This article originally provided by The Citizen Times

October 12, 2006

Documentary by local filmmakers shows cheap energy can come with a steep human price

by Kim Barto

During UNC-Asheville’s Greenfest next week, you’ll have the chance to see a movie that will change the way you think about coal.

Three students at Warren Wilson College have made a powerful documentary on mountaintop removal. Not only is this method of extracting coal devastating to the environment, it destroys people’s very way of life. “A Mountain Removed” gives a voice to some of the West Virginians affected by a mining operation.

Using a mix of interviews and statistics, the film gives a solid background on the issue. Mountaintop removal, which some call “strip mining on steroids,” flattens the landscape. Mining companies use tons of explosives to blast away the mountains. They then use the leftover rock and dirt to fill in valleys, burying the biodiverse Appalachian forests and more than 1,000 miles of streams.

The liquid waste, or slurry, is dammed up in impoundments, forming toxic lakes of carcinogenic chemicals and heavy metals like arsenic and mercury. Just a few years ago, an impoundment broke near Inez, Ky., turning 75 miles of rivers and streams black. According to the film, this released 20 times the amount of oil lost by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The documentary offers an impressive amount of information, considering that it clocks in at less than 30 minutes. Its power lies in the personal stories told by residents of a small mountain community in West Virginia. The filmmakers wisely keep narration to a minimum, letting the people explain in their own words.

Perhaps the most striking image in the film is of Marsh Fork elementary school, which sits a mere 225 feet from a coal silo. Silica and coal dust blow constantly onto the school, getting into the air intake vents and causing health problems for the children.

Ed Wiley recently completed a march on Washington, D.C., to protest and demand a safe place for local children to learn. It is heartbreaking to hear him describe how the coal mining has hurt his granddaughter, a student at the school.

Wiley has good reason to be concerned. The school also happens to lie 400 yards downstream from a dam containing more than 2 billion gallons of sludge. Even worse, the Mine Safety and Health Administration says the impoundment is leaking.

Moving may seem like the obvious solution, but it is not an option for most people. As Larry Gibson says in the film, “We’ve had this land in my family for 220 years.”

In addition to heritage, there are financial concerns as well. The homes around the mining operation have depreciated in value by 90 percent.

One elderly resident, Mary Miller, has seen her home go from $144,000 in value to just $12,000. Even if she manages to sell her house, she will be left with no money to buy a new one.

For the foreseeable future, she is stuck there, breathing in coal particles every day.

“Should anybody have to live in this?” asks Miller in the film, as she wipes black dust off of her table.

The documentary has its limitations, of course. It does not offer solutions to this very sticky problem, leaving viewers with a number of unanswered questions.

Should we avoid coal usage altogether, or just this method of mining?

Are there local economies that depend on coal for income, and how will they adapt if we move to other sources of energy?

How can people stand up to the mining corporations and demand change?

Addressing all of these concerns would require a much longer documentary. To their credit, the filmmakers provide a list of Web sites at the end so that viewers can learn more and take action.

Mountaintop removal affects more than West Virginia. It should be a call to action for anyone who cares about Appalachian culture and preserving the natural beauty of our mountains.

According to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, about 1 million acres of the Appalachians have already been destroyed.

We should all be concerned about mountaintop removal, since 50 percent of our energy comes from coal.

Although it may seem like a cheap source of power, this film helps show the true human cost.

A free screening of “A Mountain Removed” will be shown on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. in room 125 of Rhodes hall on the UNC-Asheville campus. A panel discussion will follow.

Kim Barto is a senior at the UNCA majoring in photography with minors in mass communication and French. She also works in human resources for the U.S. Forest Service. She lives in Asheville. Her columns appear on alternate Thursdays and she can be reached at kdbarto@bulldog.unca.edu.