This article originally provided by The Morgan Messenger

August 16, 2006

Man’s protest walk goes through county to D.C.

- by Kate Evans - 8/16/2006

A Raleigh County man is walking from Charleston to Washington to raise awareness about coal mining operations that surround his granddaughter’s school, Marsh Fork Elementary School.

Ed Wiley will be walking through Morgan County around August 23-25 on his 455-mile trek. His group’s Pennies of Promise campaign is also trying to raise money to build a new elementary school away from the mining site. More than 200 pre-k-Grade 5 children attend the school.

Wiley and others have been working to raise awareness about the school’s plight for two and a half years. When their efforts met with inaction, Wiley set out on his trek to the nation’s capitol.

Major concerns

A coal dust silo from a coal processing plant sits 225 feet away from Marsh Fork Elementary School and its playground. A coal sludge pond holding 2.8 billion gallons of toxic coal waste is perched on a mountaintop above the school 400 yards away.

In 1972, a similar sludge pond dam failed at Buffalo Creek. Some 125 people, mostly women and children, were killed as millions of gallons of black water surged through the valley like a tidal wave and destroyed hundreds of homes.

Coal River Mountain Watch members say they have mining inspector reports that indicate the dam is periodically leaking. Other concerns include the harsh chemicals used to clean the coal, heavy metal impurities that are removed from the coal and the antifreeze that is sprayed on the coal to keep dust from spreading as the coal is carried by train, said Bo Webb, volunteer organizer for Coal River Mountain Watch.

A diesel engine from the coal train is constantly spewing fumes behind the school. There is also a mountaintop removal site next to the sludge pond where blasting is continually occurring.

Wiley, a former dam worker, also expressed concerns about trees and vegetation rotting inside the sludge pond. The trees could rot, break off and puncture the dam, said Wiley.

There have also been numerous compaction rate violations on the dam fill material, he said. Coal River Mountain Watch has a chilling PowerPoint presentation about many of these issues.

Coal dust found in school

Coal dust was found in all seven samples taken inside the school by a scientist in January. It’s not just like coal dust that causes black lung in coal miners, said Webb. It’s a finer particulate that is laden with heavy metals and toxic chemicals, he noted. Today coal preparation plants grind the coal down very fine, said Webb.

Ed Wiley got involved when his granddaughter came home sick from school three days in a row looking very pale, feeling weak and unable to eat. After she spent some time at home, Kayla’s color came back and she felt much better, said Wiley.

Wiley noticed that 15-20 other kids had also left early when he signed Kayla out of school. Wiley became very concerned about the kids’ safety at school.

Informal health survey

When no community health assessment materialized, the Coal River Mountain Watch conducted an informal door-to-door health survey.

Their survey found that 80% of households with children at the school had children with respiratory problems, asthma or chronic bronchitis. Most of those households had kids that complained of feeling sick at school but feeling better after being home for a while.

School air assessment

State School Facilities Director Bill Elswick conducted air quality testing at Marsh Fork Elementary School in August, 2005. No significant problems were found except for high humidity that would resolve itself with full-time HVAC system operation, said Elswick.

Elswick maintained that nothing they have seen so far indicates that the air is unsafe. If evidence were presented to the contrary, the school would be closed immediately, he said.

According to the Department of Environmental Protection, there is no sludge pond dam impairment and the dam meets state and federal guidelines, said Elswick.

Both Elswick and Raleigh County School Superintendent Charlotte Hutchens said that Marsh Fork Elementary School has one of the highest attendance rates in the county.

Hutchens said they have not seen an increase in health problems such as asthma or upper respiratory problems at the school. She has letters from a Department of Environmental Protection subdivision asserting that the school was in no danger after air quality testing.

Trusting the experts

The only thing we can do is trust the experts to let us know if there is any danger, said Hutchens. We’re not mining inspectors or engineers, she said.

If anyone could show us that the children and teachers were in danger, we would take action to close the school immediately, said Hutchens.

“It would be inexcusable not to. At this point we have nothing that indicates that,” she said.

Hutchens had not seen the informal health survey results. She requested a copy of the coal dust sample report and contacted the Environmental Protection Agency to do more testing.

When asked how she felt about the coal company applying for a second coal dust silo beside the one near the school, Hutchens hoped that the agencies involved would deny the silo permit if they felt it was anything that would be harmful to the children and staff.

“I hope they look at it very critically,” said Hutchens.

Pennies of Promise

The Pennies Of Promise campaign for a new Marsh Fork Elementary School has already raised around $2,000 and has received national attention.

New York schoolchildren collected around $350 worth of pennies to help. The story has been featured in Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Oprah Winfrey’s O magazine and on ABC news.

Wiley plans to arrive in Washington, D.C. on September 12 and meet with Senator Robert Byrd, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and others about their concerns. He will also deliver local letters pleading for a new elementary school.

Wiley doesn’t understand how mining operations could ever have been allowed near a school and wants to see a law enacted so it never happens again.