14 cited for trespassing during coal mine protest
Tuesday February 3, 4:09 pm ET
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14 ticketed for trespassing during protest at Massey Energy surface mine in West Virginia
PETTUS, W.Va. (AP) -- Fourteen protesters who claim a Massey Energy Co. surface mine in West Virginia could cause flooding and harm a nearby town were ticketed for trespassing Tuesday, state police said.
Five of the protesters chained themselves to heavy equipment at Massey's Beetree Surface Mine on Coal River Mountain, said Sgt. Michael Baylous, who described the participants as peaceful.
Eight more were cited when they insisted on seeing a company representative after delivering a letter addressed to Massey chief Don Blankenship and subsidiary Marfork Coal Co., Baylous said. A photographer who allegedly trespassed to shoot pictures of the protest also was cited, he said.
Five protesters were identified as members of Climate Ground Zero and pan-Appalachian Mountain Justice, according to news release issued by the groups.
The letter signed by 14 West Virginians asks Massey and Marfork to cease operations at Beetree and an adjacent coal sludge impoundment. Blasting near the impoundment could cause flooding that could harm a nearby senior center, a Head Start program and the town of Whitesville, the letter says.
The letter also repeats the call for a wind farm in place of the surface mine, an idea being pushed by opponents of mountaintop removal mining.
The destructive practice of mountaintop mining relies on removing tons of rock and dirt to expose thin, shallow coal seams.
Since the individuals were trespassing, they were rightfully cited, Massey spokesman Jeff Gillenwater said, noting that the Richmond, Va.-based company has the right to mine the site and all necessary permits.
Massey, the nation's fourth-largest coal producer by revenue, has operations in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. |
