WeLoveMountains

 

    A coalition of environmental groups including the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy www.wvhighlands.org, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition(OVEC), www.ohvec.org  and the Coal River Mountain Watch www.crmw.net  recently won an important injunction to stop the filling of a West Virginia valley with coal mine waste from mountain top removal strip mining. A brave woman helped make this possible. She is Maria Gunnoe who lives just down the valley from a mountain top removal coal mine.

    

    Maria is a community organizer for the OVEC and has been very successful in helping people stand up against mountain top removal mining. Mountain top removal is a totally destructive form of coal mining that has leveled 500,000 acres of Appalachian mountains and buried 1000 miles of streams.  Federal Judge Charles Chambers imposed a temporary injunction which prevents the new, huge valley fill in Boone County to be built (for now, at least). The company says they couldn't keep mining the mountains unless they have this new valley fill to dump the former mountaintops into.  39 workers were laid off.  If the valley fill had been approved by the Judge, it would have employed these 39 workers to do MTR mining for another 12  to 18 months. And then they would have wanted to destroy another mountain and fill in more valleys.
    

    The mine on the mountain above Maria's house has already caused flooding that damaged her barn, swept away bridges connecting her homeplace to the main road and washed away five acres of her land. Some of the washout gouged the land to a depth of five feet. Here are some links to see what has happened to Maria's home:

http://journals.aol.com/imaginemew/LoveMountains/entries/2006/06/11/more-maria-ggunnoe-pictures/643

For more links just google Maria Gunnoe.

     

    Maria is fighting to preserve her home, her dignity and now her very life. She has been threatened, run off the road and a large wanted poster was put up at a grocery store near where she lives. Shortly before we won the injunction, an OVEC meeting near Maria's home in Boone County, West Virginia was forcibly taken over by about 60 mountaintop removal workers. They crowded into the meeting room and made it impossible for others to get in. These people were angry because their company had apparently told them that OVEC was going to take away their $75K jobs, and Maria Gunnoe, in particular, was to be targeted.The FBI is investigating the threats but can offer no protection for Maria and her children. With the help of some friends Maria has hired two unemployed underground coal miners to guard her family and her home.  The guards are now wearing bullet proof vests.

    

    We are writing now because we need immediate help in providing the funding for people to continue to keep watch over Maria's home night and day - as they have been for close to 2 weeks now. We've been promised some bigger financial help but we won't have this funding for awhile.  So we've been soliciting private donations. We now find it necessary to ask more widely. We need at least $300 a day to keep Maria's home protected.

    

    If you can help Maria please send her what donations you can. Checks should be made payable to Maria Gunnoe and sent to her at POB 46, Bob White, WV 25028.