Lorelei ScarbroI was born and raised in West Virginia. My father, grandfather and husband were coal miners. My husband spent 35 years as an underground union coal miner. I am no stranger to the coal industry. I am the mother of four children who attended Marsh Fork Elementary School. I live in Rock Creek and my property borders Coal River Mountain, where Massey Energy has proposed the destruction of 6,600 acres by mountaintop removal.
I was born and raised in West Virginia. My father, grandfather and husband were coal miners. My husband spent 35 years as an underground union coal miner. I am no stranger to the coal industry. I am the mother of four children who attended Marsh Fork Elementary School. I live in Rock Creek and my property borders Coal River Mountain, where Massey Energy has proposed the destruction of 6,600 acres by mountaintop removal.
The house I live in and raised my children in my husband built with his own two hands, and he is buried in the family cemetery next door. I can sit in my living room and watch deer in the field below my house. I often stop my car to let wildlife cross the road. My 4-year-old granddaughter especially likes the deer and turkey. A fresh mountain stream runs by my driveway. The air is free of coal and rock dust.
When I married my husband and moved onto property handed down to him by his parents, I thought this is where I would spend the rest of my life and maybe hand it down to my children. If mountaintop removal is allowed to continue, odds are that none of us will be allowed to live here in peace.
I have sat quietly for years and watched the destruction of this land that I love, and did little more than an occasional letter to the editor. I have watched our communities depopulated, our schools closed, peoples' homes flooded and people die - all for power, money and greed.
Every day as I drive Coal River Road, I see more of the mountains destroyed. It is so strange to see the trees disappear along the ridges and then the peaks disappear. The top of the mountain is blown apart and pushed into the valley, covering everything in its path, from vegetation to wildlife. Animals are covered and killed by the waste the company can't use. Even mama bears with their cubs are buried in their caves with no escape, left to starve to death.
I know people whose only source of water is a well near their house, and when they turn on their faucets, the water is black or brown. It didn't used to be that way, then the mining operation moved in close to their house. These people can't afford to buy all the water they need to drink, cook and bathe in. Nor should they. Therefore, these people are sick and dying. When a lot of people in the same community have the same life-threatening illnesses after blasting, toxic sludge ponds and underground injections, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why. If mountaintop removal continues, I know this is what is in store for me.
We in the coalfields of West Virginia are not to be sacrificed so the rest of the world can turn their lights on. We can get power from clean, renewable sources of energy. I can live without electricity from coal-fired power plants, but I cannot live without clean drinking water, and neither can you. The destructive practices used in mountaintop removal and the chemicals used to clean the coal poison our water. Not just the drinking water of my friends, but all of our water. We all live downstream.
When I talk to people who don't live here and tell them what our government allows to happen, they say, "Why don't you just move?" But I always think, "What is home to you?" Appalachian people have a strong sense of place, belonging to what surrounds you. It is not the value of the property or the things you are surrounded by, it is memories you share with people you love and things you experienced there. It is being connected to the land so that, if need be, you can survive there just on the land. We don't want to lose that and we certainly don't want it stolen from us. We don't live where they mine coal; they mine coal where we live.
Coal River Mountain Watch, along with other very special people, is proposing that the destruction of Coal River Mountain be stopped. We are proposing that water no longer be poisoned, and wildlife and vegetation be left intact. We are proposing that the Appalachian culture be maintained with access to the mountains for gathering herbs and roots for medicines and food. We are proposing the Coal River Wind Farm. We hope you will support us in this effort.
Scarbro, a Raleigh County community organizer for Coal River Mountain Watch, hopes to persuade Massey Energy to use underground mining at her location, leaving crests available for windmill generators.
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