Combating Mountaintop Removal: New Directions in the Fight against Big Coal

1. Welcome to Coal River

1. Welcome to Coal River A Hard Winter Snow is pretty on the mountains, a white blanket that throws the jagged contours into relief. Sheets of ice pour down the cliffs along the road, like frozen cascades reaching toward the ground. Ice clogs the river where it bends and behind the rubble dams the coal companies use. Where it is unobstructed , sheets of ice swell at the edges, leaving a narrow sliver flowing down the middle. Just as the snow made the features of the mountains more apparent, so did it make the features of the town more apparent. My street was not scraped or treated for the snow. To avoid sliding, I crept slowly around the curve and up the little hill to the main road. At the top of the hill, the pristine appearance of my neighborhood disappeared into black slush. As plows cleared the snow and ice, small mounds of snow coated with the black undercoat-turned-overcoat of coal dust and dirt lined the road. Around the mounds and other puddles, a black stew of water and coal dust waited to be splattered over the ground’s white coat. The dirt followed me inside. No matter how hard I stamped my feet, kicked and wiped the snow from my boots, the black soup followed me. On the floor, I got my own streaked version of the mess on the streets. Coal River seemed more isolated, more downtrodden, more hopeless in the dirty snow. What color the town had was muted into gray. The white ground only emphasized grit and grime. The disrepair and disuse of the many abandoned buildings stood out more sharply. Streets usually infused the town with swaths of color from passing cars, but they were all whitewashed with a thick, briny coat. 26 CHAPTER 1 In winter, the backdrop for town was the gray sieve of naked tree branches. If not for the snow, the mountains would blend into a foggy day. In the dust-splattered relief of winter the feeling crept in that this place might just disappear. Maybe slowly, with buildings, streets, and people fading to gray; maybe in one destructive blast, this entire town might succumb to the gray blight that spread down from the mountains and up from the street gutters and be gone. Misty Valley April redbuds trumpet the rolling explosion of color and life that is a Coal River spring. Forsythia and wisteria take over in May, honeysuckle and rhododendron in June, wild lilies line the roads in July, and black-eyed Susan leads the wildflowers into summer. The intense life of the mountains works hard during the summer to reclaim itself from the hard gray of winter and people respond with life of their own. Four-wheelers come from every driveway and hollow. People sit on porches all waking hours. Shirtless men mow lawns. Children splash in the pool. Riding down Clear Fork on a cool, humid June evening was a treat for the senses. At dusk, mist crept into the valley from above and below, hanging down from the treetops and wafting up from the river. Cicadas sang in the tunnel of trees and flora growing from the rocky mountains out into and over the road. Only a sliver of dusky light penetrated, blurring the colors into a dark green, blue, and black canvas. Fresh cut grass hung heavy on the moist air like sweet anise. The gurgle of the river soothed away the sounds of the day. A man and woman waved from their front porch. Mountains that were hard, rocky, gray, and dead were now thick with the vitality of summer. The living blanket crept down the hills in the summer heat. Jungle-thick trees, vines, and brush claimed every shard of sunlight. Weeds crept up through the cracks in an abandoned patio to reclaim this space for the forest. A canopy grew over the roads. Keeping land cleared is a constant battle against the vibrant growth of the mountains. In the summer, the feeling rises that this place could be nursed back to health by the natural forces that created it. The Constants In the soupy mush of winter or the soupy air of summer, some things did not change. Coal poured from conveyor belts and stacker tubes. Stockpiles swelled and receded as empty trains clanged their way into Coal River and loaded trains crept out. Preparation plants at Sylvester, Marfork, Montcoal, [18.191.223.123] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 21...