Are we still fanatical?

Welcome to the 21st century. (Ok, so I'm 10 years late or something.)

2000: October 11th, in Inez, KY. Where residents arise to over 300 MILLION gallons of coal sludge in their tiny town. Why? because this is America, and we like to burn coal for energy. For over 200 years! Sorry Inez, but in New York City, our lights are shining bright. The EPA calls this "one of the worst environmental disasters ever in the southeastern United States".

2004: December 26th, in the Indian Ocean. Theres an earthquake ranging from 9.1 to 9.3 on the Richter scale. This brings a tsunami over 32 ft. high to the coast of indonesia.

2005: August 29th, New Orleans, LA residents are greeted be Katrina, a formerly catagory 5 hurricane. Over 80% of the city is flooded. Mississippi's beachfront towns were 90% flooded. Katrina is refered to as the costliest hurricane, and one of the five deadliest.

2006: July  17th, once again in the Indian ocean, off the southwest coast of Java, Indonesia. Theres a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, causing a nearly 10 ft. tsunami, taking at least 668 lives.

2008: Begining on September 1st, Hurricane Ike is formed. Reaching category 4 status at various points in its journey,  finally making landfall over Galveston, Texas on September 13th as a strong category 2, with a category 5 like storm surge. Ike moved all the way up through the midwest on into canada in tropical depression, and extratropical status before finally exiting around the Labrador Sea. This was ranked the 3rd costliest hurricane, and brought hurricane like winds and rains to places that knew nothing of such things.

It's barely December 22nd in Roane county, TN. The coal slurry impoundment at the TVA fossil plant has a damn rupture into the Emory river. Over 1 billion gallons of coal fly ash slurry goes rushing through the Emory and Clinch rivers. Surrounding property was covered in as much as 6 ft. of sludge. This spill was more than three times the size of the 2000 martin county spill. They continue to battle clean up efforts to this day.

2009: January 9th, another TVA plant, this time in northeast AL, has a spill. TVA did not deny that the material entered the creek, but figures were not disclosed as they claimed to have "contained" it.

January 25th, Areas of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky are hit with an ice storm that lasted up to 5 days in some places. As much as 2.5 inches of ice can be found on trees and power lines. Over 2 million people lost power, over 500,000 in Kentucky alone, 100,000 of those without power for over a week.

August 4th, Louisville, KY and southern IN are hit with a serious flash flood.

September 30th, Just off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia theres a 7.6magnitude earthquake. Killing at least 1,115, destroying 135,000 houses.

2010: January 12th, there's a 7.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Leogane, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 6th deadliest earthquake in history, killing an estimated 230,000 people. Approximately 1,000,000 people were left without homes, and many many more were severly injured. In addition to homes and business' that were destroyed. The Red Cross estimates that as many as 3,000,000 people were effected by the quake.

March 5th, once again off the Sumatra coast in Indonesia, they experience a 6.8 magnitude earthquake. to be followed by a 7.8 magnitude quake on April 6th.

April 3rd, A large coal carrying ship runs aground off the coast of Australia damaging and leaking oil into prts of the incurredibly sensitive Great Barrier Reef.

April 20th, an oil drilling rig off the coast of LA explodes causing a large fire and massive oil spill that is on going to this day, currently releasing at least 210,000 gallons of crude oil a day.

May 1st and 2nd Excessive rainfall causes the cumberland river to overflow leading to flooding in KY, MS, and most affected, TN. As of May 2nd, there are currently 29 confirmed dead, but this too is "current", so those figures could, and probably will, change.

All of this makes me absolutely sick!
But I'm just an "environmentalist hippy", what do I know?

I really hope that theres something here for my children, when they're older.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_County_Sludge_Spill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_2006_Java_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Fossil_Plant_coal_fly_ash_slurry_spill
http://www.epa.gov/region4/kingston/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/09/second-tva-dam-breaks-at_n_156605.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_2009_Central_Plains_and_Midwest_ice_storm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Kentuckiana_Flash_Flood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Sumatra_earthquakes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_2010_Sumatra_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_2010_Sumatra_earthquake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Shen_Neng_1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_drilling_rig_explosion
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9FGLT3G0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2010_Tennessee_floods

and some progress is made...

Yes, I voted for Obama.
Yes, he's done a few things to disappoint me, such as opening up protected waters to off shore drilling (after insisting it was a terrible idea in his campaign) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html

But on April 2nd, 2010, he did something that made me really proud, or... his administration did anyways.

The EPA has greatly increased their standards for water quality and proclaims that very few valley fill permits will pass under the new guidelines (regarding water conductivity)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/01/AR2010040102312.html

Granted, this is one.... medium. step (we've been making small ones all along, and while this doesn't solve all our problems, its certainly) in the right direction. We still have huge strides to make, but alas, I am currently incredibly grateful for Lisa Jackson, and the EPA, for taking our neighbors water quality into account.

Thank you! to everyone and anyone that assisted in any fashion, to making this happen!

eastern ky

Last week, my family and I visited family in NC. Before baby #3 was born, I longed to drive through eastern Kentucky on our way home from NC sometime, but it hadn't happened for one reason or another. I really didn't plan or expect for it to happen this time either as baby #3 is still so young and not terribly fond of the car, I figured we'd be better off to just get home as quickly and safely as possible.

Well, the common route, through West Virginia, has a few ever increasing tolls, my husband wanted to avoid them, so we took the secondary route (to NC) which involves driving down I75 to I40, then on over to the coast. Much to our surprise, we were forced to take a detour upon our travels down I40, due to some rock slide which involved us going substantially out of our way. In any case, we arrived on the coast with little delay.

As we started the trek home I checked online to see the status of the rock slide (it seemed like they could just blow up these rocks and shovel 'em over the side or something, thats what they do with entire mountain tops, I couldn't fathom it being bigger than that.) and it seemed as though the though of it being cleared was a distant fantasy, so a long detour was still in the cards (that or tolls, which wasn't even an option at this point).

So we start heading on our detour, when my husband decides to make his own detour through all these small virginia towns. Finally, I proclaim that we should just go on through eastern Kentucky.

I made a deal with myself that there would be no camera involved. No pictures, not even with my phone. I was to take it in, with only my eyes and my mind this time. There will be a next time, I'll make sure of it, and next time, is when the camera comes out.
But this time. This time, I tried to drink it all in.
In some ways, I expected it to be worse. The folks in West Virginia said its much worse (eky) because theyll mine right up to the road side. Based on what i saw, this is partly true. The worst, was when we were on this curvy mountain road, that took us to the top of a hill. From that hill i could look in 3 directions (everywhere but behind) and see, quite clearly, an incredibly unnatural landscape, but there wasn't rubble pushed right up to the asphalt. Yet several miles later, on this same mountain road, we looked out at the most breathtaking landscape in all the world. Nothing but mountains, intact mountains. Clouds nestled in the valleys. It was as if nature made this little perch, on the side of this mountain, seemingly much larger than its surrounding siblings, solely for "us" to come to this point, and look out, and see just how glorious things can be, and are!

The West Virginians also commented on how much less hostile eastern Kentuckians are. Every time we'd have to stop for gas, or to use the rest room, my heart would race. Our hybrid import, slathered with activism stickers, manned by young environmentalists makes no attempts at being discreet in these situations, yet aside from a few cross looks, the worst we got was me overhearing a couple miners comment on how easy it is to say "that" when its not your pay check or what have you. (likely referring to the "topless mountains are obscene sticker") And while i didn't make any attempt to let them know, I can empathize with that. Alas, I married a marine, at my height of disent for the military. Sometimes we compromise a few values, for the sake of maintaining the highest value, feeding our family. There is often a thin line between a job, and a life style, but I can see that line, and i respect those that reside on the job side, even if i don't respect their job.

waste

the other day i was talking with someone that commended my work/activism for MTR.
she mentioned that she was from eastern ky, and her parents live in north eastern ky.

the significance? she mentioned that there was no coal (or at least none worth mining) where her parents currently live, but they still blow up the mountains there. why? for gravel.
as sad as it is that they blow up mountains for gravel, its just one more thing to add to the draw backs of MTR coal mining as far as im concerned.

from an objective point of view. if we HAVE to get the coal, and we HAVE to do it by removing the mountain top, it seems logical (and not only environmentally sound, but also economically) to harvest the trees, but instead theyre dumped over the side (into the streams).
and now that its brought to my attention how gravel is ... harvested? (why had i never thought of this?) all of the shale and sediment below the top soil (which is likely the richest in the nation and could probably be sold as well) could be gathered and sold as well, instead of blowing up completely different mountains for that.

all sorts of birds. one stone.

but instead, we strip forests from one area.
blow up mountains for gravel in another.
and distant from all that, were tossing mountains into valleys for coal.

of little help

while i sit here, 6 months pregnant, winter quickly moving in, i am forced to realize i will likely not be able to work much on my project until sometime near the middle of next year.

i do have a few coal fired plants in mind, that id like to visit.
particularly meigs county, ohio. where they currently sit under the stacks of 4 coal plants, with another proposed. not to mention the countless other environmental tragedies theyre forced to deal with.

over this period, i will continue to research, learn, and spread the word. as thats what i likely do best.

id like to share a speech jason howard gave at the lexington forum recently, regarding "the true costs of coal"

while were searching for a better way, lets at least conserve what we have.

it pains me, to know, that children born in southeastern cities (such as the one i live in) face higher rates for sids, asthma, allergies, etc. etc. etc. all because of the impurities my air is forced to take on due to the power company, and those plugged into its excessive use.

need a movie to watch?

recently, we watched kilowatt ours (NOTE: the previous link will allow you to watch the complete film.) at the recommendation of a cousin whom i was discussing my documentary goals with.
pretty good film. the first half discuss' a good part of what im trying to cover (though i think the toxicity, use, and misuse of coal ash needs to be covered as well)

so, following that i finished up somethings rising and was duely impressed.
what better way to learn about the history, in addition to current events, in appalachia, than from those who live it? numerous stories, from those best equipped to tell them.
such rich history, makes me jealous that i didnt grow up with that. but alas, i have found my.... "calling"? if you will.

and then, last night, thanks to our local library and someone leaving the search field of "dvd" up without my realizing it, we checked out and began watching harlan county, usa .
which just reinforces the damage coals been doing to this area since long before i was born.

knowledge is power, eventhough ignorance is bliss. i think, that regardless of what you may think or feel, its important to know where your electricity comes from, and what it really costs. your bill puts a monetary value on it, and there is so much more to it than that. coal may very well be cheap. for the power companies that burn it, but so are clothes and toys made in china. everything has its price, even if its not represented in a dollar amount.

coal ash has all kinds of uses

heres an article about a town built on coal ash, i wonder if thats like building a city on rock and roll?
in any case. the proponents of coal insist coal ash is useful as well. its great for road fill, ground fill, building fill, etc. not enough dirt? just use coal ash.

well, heres just one small towns story of what happens when you make such wonderful use of the substance.

electric cars are all the rage.

my family just invested in the 2010 honda insight for the sake of being "greener". (honestly, we really just want to save money. saving the earth is always a perk though.)

now im aware of the...not so goodness that is hybrid cars, batteries are a yucky yucky thing, as with coal, the metals that make up said batteries must be mined, exposing the environment to all kinds of things that it wasnt meant to be exposed to, in addition to the people employed to mine said metals. then comes the disposal, which is inevitable at some point in time.
the car we traded in wasnt even old, nor was it anything remotely close to a "gas guzzler". but yet, this felt like a good idea, despite my feelings of feeling somewhat selfish.

so where am i going with this? well, weve (americans, and the world) have been going on and on about electric vehicles (ev's) for years and years now. currenty there tons of talk about "plug in hybrids" as well as ev's. i have to ask myself, are these really a better option than the gasoline powered vehicles currently on the market?
and my educated answer is no.
gasoline is dirty, thats no secret. while im sure i could expose a few secrets (as well as enlighten myself a little) on petroleum production, im going to focus solely on the environmental cost after use.
i dont have the energy this evening to find and share statistics, but its a fact that coal fired power plants emit MANY more emissions than gasoline powered cars for the same amount of energy. (i hope that makes sense) smokestack to exhaust pipe, coal is far worse. this alone tells me that petroleum is the more conscious option.

i did a brief search for this topic, to see what others had to say. and it makes me sad to see that the most talked about issue is cost. because coal (and the power it generates) is so much cheaper than petroleum, they expect less than a us dollars worth of energy to equate to a gallon of gasoline. if price represented environmental impact than clearly, that would be the better option. but it doesnt. yes, gasoline is expensive, and it seems like the cost only rises. yes, at the rate of consumption its likely that not so distant future generations will only read about petroleum in history books. but lets face it, coal is a NONrenewable resource as well (as are our mountains). until we come up with a better source for electricity, i will scoff at the thought of production ev's.

how bad is fly ash?

from TVA's management discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations...

"Fly ash is a by-product of a coal-fired plant. It is a gray material with a consistency similar to flour. It is made up mostly of silica, similar to sand. Though the ash itself is inert, it may contain trace amounts of other substances that occur naturally in coal, such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium. It is used in building products such as cement, mortar, stucco, and grout. It also is used in some potting soils and as a soil conditioner. TVA has sold fly ash commercially."

then go on to read a study involving CFA (coal fly ash) and rats...

"Exposure to CFA [coal fly ash] is a health concern because coal is a major power source used world wide, especially in developing countries such as China and India, and human exposure to particulate matter is associated with increased respiratory and cardiac disease.^"


here are a few articles involving CFA usage and its effects on communities.

400 residents sue Dominion, developer over fly-ash site

whats wrong on tobacco road?

angry residents grill officals about coal ash

let me know if CFA is something you want used for construction of your homes, road ways, etc.?
this is where your power comes from. coal. when its burned, it creates this ash. what do you suggest be done with it?


credit: this grandmother is clearly hard at work digging up the "dirt" (no pun intended) on CFA lifeonswanpond.livejournal.com and it reveals a whole new side of the coal issue to me daily. thank you!

larry gibson

i got a few responses today. all very friendly, and fairly informative, but the best one of all...

"Hi Jes my name is Larry Gibson I live on Kayford Mountain. My property is surrounded by mountaintop removal. You can actually see them blowing up the mountains from my property. If you would be interested in coming to West Virginia I would spend time with you and show you all around my mountain. thanks Larry Gibson Keeper of the mountains"

so im really excited about this. west virginia is a bit of a trek, but i have no doubt that it will be worth it, ten fold or better.
now i just have to figure out when would be the best time to go. im terribly impatient, but we cant afford (and i dont want to) to make this just a day trip.

southwings

there is an organization that someone from KFTC told me about, southwings . they have pilots that volunteer time and resources to fly groups and individuals over areas of... concern?
one of them being mountain top removal.
this is great, since coal companies can be very hostile about "their" land. and how else could i capture something of such magnitude on film, but from the air?
so i emailed them last week and anxiously awaited the operations assistants return from vacation/response. heres what i got...

"Thanks for your inquiry. SouthWings is a nonprofit organization supporting conservation efforts across the Southeast through providing access to the aerial perspective for educational purposes. Typically, flight requests must originate with a nonprofit organization. Our pilots are volunteers, and as such we have limited resources available. All requests we receive are reviewed by our flight review committee in order to determine which requests we are able to meet given available volunteer pilot resources. Expected outcome from the flight is the committee’s criteria. Given that our resources are limited, we are not often able to provide flights for documentaries.

Many regional airports have small planes for hire, so this may be an option to consider. Albatross Air out of Beckley, WV can provide you with a plane and pilot for about $130/hour. If you call around to regional airports near the sites you want to visit, there are often similar services available. We have coordinates on file for mine sites near Hazard, KY; Charleston, WV; and a few other areas in Appalachia. While it is unlikely that we could provide you with a flight, we would be happy to share coordinates of mine sites with you. KFTC may be able to help in that regard as well."

so. a little discouraging. so im going to mail the previously mentioned email out to a few groups, hope for some encouragement, and rack my brain for a proposal for southwings, that they cant refuse.

a letter

here i will attempt to write something profound. ok. maybe not. but this is what i will soon forward to every person and organization that i think may be able to assist me, in some way shape or form.

is it too wordy? if anyone would like to edit or critique it before i start to send it out. feel free.

"to whom it may concern,

my name is jessica deis, i am a 27 year old mother of two. i homeschool my oldest, who is almost 8, and in doing so, this has forced me to open my eyes and mind in a new way.
more important that all of that (for this letter anyway) is that i am a professional photographer. i do mostly freelance portrait work, but ive long had an affinity for documentary photography, i guess its just that nothings pulled at me hard enough to motivate me to dedicate the time, money, effort, skills, etc. neccessary... until now.

in august of 2008 me and my family relocated to louisville, ky, and my eyes were opened to the reality that is mountain top removal. i now spend much of my time thinking about and researching this subject, and it tears at me. so ive decided to do a photo documentary on coal. from its source, the mountains, to its destination, the power plants, and everything in between.

i hope to work with residents in appalachia who have experienced the devistation first hand, right on to those affected by power company "ash spills".

not being able to devote every hour to this will no doubt make it a bit more challenging, but im ready to accept that challenge. if you have any sources, information, advice, etc. to offer me, i would be greatly appreciative, and would gladly give credit anywhere i share my work.

thank you for your time,
-jessica"

i love mountains

it was less than a year ago, i had never heard the term "mountain top removal". i barely understood the purpose and dangers surrounding (deep) coal mining.

i was almost ignorant enough to think my electricity came from the energy fairy.

then in august, my little family relocated to louisville, ky. it was here that i recognized my first power plant. scoffing at the giant smoke stacks and nasty smoke billowing out from its tower.

by december, we decided to visit a church. since we dont exactly identify with christianity, we choose a unitarian universalist congregation, first unitarian. and we havnt looked back.

so, from here ill lead you into something ive posted at various other places i "reside" on this mass web of inters.

"i picked up "lost mountain" ... http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Mountain-Erik-Reece/dp/1594489084 at the "louisville loves mountains" ... festival? theres nothing celebratory about it though.

i cant even begin to summarize what all is going on. with the mountains, the coal, the people. not only in this book, everywhere.
heres a photo story of a lady in tenneessee... http://www.alexblackwelder.com/stories.html
she also keeps a livejournal (the lady, not the photographer, though they may as well.)

i wish i had a mountain, i wish below it there were billions of americans, that didnt witness what goes on in them every day. so i could somehow shout down to them what was happening in our nation.

there are zillions of issues. all with valid reasons for concerns. but right now. somehow, this one peaks for me.
no longer do i think much on the nations eating habits. our endless war on "terror", stupid "bailouts". i dont worry much about religious insanity, or prejudice. i can hardly think really. its plaguing my mind. coal. coal is all i think about.

ill thank my "faith", or lack thereof. the "church" we attend, which of course is only valuable because of those in attendance with us. i think one can learn a lot from UUs, including myself. we saw bumper stickers reading things like "topless mountains are obscene", with no clue what they were referencing. at some point we saw a flyer somewhere, touching on mountaintop removal, or "strip mining". and i began to piece it together. began being the operative word.

when my church announced a group going to a "rally" in frankfort (the capital) to encourage legislation forcing coal companies to be slightly more responsible, we joyously went. we walked a mile to the capital steps in an attempt to represent all the miles of streams destroyed (if only 1400 people were in attendance.)

during this rally, listening to people speak, from ashley judd to a young lady that recently moved from an affected area, i learned much more, and came home to continue.

for the first time in my life (that im aware of) i can view the power plant. not only that, but i can see it from the highway, its thick cloud of smoke. i like to think im pretty smart. and i feel confident this stuff cant be good.

i continue to read stories. on the net, in books, from people (those of course involve listening, not reading) and each one tears at my heart.

i am no better than anyone, and anyone no better than me. this earth belongs to each one of us, and beyond. it belongs to the deer, and the snakes, the lady bugs, and the humming birds. even the trees, and carrots, have every right to be here. and sure, its all for the taking, but only take what you can give back. there is no way to give back an entire mountain, no matter how much "energy" provided.
there is no way to give back lives taken by a sludge pond breakage. and id be willing to live in the dark if i thought itd end there.

im small, and im meager. my confidence sits fairly low most days. but im moved. i am brainstorming on how to compile the resources to do a photo documentary on coal. from start (mountains) to finish (power plant) and anyone involved/affected in between.
i long to be as unbiased as i possibly can, while remaining completely raw. draw your own conclusions. just know that knowledge is power.

if you wish to provide ANY form of support in my journey (from spiritual cheerleaders, to linking me someone with a first hand encounter, to helping me apply for grants) i would be forever grateful.

although, my only goal with this is to open eyes and minds. i am in no way searching for financial gain."