MTR activist to visit Marshall’s campus

The Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) invited Larry Gibson,  mountaintop removal activist and resident, to speak to Marshall students and community members.

The lecture will be at 6p.m. Thursday in the Shockey Room of the Memorial Student Center.

"Larry is at the head of our movement, and rightfully so," said Lauren Tussey,  junior English and political science major from Ashland, Ky.

Gibson has been a mountaintop removal activist for 23 years. He lives in his ancestral Stanley home on Kayford Mountain surrounded by an active mining site 35 miles outside of Charleston.

Gibson was interviewed for the documentary "The Last Mountain," which SEAC hosted a showing of two weeks ago with a question-and-answer session featuring fellow mountaintop removal activist Maria Gunnoe and neighbor Danny Cook.

Massey and Arch Coal Mines "have managed to buy essentially everyone out except for the Stanley land," Tussey said.

Tussey said she toured Gibson's land to Devil's Gate, which "shows the magnitude of destruction" on the mountain with one side pristine and the other side devastated by mountaintop removal.

The nearly 50 acres includes a family cemetery harboring graves that date back hundreds of years. The mountaintop removal blasting has disrupted some of the graves.

"The blasts have shaken some of the graves and knocked headstones down – causing a lot of damage," Tussey said.

Gravestones aren't the only thing mountaintop blasting has disrupted.

"Gibson's neighbors in the valley are starting to realize that their water is orange," Tussey said, "because the blasting has disrupted the water tables."

Heavy metals have infiltrated the local water – making it toxic and sparking local support.

To add insult to injury, Tussey said Gibson has "faced some gruesome attacks," allegedly from the coal mining companies.

"They've shot his dog, they've threatened his wife and family, they've cut his tires," Tussey said.

Larry Gibson is working hard for the cause, Tussey said, and she hopes that everything continues to go smoothly for him.

SEAC has tentative plans to visit and tour the mountaintop removal site in April.

Christina Carrion can be contacted at carrion@marshall.edu.