Wilson Creek, KY: Communities come together for a better future

America's Most Endangered Mountains - Wilson Creek, KY

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- - - COMMUNITY STORY - - -



"I always enjoy seeing folks make that transition from being just victims to being folks that are able to help other folks, and leaders in the community. It's the root of our democracy at work when it happens." - Beverly May, resident of Wilson Creek, KY

Beverly May's family has lived on Wilson Creek in Floyd County, Kentucky, for five generations, and was one of the first settling families in the region. Located in the heart of coal country in eastern Kentucky, Floyd County is dotted with small, quiet communities and families with stories similar to Beverly May's. The region, which lies within the Big Sandy Valley of eastern Kentucky, houses the Mountain Arts Center and the Kentucky Opry, and the Country Music Highway runs through the county seat of Prestonsburg. Country music stars such as Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs and Dwight Yoakam were born in neighboring counties. The Middle Creek National Battlefield in Floyd is the site of the largest and most significant Civil War battle in Eastern Kentucky, and the beautiful Jenny Wiley State Resort Park lies near the center of the county.

Floyd - part of the Appalachian Mountains' Cumberland Plateau and once lush with beautiful hardwood forests - is one of the twelve major coal-producing counties in eastern Kentucky. In the last 30 years, Kentucky coal counties have seen a decrease in the amount of deep mined coal and an increase in the amount of strip-mined and mountaintop removal coal mining. Simultaneously, the number of mining jobs have decreased by 82%, resulting in high unemployment numbers for Floyd County.

Today, Miller Brothers Coal Company is trying to move into the small community of Maytown and mine the unspoiled ridge top above Wilson Creek. Plans include three valley fills, which would bury the headwaters of Wilson Creek and Big Fork. The Big Sandy River, which Wilson Creek flows into, is already known as the most polluted river in the state.

Hard experience has taught eastern Kentucky that a large mine can devastate a community. Homes can be severely damaged by blasting, water wells are lost, dust from coal trucks and the mine itself can make it difficult to breath and flash flooding is a worry every spring. Flooding is already so frequent and severe in Floyd County that the Army Corp of Engineers is relocating the small town of Martin. Many families become discouraged or intimidated and leave. Two families on Wilson Creek have sold their land to Miller Brothers and a few absentee landowners have leased their rights, but the majority of the 94 families who live in the community are fighting to save their homes.

"If you get put in this position you find out real fast that you can't do nothing [on your own], you have to organize and you have to fight it however you can," said Beverly.

Beverly May has joined with other local residents to oppose the planned mine and save her community. With help from the regional group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), they have succeeded in banning coal trucks on the curvy one-lane road that runs along Wilson Creek, but their fight is far from over.

"If enough land owners say no I absolutely will not sign, it means that it's not profitable, so what we have done is very vocally and publicly said no...not in my lifetime this is not going to happen," said Beverly.

To support Beverly and her community contact Kentuckians for the Commonwealth at 606-878-2161 or at www.kftc.org

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

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• beverly
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• KY

[intelogic]

Great! Everyone needs to know the truth. This type of mining does not employ the local folks...dozers and heavy equipment ruin the beautiful mountains! There are too many other ways to get our energy and put people to work. Come on you doubters...open your eyes!

[bdr8y]

Tell all this to the people in Martin County who a few years ago had to dig their houses out of sludge when the sludge pond damn burst. Or the people whose family members were killed when a boulder was shoved over the hill into their house. I would argue that coal isn't keeping east KY alive but that it is actually slowly killing it. I think the people who dont give a shit about the land should be the ones to leave.

[reyhighet]

great one.

[fmlytracer]

I have a question. Did you fight just as hard to stop the removal of mountain tops and valley fills when they were widening the highways? I seem to remember US 23 as a winding 2 lane road, I believe 460 is being widened at this point. Where is all the fight for this. Could it be becasue YOU want the roads and to hell with the mountains and streams? Now if you are serious and want to stop the mountain top removals and the valley fills you should be fighting ALL removals and fills.

[fmlytracer]

@intelogic

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that they had remote control dozers and loaders now. I thought they actually required employees to run them.

[ralpandcarter]

I grew up in E. KY and I mine coal like my granddad, dad and all my uncles, underground. Yes underground mining takes a toll on the land and people, but it does cause far less scares on the outside. More jobs are created with underground mining than mountain top mining.

It all goes back to the song Which Side are You On.

[jonesboys221]

I'm a drafter and let me say it like this. If they land owner signs and WE have the LEASE then by hell we are gonna mine it! Things like this is why the "tree huggers" have put us on the "soup line". The tree aren't pushed with a dozer over the hell. they are cut down and drug to what is called the "windrow area". GEEZ!! People be informed before judging! If the land owner signs then it's HIS DECISION!! GEEZ! Even worked with Miller Bros permit.

[bluegrassman776]

i love my kentucky , i wish strip mining and drugs hadn't taken it from me. love and peace forever .lord jesus help us all.

[eastwood203]

Mountain Top Removal has put more miners out of work than any other factor. It requires far less labor and much less skill than traditional mining techniques. It results in massively more damage.

[eastwood203]

Your right about efficient mining techniques for the size of a coal seam. Your Wrong about the value/cost of Mountain Top Removal. In exchange for poisoning our headwaters, losing tons of topsoil, turning our mountains into an immense wasteland we get less than 4% of our coal for electricity. Not worth it in my opinion.

[ky1scott]

your wrong about deep mining it? you can not deep mine the coal. the coal seams the surface mines mine are anywhere from 3 inches to 30. the lowest seam a deep mine can mine are 28 inches.

Not to mention. The rules have changed. all the damage we now see are from mines years ago that wasnt aware of the damage they caused. by the way mountain tops are useless the way they are. Deer wont even inhabit them, cant build, not any grazing areas. i will soon post a video.

[alchea]

my electricity is generated by low-impact hydro and wind, and it barely costs anything more (3 cents) than coal-generated power. i get it from the grid like 'regular' electricity and it works fine. it's generated in my own state. there are places all over the country where people are getting this, and it'd work in ky (where i grew up) and wv, too.