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Hechler, Gibson call for end to harmful mining practices in lecture

Hechler-gibson-call-for-end-of-harmful-mining-in-lecture

Todd Friedman

In a double lecture with retired congressman Ken Hechler, environmentalist Larry Gibson shows picures of the deep Appalachian residents who are being negatively affected by mountain top removal coal mining.

BY AMELIA POSSANZA

In print | September 25, 2008

Retired West Virginia Congressman Ken Hechler ’35 returned to Swarthmore College to give a double lecture with environmentalist Larry Gibson last Tuesday.

The combination of Hechler’s political formality and Gibson’s grassroots passion for the environment enhanced the duo’s call for activism on behalf of the communities and ecosystems harmed by mountain-top removal (MTR) coal mining in Appalachia.

Engineering professor and co-chair of the college sustainability committee Carr Everbach brought the two men to campus to raise awareness about the issue. “Although I’m on leave from teaching this semester, I am still very involved in sustainability issues and didn’t want to pass up the chance,” Everbach said.

MTR coal mining is a process by which coal companies harvest coal. “They blast the top off a mountain. The layers of coal are like a layer cake, and they have to keep blasting the rocks and the trees and the soil, and they dump that down into people’s yards down in the valleys, so it not only affects the landscape, it has a serious effect on the people,” said Hechler. Coal companies view MTR mining as one of the cheapest ways to harvest coal. But, as Hechler pointed out, “It’s only cheap because they don’t consider the cost to the human beings that live below the mountain.”
In 1974, a Wyoming senator passed an amendment that legalized MTR mining. Hechler unsuccessfully rose in opposition to the amendment then and has continued his campaign for mine reforms in West Virginia ever since.

During his years of activism, he focused particularly on the pollution produced by MTR, including waves of dust produced by the blast and the sludgy liquid waste of coal production – both of which have detrimental effects on public health. “I’m coming here today to tell you about the best kept secret the mining industry has about the deep Appalachia people, the forgotten people of Appalachia,” Gibson said in a preface to his lecture. And he was true to his word.

Gibson lives on Kayford Mountain, one of the Appalachian peaks affected by MTR. The lecture hall was lined with black and white photographs of landscapes and members of his community that were heavily affected by MTR. A photo of a small school became the jumping off point for a story about 233 kids who attend school just 250 feet from a coal preparation plant.

Many of the kids have to use inhalers, and five teachers have died of cancer. Another photo of a young man served as part of the lecture. “Look at this proud young man. Look at the hope in his eyes. Do you see any hope in his eyes?” Gibson said, emphasizing the human cost of MTR.
The stories of impacted communities and the history of MTR mining are those of environmental injustice. The areas in which companies extract coal through MTR generally have some of the lowest per-capita income, inadequately-funded and substandard schools and poorly kept roads. Gibson recalled a childhood in a three-room house with one light-bulb.

In addition to poverty, these people have to deal with polluted drinking water and other harmful effects of MTR. Much of the wealth generated by mining does not make it back into the state of West Virginia, as many of the companies are located outside of the state.

The West Virginian government offers few prospects for change for its people. Coal companies contribute money to the campaigns of the men and women who run for office in the state, making the politicians beholden to the companies when they do win.

A five-minute clip from the television program “Sixty Minutes” showed during the lecture featured one such puppet governor who nearly refused to acknowledge the problems facing the people he was elected to represent.

Without the government to help him and his people, Gibson encourages everyone he meets to speak out against the destruction of Kayford Mountain and the environmental injustice faced by its residents. He spends about eight months of the year speaking to college students, church congregations, UN ambassadors, and any other people willing to listen. His activism has gotten him arrested nine times in the past eight years.

While he does not believe that others should necessarily risk a criminal record in the process of defending the mountain, he did offer several methods of advocacy for the Appalachia people: writing to a presidential candidate to say that there is no such thing as “clean coal,” sending an editorial piece to a West Virginian newspaper or simply donating money to Mr. Gibson so that he can continue to travel and spread his story.

Hechler encouraged students to speak out against the harm done to the mountain communities. “The objective here is to try to get students here at Swarthmore [to be] the battering rams we need [for] change,” he said.