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July 7, 2005
Raleigh County Grandfather Stages Capitol Sit–In Protesting Coal Silo Near School
by Adam Brown
Huntington News Network Writer
Charleston, WV (HNN) – A 47–year–old grandfather and former contract employee who helped build the Marsh Fork slurry impoundment staged a sit–in Tuesday, July 5, 2005 at the state Capitol complex.
Ed Wiley of Rock Creek was protesting the Department of Environmental Protection approval of a permit allowing Massey Energy to build a second coal silo behind Marsh Fork Elementary School in the Raleigh County community of Sundial.
The area, about 100 to 200 feet behind the school, currently contains a coal silo and a coal processing plant. Blasting on a mountaintop removal site in the hills surrounding the school frequently shakes classrooms, and a leaking 375–foot sludge dam looms in the distance.
Wiley said Gov. Joe Manchin promised to make a statement about Marsh Fork by Thursday, July 7, 2005. A spokesperson for Manchin said a meeting was scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday.
"Summer is almost over and these kids are running out of time," he said. "The kids should not return back to the school."
Wiley said he decided to go to the capital after Manchin failed to respond to his concerns.
"[At a previous meeting] the governor said he would call within five to six working days, and when he didn't do it I thought I'd just go down [to the capital and stay] until he explained why he was allowing the silo," he said.
Wiley said the meeting fulfilled its objective of informing Manchin about Marsh Fork.
"I told myself if I ever had another opportunity to be in the governor's office, I'd do things better than the first time," he said. "With all due respect, the governor didn't know about the children jumping into classrooms during the blasting and being rushed in at recess when the dust got too thick."
Wiley said he first became aware of the dangers being posed to the children at Marsh Fork when his granddaughter began getting sick.
"I had to get my granddaughter out of school three days in a row," he said. "On the third day when I was leaving the school I looked at her and she was a purplish–dark blue. She turned and looked at me and said, 'Gramps, the coal mines are making me sick.'"
Wiley said after checking with other community members he found many children had asthma, suffered from chronic headaches and had constant sinus trouble.
"The headaches are coming from the blasting," he said. "They use a lot of fertilizers and silicon dust comes from the strip job. Silicon gets into the small pores of your lungs and cuts it."
Judy Bonds, an organizer from the Coal River Mountain Watch, said the DEP needs to look into the Marsh Fork situation and their permit granting system.
"We want the governor to see the huge problem with the DEP permit process," she said. "We want a new school built on a safe location and we want him to see the bigger picture with the aggressive way companies are mining coal."
Wiley said one situation being discussed is building a new school on the site of the former Mount View Middle School.
"Governor Manchin told me he would do everything in his power to do what is right for the children," he said. "[If he builds a new school] he'll be doing a great thing for the campaign as well as himself and I feel it would be good to put his name on the school."
