July 25, 2006
 
Grandfather Plans Walk from Charleston to DC to Raise Awareness of Marsh Fork Elementary School Problems
 
By HNN Staff
 
Sundial, WV (HNN) – Ed Wiley, grandfather of a student who attended Marsh Fork Elementary School in Sundial, WV., plans to walk from Charleston, WV to Washington, D.C. Wiley is representing Pennies of Promise, a local campaign to raise funds for a new school in the Marsh Fork area and to raise awareness of the environmental problems facing the children at Marsh Fork Elementary.
 
He plans to leave Aug. 2, 2006 and arrive in Washington Sept. 12, 2006.
 
“What the Marsh Fork students have to endure is unacceptable,” said Wiley. “There’s no reason these children’s health and safety should be placed in jeopardy. They need a healthy environment in which to learn.”
 
A 168-foot tall coal silo, operated by Massey Energy subsidiary Goals Coal Company, looms over the school grounds just 225 feet from the school building. Massey is currently applying for a permit to build a second silo just 260 feet from the building. The silos store powdered coal, load it onto rail cars and then spray the coal with a chemical binding agent.
 
Independent tests conducted in January confirm the presence of coal dust in the school. Several parents have raised concerns that their children’s health problems, such as asthma and bronchitis, are related to coal dust from the silo and associated coal preparation plant.
 
The preparation plant processes coal by washing it with chemical agents to remove impurities. The prepared coal then goes to the silo, while the toxic waste residue goes to a 2.8 billion-gallon sludge dam 400 yards upstream from the school. The Mine Safety and Health Administration has cited the dam repeatedly for violations in its construction and maintenance. In 2000, a sludge dam in Kentucky, operated by the same company, released over 300 million gallons of sludge in what the EPA called the worst environmental disaster in the Southeast. The spill was nearly 30 times the volume of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill.
 
Massey also operates a 1,849-acre mountaintop removal mine site above the sludge dam and school. Dust from the site has often drifted over the school area. Runoff from the site flows into the sludge dam.
 
“Our local and state leaders have turned a blind eye to this problem and a deaf ear to our concerns,” said Wiley. “I’m walking to Washington, D.C., to get some help.”
 
Concerned over the long bus rides older students have faced since Marsh Fork High School was closed, residents are calling for a new K-12 school in their own community.