July 20, 2010 I filed a citizen's complaint on Mountainside Coal OSM permit # 3058 for having run off water bypass a sediment pond for over a year now which illegal with discharges directly into Straight Creek. I also filed a citizen's complaint on a black water spill the occurred on 7-19-2010 into Rock Creek most likely from the Marion Coal Tipple or associated mining activity in the area.
July 20, 2010 I faxed in information to help set up tabling at the Great Smokey Mountains National Park for this coming weekend.
July 20, 2010 I attended a meeting about Story Corps at Unitarian Universalist Church at 6PM
July 20, 2010 I attended the United Mountain Defense volunteer meeting at 7PM at Barley's and typed up and sent out the volunteer meeting notes to the local UMD email listserve.
July 17, 2010 Jordan and Ollie did tabling at Market Square during the Market Square Farmer's Market 9am-2pm.
July 17, 2010 Ollie and I did tabling at Cutthroat Shamrock Irish Punk Rock show at Barley's in Knoxville, TN.
July 16, 2010 I participated in a conference call of the monthly Mountain Justice meeting in Coal River, West Virginia for about 5 hours.
July 16, 2010 Ollie and I did tabling at the Knoxville Museam of Art Live After Five with Blue Mother Tupelo.
July 15, 2010 Jordan and Ollie tabled at the New Harvest Farmer's Market 4PM-6PM Knoxville.
July 14, 2010 Ollie and Jordan tabled at the Market Square Farmer's Market 11am-2pm.
July 13, 2010 I communicated with UMD intern Peter Murrey who is working on GIS mapping of coal mines to figure out if coal mines are going outside of their permit boundaries. Peter has already found at least 4-5 coal mines that have broken their boundaries. I will help instruct Peter in how to file citizen's complaints and will be accompanying him on site visits to the coal mines.
July 13, 2010 Mary Gibson and I attended a public meeting about Kopper Glo Straight Creek Surface Mine in Caryville, TN. We learned a lot of valuable information and requested an audio copy of the public meeting from TDEC.
July 12, 2010 Jordan and Ollie tabled at Preservation Pub.
July 9, 2010 Jenny and Ollie table at the Bijou Theater.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Weekly UMD volunteer meeting, Helping set up tabling in Knoxville, Connecting Intern and Coal impacted community residents, TMD newspaper
July 9, 2010 Jordan, UMD's outreach coordinator intern, traveled to Eagan, TN to meet with Carol Judy. Jordan is doing research for her senior thesis and will be writing an article spotlighting Carol Judy for the Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper. I provided contact information and directions to Carol's house.
July 9, 2010 Jenny, UMD's artistic intern began working on a grant application from Patagonia along with my help to request $3,000 of funding to print the next issue of the Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper. She also sent out the request for article submissions to the Mountain Justice listserve.
July 8, 2010 Jordan and Ollie went to the Knoxville Farmer's Market to table for UMD.
July 7, 2010 Ollie Swartzch, a UMD outreach intern, arrives in Knoxville for the next month. I provided an orientation for Ollie to the volunteer house and Knoxville.
July 7, 2010 I helped provide information to Jordan and Ollie, two UMD outreach interns about locations to table at in Knoxville, TN.
July 6, 2010 I attended the weekly UMD volunteer meeting and helped type up and send out meeting notes. We had a breakout group following the UMD meeting about the Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper. We came up with a list of article ideas that we wanted to print up. Here is a partial list of possible articles for the next edition of the newspaper. We also generated a list of people to contact about writing specific articles and then Jenny, UMD's artistic intern will forward all of these requests to the Mountain Justice listserve and to the people for whom we have specific asks. I may end up writing a couple of these articles.
Possible Articles-- 1) Beehive Design Collective "True Cost of Coal Poster", 2) update on Davis Creek, 3) National Coal of Alabama permit denied, 4) Nationwide Permit 21 shut down, 5) UMD Americorp/ VISTA update/ seeking funding for Americorp Volunteers/ Current Mining Team (CMT), 6) Canoeing in Coal Country/ Blue Trails, 7) water quality along Cumberland Trail/ Rock Creek, TN coal mining issues, 8) Clearfork Community Institute/ Bonner Foundation grant/ CCI Americorp positions, 9) new proposed EPA regulations relating to the coal industry, 10) Protests of the weird/ roundup of weird/ funny protest actions concerning coal, 11) Climate Ground Zero Updates less words and lots of action photos, 12) Fossil Fools Day award/ Tom Kilgore and TVA/ possibly print the flyer that was made, 13) Mountain Justice Campaign houses across Appalachia 14) ALABAMA resistance to coal!!!!! 15) Xinergy Energy 16) National Coal goes down the hole/ what are they doing? 17) Inspirational stories from UMD interns 18) Perry County Alabama residents file lawsuit against Arrowhead Landfill/ TVA coal fly ash disaster, 19) Mountain Justice Spring Break report back 20) Mountain Justice Summer camp reportback 21) Nazi Counter Rally in Knoxville Aug 14, 2010 22) Ryan Bliss Poem 23) ACF Margo Miller poem—see below 24) Great Smoky Mountains Air Quality reportback 25) July 4th Mountain Keeper Music Festival 26) MJ post action protest, bank stuff 27) possible advertisements $3,000 to cover all newspaper expenses 28) local stories from Carol Judy or other local folks
July 5, 2010 I helped co-facilitate a weekly UMD volunteer house meeting where we planned out the weekly volunteer schedule.
July 5, 2010 Jordan, Mary, Jenny, and Pete, all UMD interns went and tabled for UMD at the Preservation Pub in Market Square after I helped them set up the tabling event by providing a phone number to the Pub.
July 9, 2010 Jenny, UMD's artistic intern began working on a grant application from Patagonia along with my help to request $3,000 of funding to print the next issue of the Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper. She also sent out the request for article submissions to the Mountain Justice listserve.
July 8, 2010 Jordan and Ollie went to the Knoxville Farmer's Market to table for UMD.
July 7, 2010 Ollie Swartzch, a UMD outreach intern, arrives in Knoxville for the next month. I provided an orientation for Ollie to the volunteer house and Knoxville.
July 7, 2010 I helped provide information to Jordan and Ollie, two UMD outreach interns about locations to table at in Knoxville, TN.
July 6, 2010 I attended the weekly UMD volunteer meeting and helped type up and send out meeting notes. We had a breakout group following the UMD meeting about the Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper. We came up with a list of article ideas that we wanted to print up. Here is a partial list of possible articles for the next edition of the newspaper. We also generated a list of people to contact about writing specific articles and then Jenny, UMD's artistic intern will forward all of these requests to the Mountain Justice listserve and to the people for whom we have specific asks. I may end up writing a couple of these articles.
Possible Articles-- 1) Beehive Design Collective "True Cost of Coal Poster", 2) update on Davis Creek, 3) National Coal of Alabama permit denied, 4) Nationwide Permit 21 shut down, 5) UMD Americorp/ VISTA update/ seeking funding for Americorp Volunteers/ Current Mining Team (CMT), 6) Canoeing in Coal Country/ Blue Trails, 7) water quality along Cumberland Trail/ Rock Creek, TN coal mining issues, 8) Clearfork Community Institute/ Bonner Foundation grant/ CCI Americorp positions, 9) new proposed EPA regulations relating to the coal industry, 10) Protests of the weird/ roundup of weird/ funny protest actions concerning coal, 11) Climate Ground Zero Updates less words and lots of action photos, 12) Fossil Fools Day award/ Tom Kilgore and TVA/ possibly print the flyer that was made, 13) Mountain Justice Campaign houses across Appalachia 14) ALABAMA resistance to coal!!!!! 15) Xinergy Energy 16) National Coal goes down the hole/ what are they doing? 17) Inspirational stories from UMD interns 18) Perry County Alabama residents file lawsuit against Arrowhead Landfill/ TVA coal fly ash disaster, 19) Mountain Justice Spring Break report back 20) Mountain Justice Summer camp reportback 21) Nazi Counter Rally in Knoxville Aug 14, 2010 22) Ryan Bliss Poem 23) ACF Margo Miller poem—see below 24) Great Smoky Mountains Air Quality reportback 25) July 4th Mountain Keeper Music Festival 26) MJ post action protest, bank stuff 27) possible advertisements $3,000 to cover all newspaper expenses 28) local stories from Carol Judy or other local folks
July 5, 2010 I helped co-facilitate a weekly UMD volunteer house meeting where we planned out the weekly volunteer schedule.
July 5, 2010 Jordan, Mary, Jenny, and Pete, all UMD interns went and tabled for UMD at the Preservation Pub in Market Square after I helped them set up the tabling event by providing a phone number to the Pub.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Canoe Trip Reportback, 2 new UMD interns, flyer distro, Music contact, Minesite Vist, public meeting/ workshop, tabling in Knoxville, 2 UMD meetings
Since my last post I had lost my calender but have been working feverously with a few new interns.
July 3, 2010 Two UMD interns left for the summer. Sam Chillaron and Sara Henry left for the Mountain Keepers Music Festival in West Virginia where they were going to table for United Mountain Defense and help distribute Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper.
On July 1, 2010 I went on a minesite visit with 3 other UMD volunteers to Mountainside Coal Tipple OSM permit # 3211. I instructed the 3 UMD volunteers how to use the digital water monitor and about some of the different elements of the coal tipple that they were observing. We found two conductivity readings of over 3000 micro semens per centimeter and over 1000 micro semens per centimeter which are both outside of safe limits according to the EPA. Neather of the ponds were discharging at the time so technically they were not in volation of the proposed EPA standards. The air smelled like sulfur and there was lots of red water pooled up from iron which was leaching out of the coal. This site visit took about an hour and we video taped the event.
Later on July 1, 2010 we did a driving tour of a mountain top removal coal mine site. It was actually a driving tour of the entire begining of the deathcycle of coal cause we saw another tipple, a wash plant, a coal train loadout facility, active mining, sediment controls, two hollow fills, and active mining with HUGE machinery. I providing a training for the UMD volunteers which contained local history, an explaination of what they were seeing, and the way the mountain used to look prior to coal mining. We videotaped the tour and I hope to create a map so that other UMD volunteers can lead future trips on the public roadway through the minesite.
Later on July 1, 2010 we went to a public meeting at the Clearfork Community Institute in Eagan, TN. This meeting was supposed to be about citizen's rights in relation to coal mining. Unfortunately our meeting was scheduled over a going away party for another OSM/ VISTA who was leaving the Clearfork Valley after 2 years of service. There was one member of the community who wanted to attend the meeting but had to work that evening and so only stopped by for a minute to gather UMD contact info. Instead of a formal meeting we ended up having an informal discussion where UMD volunteers listened to 3 local residents concerns about the coal mining and impacts to their land. There were 6 UMD volunteers in attendance.
On July 1, 2010, another UMD intern Jordan Topkins drove to Eagan to meet us for the community meeting. I spoke with Jordan to orientate her and we spoke about her projects that she will be working on during her stay. She is working on a senior thesis project which will include interviews with Appalachian residents. She will be the outreach and education coordinator during the next month here in Tennessee. She is researching various opportunities for tabling including local farmer's markets, music shows, and other events around Knoxville. I helped provide a list of various supportive venues and locations and times of farmer's markets in Knoxville. I also provided her with a link to the Metropulse newspaper and Jambase as two online sources of upcoming events in Knoxville.
On June 29, 2010 I helped type up and send out the UMD volunteer meeting notes at UMD's weekly volunteer meeting.
On June 29, 2010 Jenny Marineau, a new UMD intern arrived in Tennessee. I helped orientate her to the volunteer house and Knoxville. We spoke about the projects that she would work on including some stencil art, a new UMD logo, and about helping organize a meeting to get started working on the next issue of the Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper.
On June 28, 2010 we had a UMD Volunteer House meeting where I helped orientate volunteers and we figured out the weekly volunteer schedule.
On June 25, 2010 I drove two UMD interns, Sam Chillaron and Sara Henry, up to Eagan, TN. We delivered flyers announcing two community meetings about citizen's rights and the coal industry to local residents living around the Davis Creek Energy coal mines in southern Campbell County. We then went to interview members of the Tennessee Rainwater Band in Eagan, TN for Sara Henry's senior thesis music project. Following the interview with the band, Sara Henry rode down the mountain with Carol Judy of Eagan, TN conducting another interview on the way to Carol's house where we helped cook a big meal of fried bass and other tasty southern foods.
On June 23, 2010 I helped UMD's music intern, Sara Henry, make a good connection with members of the band, Catfish Mercury Load, following a show where they performed on the Blue Plate Special at WDVX in Knoxville. We went to the Downtown Grill and Brewery to conduct the interviews with the band memebers for Sara's music project.
On June 22, 2010 I helped type up and send out the UMD volunteer meeting notes at the weekly volunteer meeting.
On June 21, 2010 we had a UMD Volunteer house meeting where I helped orientate and figure out the weekly schedule with the UMD interns.
On June 21, 2010 a group of 5 UMD volunteers floated down the Sequatchie River which drains historically coal mined lands in East Tennessee. Here are the notes on safety that I typed up and provided for the volunteers before they floated down the river.
1) Wear your life preserver at all times.
2) Remain seated in the boat at all times.
3) If your boat flips over hold onto your paddle and try to get the boat to the shore.
4) Wear sunscreen and make sure to drink water.
Here are the directions for put-in and take-out on the Sequatchie River.
I just called the lady at Canoe the Sequatchie and she said that a good put in was off of Cherry Street which turns into Old York Hwy East and then Old TN 28 which is south east of Dunlap, TN and then the take out is on Condra Switch Road. The lady suggested that we park the end vehicle at Hwy 28 and Condra Switch Road as it will safer there. She said this will be a 12 mile float. So this trip will probably take about 5-6 hours plus tying up boats and such. http://www.sequatchie.com/canoe.htm
U.S. Hwy 127 So. & River P.O. Box 211, Dunlap, Tennessee 37327-0211
Here is the reportback from the UMD volunteers who went on the canoe trip. There are some good lessons learned from this first trip.
Hey Matt! It was great; the route was excellent. Thanks for the planning info. We missed you; we'll have to do it again, let us know what your schedule looks like. It took us about 6 hours with a quick lunch stop, teaching the kids some technique, and a quick rescue :) (large strainer we should have portaged-easy portage across small island in the middle). Other than that everything was pretty clear, mostly flat, a few class 1 rapids, a few friendly locals, some rope swings, some large birds, not much development easy enough access at the put-in and take out (short portage at the put-in. Not room for too many cars though (especially at the take out). Any other info you need? Emily
So the folks at Canoe the Sequatchie are trying to sell their business and this could be a good investment opportunity to buy and continue running a small start up business in East Tennessee.
July 3, 2010 Two UMD interns left for the summer. Sam Chillaron and Sara Henry left for the Mountain Keepers Music Festival in West Virginia where they were going to table for United Mountain Defense and help distribute Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper.
On July 1, 2010 I went on a minesite visit with 3 other UMD volunteers to Mountainside Coal Tipple OSM permit # 3211. I instructed the 3 UMD volunteers how to use the digital water monitor and about some of the different elements of the coal tipple that they were observing. We found two conductivity readings of over 3000 micro semens per centimeter and over 1000 micro semens per centimeter which are both outside of safe limits according to the EPA. Neather of the ponds were discharging at the time so technically they were not in volation of the proposed EPA standards. The air smelled like sulfur and there was lots of red water pooled up from iron which was leaching out of the coal. This site visit took about an hour and we video taped the event.
Later on July 1, 2010 we did a driving tour of a mountain top removal coal mine site. It was actually a driving tour of the entire begining of the deathcycle of coal cause we saw another tipple, a wash plant, a coal train loadout facility, active mining, sediment controls, two hollow fills, and active mining with HUGE machinery. I providing a training for the UMD volunteers which contained local history, an explaination of what they were seeing, and the way the mountain used to look prior to coal mining. We videotaped the tour and I hope to create a map so that other UMD volunteers can lead future trips on the public roadway through the minesite.
Later on July 1, 2010 we went to a public meeting at the Clearfork Community Institute in Eagan, TN. This meeting was supposed to be about citizen's rights in relation to coal mining. Unfortunately our meeting was scheduled over a going away party for another OSM/ VISTA who was leaving the Clearfork Valley after 2 years of service. There was one member of the community who wanted to attend the meeting but had to work that evening and so only stopped by for a minute to gather UMD contact info. Instead of a formal meeting we ended up having an informal discussion where UMD volunteers listened to 3 local residents concerns about the coal mining and impacts to their land. There were 6 UMD volunteers in attendance.
On July 1, 2010, another UMD intern Jordan Topkins drove to Eagan to meet us for the community meeting. I spoke with Jordan to orientate her and we spoke about her projects that she will be working on during her stay. She is working on a senior thesis project which will include interviews with Appalachian residents. She will be the outreach and education coordinator during the next month here in Tennessee. She is researching various opportunities for tabling including local farmer's markets, music shows, and other events around Knoxville. I helped provide a list of various supportive venues and locations and times of farmer's markets in Knoxville. I also provided her with a link to the Metropulse newspaper and Jambase as two online sources of upcoming events in Knoxville.
On June 29, 2010 I helped type up and send out the UMD volunteer meeting notes at UMD's weekly volunteer meeting.
On June 29, 2010 Jenny Marineau, a new UMD intern arrived in Tennessee. I helped orientate her to the volunteer house and Knoxville. We spoke about the projects that she would work on including some stencil art, a new UMD logo, and about helping organize a meeting to get started working on the next issue of the Tennessee Mountain Defender newspaper.
On June 28, 2010 we had a UMD Volunteer House meeting where I helped orientate volunteers and we figured out the weekly volunteer schedule.
On June 25, 2010 I drove two UMD interns, Sam Chillaron and Sara Henry, up to Eagan, TN. We delivered flyers announcing two community meetings about citizen's rights and the coal industry to local residents living around the Davis Creek Energy coal mines in southern Campbell County. We then went to interview members of the Tennessee Rainwater Band in Eagan, TN for Sara Henry's senior thesis music project. Following the interview with the band, Sara Henry rode down the mountain with Carol Judy of Eagan, TN conducting another interview on the way to Carol's house where we helped cook a big meal of fried bass and other tasty southern foods.
On June 23, 2010 I helped UMD's music intern, Sara Henry, make a good connection with members of the band, Catfish Mercury Load, following a show where they performed on the Blue Plate Special at WDVX in Knoxville. We went to the Downtown Grill and Brewery to conduct the interviews with the band memebers for Sara's music project.
On June 22, 2010 I helped type up and send out the UMD volunteer meeting notes at the weekly volunteer meeting.
On June 21, 2010 we had a UMD Volunteer house meeting where I helped orientate and figure out the weekly schedule with the UMD interns.
On June 21, 2010 a group of 5 UMD volunteers floated down the Sequatchie River which drains historically coal mined lands in East Tennessee. Here are the notes on safety that I typed up and provided for the volunteers before they floated down the river.
1) Wear your life preserver at all times.
2) Remain seated in the boat at all times.
3) If your boat flips over hold onto your paddle and try to get the boat to the shore.
4) Wear sunscreen and make sure to drink water.
Here are the directions for put-in and take-out on the Sequatchie River.
I just called the lady at Canoe the Sequatchie and she said that a good put in was off of Cherry Street which turns into Old York Hwy East and then Old TN 28 which is south east of Dunlap, TN and then the take out is on Condra Switch Road. The lady suggested that we park the end vehicle at Hwy 28 and Condra Switch Road as it will safer there. She said this will be a 12 mile float. So this trip will probably take about 5-6 hours plus tying up boats and such. http://www.sequatchie.com/canoe.htm
U.S. Hwy 127 So. & River P.O. Box 211, Dunlap, Tennessee 37327-0211
Here is the reportback from the UMD volunteers who went on the canoe trip. There are some good lessons learned from this first trip.
Hey Matt! It was great; the route was excellent. Thanks for the planning info. We missed you; we'll have to do it again, let us know what your schedule looks like. It took us about 6 hours with a quick lunch stop, teaching the kids some technique, and a quick rescue :) (large strainer we should have portaged-easy portage across small island in the middle). Other than that everything was pretty clear, mostly flat, a few class 1 rapids, a few friendly locals, some rope swings, some large birds, not much development easy enough access at the put-in and take out (short portage at the put-in. Not room for too many cars though (especially at the take out). Any other info you need? Emily
So the folks at Canoe the Sequatchie are trying to sell their business and this could be a good investment opportunity to buy and continue running a small start up business in East Tennessee.
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