Bob White, WV
Voices from the Mountains: Maria Gunnoe
Maria Gunnoe is a tireless activist and powerful speaker about mountaintop removal coal mining. She lives in Bob White, WV, and this article was originally printed in the Appalachian Voice, June 2004.
I am a 35 year mother of two. I have a son that is thirteen, and my daughter is nine. Our lives have been trashed by mountaintop removal coal mining.
In the past three years we have been flooded seven times. I have lived here for 35 years of my life, and in the past three years the flooding has gotten worse each time. The stream running through our property has continued to get wider and run faster. The only thing that has changed here in 35 years is that now there is a 1,183 acre coal mining strip behind me.
In mountaintop removal mining they take large equipment and rip off the mountaintop and put it into adjacent valleys to get to the coal seam beneath. I live in the valley that the mine company is filling. There are now two steps of this valley fill. The permit is for eight. There are two ponds in this fill. This is drainage off an 8-acre impoundment pond known as Pond Fork Impoundment.
They call the two ponds behind me “control ponds.” They are supposed to control the water. The water in these ponds is drainage from the cleaning of coal. The chemicals found in this water include arsenic, selenium, lead, lime, and mercury.
The stream running through our property is now a toxic spillway. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permitted Jupiter Coal Company to run toxins within 75 feet of my well water. We had no idea this was going on until I started researching and found out for myself. Until that time we were drinking the water, not knowing that it could be contaminated with cancer-causing agents.
The manipulation of the headwaters of this stream has turned it into a raging river. I have been told by the state DEP that “this valley fill works much like a sponge” and soaks up the rainfall.
On June the 16th of 2003 we were flooded horribly. The ponds overflowed and sent a rushing wall of water straight at me and my family. This wall of water ripped through our property, causing thirteen mudslides between our property and the toe of the valley fill. These mudslides ripped apart our home.
I had a barn that my children used to love to play in. The barn is now washed two feet deep in rock. The doors won’t even open. The back wall of the barn was washed through the front of the barn. This is a 48 x 72 two-story barn that used to be home to all of our farm animals when I was a child.
As the water and mudslides continued downstream, the flood took our eight year old rottweiler right out of his collar. The water came so fast that we couldn’t get to him to get him loose. We had to stand in the dusk of night and watch the water and mud take away one of our family pets.
The only way to get to him would be to risk my life, and then there wouldn’t have been anyone here for my children. The next morning we woke up to find his collar lying in the water’s new path. We never did find him.
The water washed out the Motocross track that my son built, and it washed away his skating half-pipe. The orchard that my daughter and I enjoyed so much was also washed away. Large nut and fruit trees washed away like twigs. We lost around 5 acres of dirt. It just washed away.
Our lives used to be a dream come true. Every child in the neighborhood used to come here and play. Now my children have to go somewhere else and play. There isn’t a safe place for them to play here. Our lives have changed in every way you can possibly imagine.
When the water and mud took out my bridge, it forced me and my kids to have to carry everything about 500 yards in and out of our house. When we were flooded, we lost our septic system and the use of our well water. We went for three months without a septic system, and I’m still carrying about 25 gallons of water a week in to where we live.
People ask me why we don’t move. In order to move you must have money. Our place is worthless. Anyone would be crazy to buy a wasteland.
I cannot transport anything out. I have no way to get anything I have out of my home other than by carrying it 500 yards. I am being forced out of my home.
The mine company knows what took place here and they say it was an “act of God.” I say it was an unconstitutional act of greed. I am still in the USA; do I still have rights, or don’t I?
My children sit up at night when it’s raining. When they do sleep, they sleep fully clothed, just in case they have to escape the water in a hurry. No child (or adult, for that matter) should have to endure this constant hell.
The blasting is enough to drive us over the edge; knowing that with each blast we will get more damage. There is a big part of me that wants to take up arms and blast back. But there are laws against me doing this. So I do what I know will get them where it hurts: getting my story out and letting people know what they are doing to me and others in my community.
I have organized in my area to stop this devastation. The people realize the potential for a repeat of the Buffalo flood. If these impoundments break, our bridges will be shut down and we will be trapped in a flooding valley.
We are fighting it every way we can; can you please help? Please make donations to Appalachian Voices. They are helping us tremendously with getting our story out.
Thank you and keep us all in your prayers!
Maria Gunnoe
December 11th, 2007 at 11:48 am
if you dont like it move..their are other people in wv that make a living my their family workin in the mines
February 6th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Kayla Perry obviously did not read the article. Maria cannot move because her property has become worthless due to the mining. Sounds like she would move if she could, but it’s not possible.
Kayla wants her family to keep their jobs at the expense of the people whose entire lives are destroyed by this practice. The moral choice should be clear, but money has destroyed Kayla’s conscience.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
“People ask me why we don’t move. In order to move you must have money. Our place is worthless. Anyone would be crazy to buy a wasteland.
I cannot transport anything out. I have no way to get anything I have out of my home other than by carrying it 500 yards. I am being forced out of my home…”