Boone County native Maria Gunnoe testified before Congress this past week, giving eyewitness testimony about the destruction of mountaintop removal in the southern coalfields.

Gunnoe was one of four witnesses who gave testimony June 25, during a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Water and Wildlife Subcommittee, at Washington D.C.

Gunnoe began with these words, “My name is Maria Gunnoe. I am 40 years old and I am a life long resident of Boone County in southern West Virginia. My family history there goes back to the 1700s. I know the areas and the people that are being impacted by mountaintop removal very well simply because this is the homeland where generations of our ancestors before me have raised their families and lived their lives.

“Most of these families have depended on underground coal mining to make a living but we as a culture of people have depended on these

mountains to take care of our families.

“We are gatherers, hunters,

gardeners, fishermen, active and retired miners, loving community members, we are stewards of this land and we are now organizers.

“We are working to protect and preserve the communities, culture and people that we love and hold dear to our hearts.”

Gunnoe blasted the practice of mountaintop mining, showing Senators photographs of the

devastation caused to her home and property.

“This method of mining is where the coal companies use nearly 4 million pounds of blasting material a day, in West Virginia alone, to blast the coal out of the mountains. Then everything other than coal is used to create valley fills in our headwater streams. The artificial streams running off these sites are toxic with selenium,” she said.

“The energy is temporary energy. You only burn coal one time. The destruction of the land, air, communities and people is permanent,” she said.

“There have been 500 mountains leveled for their coal and energy in the name of homeland security. These 500 mountains were

surrounded by communities who depended on the mountain’s resources and water for their very existence. There have now been more than 2,000 miles of streams buried by valley fills. People depended on these streams as much as any animals,” she testified.

“The regulatory agencies turn a blind eye on this pollution by

continuing to allow the companies to buy more time to come in

compliance with the existing laws. Without enforcement these laws are only words on paper,” she said.

“There are health impacts too. A study by Dr. Michael Hendryx at West Virginia University has proven that there is reason to be concerned about the pollution that the people throughout the coalfields are being exposed to. This study has not been taken seriously by our state leaders or our state regulatory agencies as a matter of fact it has been ignored.

Portions of this study were based on the community of Twilight near where I live. Twilight surface mines surrounds the small communities of Lindytown and Twilight ant the people who live there either put up with the impacts or leave,” she told Senators.

“The blasting has been horrible and the community’s members concerns are not being heard. There is near 4 million pounds of blasting material used each day in West Virginia alone. At one point the department of defense and DEP allowed the coal company to dispose of old munitions from war (called tetryl its used as an igniter) on the mine site behind my home. It was too dangerous to use in war so they thought they would

dispose of it in our community over our people’s heads.

“As residents we recognize our most valuable resources as being our land, water and people not the coal that lies beneath it all. Our people were here before the coal was discovered. Why should we have to leave now in the name of coal?” she said.

“Some of our current

resident’s ancestors were awarded their land for military service to this country. Now this very land being destroyed and the residents don’t have the rights to protect it. Appalachians are the history of this country. We have given all to build the infrastructre that supports this American dreams that we all share. We help to supply 48 percent of this country’s energy and the cost of this is never truly calculated,” she reminded Senators.

“I have heard coal referred to as a cheap and clean energy. This ignores the facts. The facts are that the true cost of coal-fired energy has never been calculated. We must consider the cost of coal from the cradle to the grave. We must consider the cost of mountaintop removal coal mining not only the aquatic life and the wildlife where this coal is being extracted but on the human lives of everywhere it touches,” she said.

“I have to ask what the

homeland security of the folks that are being forced to sell out to the coal companies in Lindytown. West Virginia?

“The people who proudly built this community are being told that they are in the way of coal production and that they must leave their homes of many generations.

“The coal company engineers strategically buy out homes and family-heir-owned land to depopulate communities by

making life unbearable. Their air, land and water are being destroyed by mountaintop removal there is no way people can continue to live here and be healthy.

“They are being forced to leave home places of many

generations to save their lives. This alone is personally and emotionally devastating. The boom of “Big Bertha” — a dragline — swings over the community of Lindytown. Blasting is frequent and terrifying for

residents that are holding out not wanting to sell,” she said.

Gunnoe also spoke about the affects of mountaintop mining on local family cemeteries.

“In our mountains we have many mountain cemeteries that date back to the beginnings of civilization here. We are

grounded like our ancestors before us. These cemeteries are awarded no protection by our regulatory agencies or law enforcement.

“We as citizens are expected to register and account for these cemeteries in order to protect them from mining activity and most of the time the coal companies won’t allow us into our family cemeteries to do this work. They stop us from visiting our dead by locking us out of our ancestral land in these mountains. I know of many grave yards that were in our mountains that no longer exist. The areas where they were are now gone,” she explained.

“The culture of people in West Virginia is a culture of survivalists not environmentalist. We have survived here throughout times of extreme poverty during the rise and fall of the coal markets. We have always had the land to

sustain our lives. Now the very reason for our existence as a

culture of mountain people is being annihilated for its coal,” she told Senators.

Also testifying at the hearing was Dr. Margaret A. Palmer, of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, who testified that, “The impacts of mountaintop removal with valley fills (MTVF) are immense and irreversible, and there are no scientifically credible plans for mitigating these impacts.”

Dr. Palmer compared the

cumulative impact of mountaintop mining on water quality to a

person smoking.

“The fragmentation and

exposure of mined rock to air and water results in high rates of rock weathering, which leads to increased concentrations of a number of chemical constituents in the stream water below fills. Some of these cause acute

toxicity in aquatic life, but many of them cause chronic low level stress to organisms.

“The chronic stress from many chemicals adds up to serious problems for organisms. The high level of impairment found in streams below mining valley fills is because the additive impact of all this stress is simply too much for many species. Thus, it is the cumulative impact of elevated concentrations of multiple stressors that leads to biological impairment in these streams.

“By analogy, consider a person that smokes just a few cigarettes a day but is 75 pounds overweight and has very low level diabetes — none of the stressors alone necessarily lead to death but together, the levels of physiological stress on this person are extreme and will shorten their lifespan,” Dr. Palmer explained.

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman

testified, stating, “What must be understood is that the connection between protecting water quality and the practice of mountaintop mining is not a unique one.

“Nor is the assumption by many that valley fills, which have been the focal point of attention in recent months, are only associated with mountaintop mining. In fact, the debate cannot be limited to surface coal mining. Mining through streams, hard rock

surface mining and development activities could warrant the same scrutiny that is being given to the use of valley fills.

“There are many surface mines requiring valley fills that are not mountaintop removal mines by definition. Also, the Clean Water Act and West Virginia’s Water enforcement program require the same levels of protection for all mining activity,” he said.

According to Huffman, it is important that the discussion be framed in the proper context. “Mountaintop mining is one of many surface mining methods recognized and regulated by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act,” he said.

“Coal production is the leading revenue generator for West Virginia, and many in the State are concerned about losing the

opportunities for future economic development associated with mountaintop mining.

“The greater concern for the Department of Environmental Protection, however, as protector of the State’s water resources, is the unintended consequences of the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent actions that have the potential to significantly limit all types of mining,” he said.

Gunnoe also tackled the topic of how mountaintop mining is tied to economic development in West Virginia.

“Boone County falls second in poverty only to McDowell County, another leading coal

producing county. This is still the most impoverished area in the U.S. today. If mountaintop removal was about jobs and

prosperity, where is it?

“In the 1960s we had 125,000 direct coal mining jobs in the coal industry in West Virginia, but now we have less than 12,000. Ask yourselves is this really about jobs or profit and exploitation? These jobs are temporary jobs at best. The operation behind my home started in 2000. It is now closed down. These good paying jobs only lasted long enough for the employees to get in debt,” she said.

“The coal companies will tell all that will listen that they are doing this for future economic development of an impoverished region. They will say that we don’t have any flat land for development.

“They will tell you that we need this flat land and that our mountains are useless land in their natural state. I have even heard them say that the mountains are in the way of development.

“There will be no future here for anyone with mountaintop removal. I cannot believe that we as a nation are depending on continuing to blow up our mountains to supply energy in this country when the energy we need in this country rises with the sun everyday and blows in each churn of the wind. The ridges of southern West Virginia are wind viable ridges until they are blown up. We cannot continue to allow this to be called clean coal,” Gunnoe told Senators.

“In my own mind I know that mountaintop removal coal mining will stop. According to USGS we are running out of minable coal and we are quickly running out of mountains in southern West Virginia” she said.

“I would like to extend my tremendous appreciation to Sen. Cardin and Sen. Alexander for introducing Senate Bill 696, the Appalachian Restoration Act. This Bill, if passed, could turn back some of the Bush Administration changes that is currently allowing coal companies to destroy

valuable headwater streams and all that is connected to them.

“The residents I work with in the Boone County coalfields send their support for this bill as it is in some cases the only hope we have of remaining in our ancestral homes and in our ancestral homelands,” Gunnoe said.