Published: September 24, 2007 10:26 am      

What if there were no more hills to look up to?

In the midst of our beautiful West Virginia Mountains, there is a wolf in sheep's clothing. This wolf touts what a great thing he is for our state. How we wouldn't be able to survive without him. And he is on the prowl.

This wolf is King Coal. For over a century, coal companies have been making billions of dollars extracting coal from our mountains, while West Virginia's people remain the second poorest in the nation. And now coal companies have found an even more profitable way to mine coal that basically takes the coal miner out of the picture. This process is called mountaintop removal.

Every day in our state, 3 million pounds of explosives are used to literally blow the tops off of mountains to get to the coal seams below. Over 470 of our ancient mountains have been destroyed. The debris is then dumped into the valleys and streams below, so far burying over 1,200 miles of streams. Gov. Manchin is trying to convince us that America needs this coal, although coal from mountaintop mining only accounts for about 5 percent of U.S. coal production.

What does this mean for the residents of Appalachia's coalfields? So far it has meant catastrophic flooding from the burying and re-routing of streams, the destruction of the mountains that their ancestors have lived in for generations, and contaminated drinking water from leaking toxic sludge dams. For a few years worth of energy, communities are being wiped out and landscapes are being devastated.

So far, Gov. Manchin and Sen. Byrd have turned a deaf ear to the residents of the coalfields, who are crying out, "Our children are sick, our water is poisoned, and our mountains are no longer there!" Our politicians are only hearing coal and its money.

Mountaintop mining is devastating Appalachia and no one knows or cares. It's time to speak up and help our fellow West Virginians. Call Rep. Mollohan and urge him to support the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 2169).

This act is necessary to protect clean drinking water for many of our nation's cities and to protect the quality of life for Appalachian coalfield residents. You can go to ilovemountains.org and 700mountains.org to find out more.

"I look to the hills from whence cometh my strength ... ." But what if there are no more hills to look up to?

Amy Fabbri
Petersburg, W.Va.