that he’s living in New York, he is trying to relocate closer to his family in Beckley. “I’m doing everything I can to come back and live there, live close to family, and make films there and hopefully one day soon it will be possible for me to do,” Spurlock said.

“I don’t think you really appreciate where you’re from until you’ve gone out and experienced what the rest of the world has to offer. Dorothy said it best with, ‘There’s no place like home,’” he said.

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The following is a brief description of Spurlock’s documentary. For further information, go to: http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/30days/

Day 3: Spurlock explained the danger of explosions in a mine, saying that the mining process releases coal dust and methane gas into the air, and if something sparks it could cause an explosion. He explained the old method of bringing singing canaries into the mine and if they stopped singing, it was a bad sign. Now, ventilation fans and high-tech equipment helps them monitor gas levels. Spurlock had to plaster cinderblock walls to help direct the air flow that prevents an explosion.

Retreat mining: Spurlock explained -- maybe too briefly -- the process of retreat mining, in which pillars that were holding up "ceilings" inside the mine are removed and the ceilings collapse. This is a necessary part of the process, it seems, and was what miners in Utah were doing when they got stuck in a mine last year. Two workers Spurlock was with said "the money" is what keeps them in the mining business. "Gotta pay for them toys," one said. "Gotta pay for them kids."

At home with a coal miner: After his seventh day on the job, Spurlock was invited to go to the house of James, a miner he'd worked with, for some barbecue. James' wife said she worries every day for her husband's safety and that anytime he's late coming home from work, she's wondering if that's the day she'll get "a phone call." James said he wants his kids to get good educations so they won't have to work in a mine like he does. It's something his father wanted for him, as well. Spurlock said most of the guys he talked to in the coal mines didn't want to be coal miners.

Just beneath the surface: Spurlock explained that not all coal mining happens underground and that a recent development is "surface mining." It's the most controversial mining method. Through the process, the top of a mountain is blasted off to expose the coal just beneath the surface. Machines come and scoop the coal up. By law, Spurlock said, the coal companies are required to plant trees and grass to restore the land, but environmentalists say that even with the reclamation, the mountains are destroyed forever. Spurlock visited a lobbyist for the mining companies who said there is no alternative to coal and admitted "it's not perfect at all."

Evacuation: The ventilating fans stopped running, which gave the miners about 15 minutes to evacuate the mine. They got out fine, but it was a scary moment. Spurlock talked to the daughter of one of the 12 miners who died in an explosion in Sego, W.Va., in 2006. She's working to improve safety regulations in mines.

Black lung tests: Spurlock's host and boss, Dale, had agreed to take a black lung test at the end of Spurlock's month and he followed through with the promise. Dale had taken a test about eight years earlier that showed no signs of the ailment, and was convinced he was still as healthy as ever. In just a few minutes, the X-rays were ready. Spurlock was clear. Dale wasn't. He had small and large dust particles on both of his lungs the nurse warned him to avoid dust exposure as much as possible because, with continued exposure, he'd experience shortness of breath and other symptoms. She asked him to come back on a regular basis.

Dale came back and broke the news to his wife, but still refused to wear a respirator at work.

Last day: Spurlock got a going-away gift from the miners and hoped that he'd earned some of their respect.

"Dale chooses to go to work every day, he chooses to worsen a disease that he knows could kill him, but he doesn't stop," Spurlock said. "And, just like Dale, we know that there are health risks, we know that there are environmental concerns. But that doesn't stop us from using coal. But the question is, what other choice do we have? We have to use coal because we haven't spent the time to really invest in something better.

Contact Joanie Newman at jnewman@coalvalleynews.com or call 369-1165.