Wind Mills on Coal River,not Blasting

This:

Not this:

Please read this article about the Coal River Wind Project, where residents of the Coal River Valley are trying to save Coal River Mountain from certain destruction from mountaintop removal coal mining. This is one of the most important campaigns going on in the fight to end mountaintop removal.

This campaign shows that the central Appalachian region does have alternatives to destroying mountains and mountain communities. By investing in wind energy, this region can still produce electricity and provide jobs (and actually more jobs than mountaintop removal could) in a more sustainable manner.

Please spread the word. You can get more info at http://www.coalriverwind.org/

Blowing away King Coal By Jeff Biggers
Can a scrawny young wind-power activist topple the biggest, dirtiest industry in West Virginia?

Jan. 29, 2009 | ROCK CREEK, W.V. -- On Jan. 16, as Barack Obama visited a wind turbine factory in Ohio, Rory McIlmoil snaked along a muddy mountain road in West Virginia on a similar mission. He was headed up Coal River Mountain, the last mountain left untouched in a historic range ravaged by strip mining.

On a ridge, the 28-year-old activist brought his four-wheeler to a skid. He couldn't believe what he saw. Bulldozers had begun clearing the site for the first phase of a mountaintop removal operation, a radical strip-mining process that would clear-cut 6,600 acres of hardwood trees, detonate thousands of tons of explosives and topple the mountain range into the valley. A 100-foot swath of forest just below the ridge lay like an open wound.

Read the rest here....


Wind Map for Coal River Mountain: This map shows the average annual wind speeds along the ridges of Coal River Mountain. Class 4 wind speeds and higher (yellow to red) are required for utility-scale wind development.

-------------------------------------------
DUKE UNIVERSITY NEWS
Duke University Office of News & Communications
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu
-------------------------------------------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009

CONTACT: Tim Lucas
(919) 613-8084
tdlucas@duke.edu

ANALYSIS SHOWS EXPOSURE TO ASH FROM TVA SPILL COULD HAVE 'SEVERE HEALTH
IMPLICATIONS'

Note to editors: Avner Vengosh can be reached at (919) 681-8050 or
vengosh@duke.edu. Photos of the research area can be viewed at
http://news.duke.edu/mmedia/hires/coalash_ruhl.jpg and http://news.duke.edu/mmedia/hires/coalash_plant.jpg.

DURHAM, N.C. -- A report by Duke University scientists who analyzed
water and ash samples from last month's coal sludge spill in eastern
Tennessee concludes that "exposure to radium- and arsenic-containing
particulates in the ash could have severe health implications" in the
affected areas.

"Our radioactive measurements of solid ash samples from Tennessee
suggests the ash has radiation levels above those reported by the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for typical coal ash," said Avner
Vengosh, associate professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke's
Nicholas School of the Environment. "Preventing the formation of
airborne particulate matter from the ash that was released to the
environment seems essential for reducing possible health impacts."

More than a billion gallons of sludge coal waste spilled from a holding
facility at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston coal-burning power
plant on Dec. 22. The ash-laden waste flooded more than 400 surrounding
acres and spilled into a tributary of the Emory River, which converges
with the Clinch River and flows into the Tennessee River, a major source
of drinking water for many communities in the region. The spill was so
large it partly dammed the tributary of the Emory River, turning it into
a standing pond.

Vengosh's team found that the combined content of radium-228 and
radium-226 - the two long-lived isotopes of radium - in the solid ash
samples they collected from the TVA spill measured about 8 picocuries
per gram. That's higher than the average 5-6 picocuries per gram
reported by the EPA in most bottom and fly ash samples. The curie is a
standard measure of the intensity of radioactivity.

Radium is a naturally occurring radioactive element that decays from
uranium and thorium elements in coal. When the coal is burned, it is
concentrated in the ash. The EPA classifies radium as a Group-A
carcinogenic material, which means exposure to it could cause cancer.

Water samples collected and analyzed by Vengosh and Duke graduate
student Laura Ruhl found high levels of arsenic, measuring 95 parts per
billion, in water from the dammed tributary where coal ash has
accumulated. Only low concentrations were found in the Emory and Clinch
rivers. The EPA has set the arsenic standard for safe public drinking
water at 10 parts per billion.

Arsenic is a toxic metal that can occur naturally in the environment or
as a by-product of some agricultural and industrial activities.
According to the EPA, the effects of long-term chronic exposure to
arsenic can include increased risk of certain types of cancer, as well
as skin damage and circulatory problems.

"The good news is, we detected only trace amounts of arsenic in waters
beyond the dammed tributary," Vengosh said. "The data suggests that
in less than three weeks since the spill, river flow has diluted the
arsenic content. The river is clean, but the water from areas like the
dammed tributary, where the coal ash has accumulated, still contains
high arsenic levels."

Vengosh is an internationally cited expert on the chemistry of
radioactive elements in surface and ground waters. He has conducted
extensive research on radon and radium contaminants in the ground waters
of western North Carolina and the Middle East.

He and Ruhl collected the water and solid ash samples at sites affected
by the TVA spill on Jan. 9. Duke research scientist Gary Dwyer analyzed
the water samples for trace metal content using inductively coupled
plasma mass spectrometry. Following preliminary analysis, the solid ash
samples were incubated and underwent more detailed analysis of their
radioactive content using gamma spectrometry.

Vengosh's team collected the samples from the TVA spill after being
contacted by United Mountain Defense, a nonprofit environmental group
based in Tennessee. The Duke researchers received no funding from the
group or any other external party. All funding was provided by the
Nicholas School, Vengosh said, "to maintain total impartiality in our
analysis."

"The TVA spill is one of the largest events of its kind in U.S. history.
It raises questions concerning the safety of storing coal ash and the
potential effects of coal ash on environmental and human health,"
Vengosh said. "We hope our analysis will help provide some answers."

###

2 Funny, Sad, But True Videos about Coal And Bush!

Hip Look at Dirty Coal. Very informative!



Keith Olbermann- 8 Years of Bush in 8 minutes. Makes your head want to explode. Thank God it's over!

Awesome Video- End of the (Bush) World

This comes from a woman that I am so proud and privileged to know, and she used to be my boss dude, aka the bus driver, aka dragon lady. She has moved onto a new place, but still kicking butt, and so are we:). Thanks MA!

OK, something funny for once!

Please check out this amazing stand up poet, Taylor Mali! He makes great points in a really funny way. Check it!

The Impotence of of Proofreading


Like, You Know?



What Teachers Make

Monsanto is evil!

And I don't say that lightly. I know its sounds extremist until you start looking into it

Power Past Coal, Plug into New Power

Repost from Huffington Post

As I and many others have reported here on Huffington Post, on December 22nd, at 12:30 a.m., a containment wall holding back 50 years worth of toxic coal ash gave way. The sludge rushed into the Emory River, creating a 20 foot tall wave of waste and water that proceeded to overtake 400 acres of land, ruining homes and permanently changing the lives of residents of Harriman, TN.

Coal combustion waste is not usually part of the conversation when the environmental impacts of coal are discussed. Traditionally, most of the "life cycle of coal" is excluded; most politicians, environmental groups, and mainstream media focus on what comes out of the smokestack.

Little attention is paid to where the coal comes from, like mountaintop removal coal mining (link: ), or to the waste created after the coal is burned. That focus has created stronger laws focusing on decreasing air pollution, by demanding that coal-burning utilities place stronger scrubbers on their operations, thereby making dirty coal "somewhat cleaner" to burn.

According to the law of conservation, once matter is created, it cannot be destroyed, but it can be re-arranged. Coal that is burned leaves waste behind, known as coal ash. The "cleaner" coal burns, the dirtier its waste, since toxins that would have been released into the atmosphere are now concentrated into the waste product.

Its important to note that all steps in the life cycle of coal wreck communities, from Appalachian coalfield residents watching their mountains being destroyed, to urban areas thick from smokestack pollution, to the incident in Harriman, TN.

So, if the mining of coal is dirty, the burning of coal is dirty, and the waste left over from burning and processing coal is dirty, what's the solution?

We need to Power Past Coal. We need to expose the truth that coal is dirty, and plug into new power.

Power Past Coal is a project of a loosely connected network of diverse organizations all across America who are working on energy and social justice issues.

Organizations fighting to defend their land from harmful mining practices, stopping new coal-fired power plants, or campaigning for a new energy policy agreed to launch a project together that could bring attention to the urgency of and connections between our efforts.

By identifying and publicizing 100 days of independent actions, we will highlight a narrative that shows both the problems with and solutions to our current energy policy. By joining together, we raise the profile of and add value to our individual campaigns.

The loose structure of this project is based on the philosophy of Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest who wrote,

"Groups ranging from ad hoc neighborhood associations to well-funded international organizations are confronting issues like the destruction of the environment [and] social justice. They share no orthodoxy or unifying ideology... they remain supple enough to coalesce easily into larger networks to achieve their goals".

Coal is dirty and outdated, from the extraction process to its waste disposal. You cannot make coal cleaner, you can only make parts of its process cleaner, but the toxins do not go away. It would go against the laws of physics.

We need to clean up our act. Coal won't end tomorrow, but we need to transition away from our dirty past, and invest in a clean energy future. We need to start with energy efficiency and conservation, because the United States is the Saudia Arabia of energy waste.

Once we do that, technologies like wind, solar, and geothermal, which leave a much smaller footprint on on the planet, become feasible.





We need to dramatically change the course of our energy future and we need to do it now. If not, we will continue to expose communities to land-destroying mining practices, pollution-belching smokestacks, and water-damaging coal combustion waste.

See Your Connection to Mountaintop Removal Coal

Go to http://www.ilovemountains.org/badges for the codes. There are a number of badges to choose from! Help spread the word about this environmental and human rights issue.

Pin this badge on your site.

Are You Connected to Mountaintop Removal Coal?

Check this out! It's a really awesome feature on iLoveMountains.org. Go to the bottom of http://www.ilovemountains.org/badges to put this on your website, blog, etc.