SEAC shows ‘The Last Mountain’ to raise MTR awareness amoungst students, community

Marshall University's student environmental group , the Student Environmental Action Coalition, hosted a showing of "The Last Mountain" documentary followed by a question and answer session with internationally acclaimed activist Maria Gunnoe and coalfield resident Danny Cook.

Students and community members watched the documentary about mountaintop removal around Coal River Mountain near Charleston on Thursday.

Maria Gunnoe said she has been battling mountaintop coal mining removal for 15 years.

"I think it's important for everyone to know that this battle has been going on for a while," said Marshall Cooper, junior an environmental assessment and policy major from Athens, Ohio.

Gunnoe said her house and community are jeopardized by Alpha Natural Resources mountaintop removal and coal sludge pond, which create flooding problems and pollutes well water.

Gunnoe said the health and safety problems from mountaintop removal do not only affect Boone County, W.Va. because "everybody is downstream from mountaintop removal," and therefore everyone's drinking water is affected.

SEAC invited the speakers and the community to Marshall because "this is one of our hometown issues that needs to be addressed," SEAC president Lauren Kemp, said.

Michelle Schaller, a junior psychology major from Morgantown, W.Va., said "it was just disgusting" to watch Sen. Joe Manchin, then Governor, ignore a little girl's plea for a new school away from a coal sludge pond.

The coal mining companies have the power to push out whole communities, said Danny Cook, coalfield resident.

Gunnoe said she is determined to stop the mountaintop removal and replace the destructive practice with wind turbines to generate power.

Cooper said she is disappointed that today's technology could eliminate the need for coal and yet "we're not pursuing it."

"Why aren't we pursuing it? Because everybody's got a hand in coal," Cooper said.

"West Virginia is a state divided," Schaller said. "The whole state is backed by coal, they back the coal miners but they don't realize that the coal mining companies are really hurting our state."

Cook said that he and Gunnoe came to Marshall University to "get the word out" for some grassroots support.

Gunnoe said that she appreciated the invitation to come to Marshall because she had been trying to come to the University for years to promote mountaintop removal awareness.

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