Island Creek, KY
The House My Father Built Has Been Destroyed
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
Brenda Mutter Urias is a resident of Pike County, Kentucky, and an active member of the non-profit community organization, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
My name is Brenda Mutter Urias. I’d like to welcome you to my home here in Island Creek of Phyllis, Kentucky.
My father’s dad came to settle in this area around 1825. He built a home and raised a
large family. He was a farmer. My father built the house I’m living in back in 1955 with lumber he sawed himself from a particular type of tree taken from the mountains that surround the homeplace. He built it solid and with pride just like his dad before him. It was a place he was proud of and he took comfort in knowing his family would always have a place to call their own.
We had good well water, beautiful mountains, clear streams and clean air. We were poor in material things but we were also rich. Most of our food came from the garden. We had fruit orchards and, of course at that time, farm animals.
My dad was a miner and he fought to help establish the UMWA so that the workers and their families would have better pay and medical coverage. He died at the age of 68 from black lung. He had one son and his one wish was that his son would never go into coal mining to make his living. Gladly to say, he didn’t.
Today, the beautiful mountains have been destroyed by mountaintop removal mining. The streams are buried and have dried up. The air is full of dust and the well water is contaminated. The house is not as solid as it was just a few years ago. The nearby blasting is taking a toll. The mountains around the house now also poses a threat to our home in regards to flash floods and mud slides. I fear daily as to what may happen to my home. I don’t want to see it destroyed but sometimes I feel I’m watching a slow death to it and to the environment that surrounds it.
October 5th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
its interesting that there isn’t a picture here to help strengthen the claims of the author. How does one destroy a mountain? Does the mountain not work anymore? How does a mountain cease to function as a mountain? Really, not one picture of a dried up stream or a “destroyed” mountain. You people have certainly not made your point. I know we could make a video that covers up the photographic basis for our claim with american flags. I can’t see the so-called destruction because there are American flags in the way.
October 13th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Mr. Spoons,
Apparently you are not from coal country. When one says a mountain has been destroyed, we do not simply mean it has ceased to function as a mountain. We mean its ecosystem has been destroyed, habitat erased and it’s very form carried away in trucks. Before the Reclamation act, companies simply drove away from mining sites and left them bare, dead and dry. Now they have to “pretend” to reclaim the form of the mountain and replant ground cover and trees. What that means to the mining companies is; they have to push the dirt back up into a mound, hydroseed with quick growning rye grass (also quick dying, by the way)and plant a few thousand of one kind of tree (usually pine, which actually makes up a small percentage of our natually occuring forests in the area) and THEN drive away. Just drive away! If the grass dies, so what? If the trees die, so what? If the shape they’ve given the new “mound” causes flooding in low-lying areas and clogs once clear, healthy streams, so what???? You know what Mr. Spoons? It’s clear that you don’t give a @#&! , so why waste the reader’s , or the author’s time with your comment? Stick your head back in your shell and everything will be ok.
November 5th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
Right on, Michelle. This type of mining is yet another crime against the earth, more outrageous than most. Unfortunately the all mighty dollar is able to distort the truth while directing the votes of politicians. People like Mr. Spoons go about their business both biased and clueless as to the science and big picture of what is happening.
May 1st, 2007 at 9:41 am
If anyone has any doubts as to how mountain top mining affects someone just listen to the interview given by Rully Urias (see main page for the link). Rully is my son and hearing him talk about what he is going through made me cry. You can hear in his voice the emotions that runs so deep for his love of the mountains and what is happening. How can anyone justify destroying a person’s home, way of life, peace of mind, health for a seam of coal? It’s not right and it needs to be stopped.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:01 am
I happen to call the author MY FRIEND!! I have witnessed with my own eyes the devastation to the home and the mountains around it. I was able to see Island Creek in its first stages of destruction. Not even 10 months later, I returned, only to find it almost COMPLETELY gone. The only patch of continuous green in the once beautiful valley is the Urias’ home. I have met another who lives in this valley, Doug Justice. I have not seen his land myself, but have talked to those who have. The same is true for them. Mr. Spoons, if you would like to see a picture (several) to “strengthen the author’s claim” just log onto www.myspace.com/groundskeeper_howie. On the top-right of the screen you will see a slide show that is nothing but pictures of Island Creek. If this isn’t proof enough for you, then you can just take your closed mind and go f*^k yourself. LEARN THE FACTS!!! GO SEE THIS SENSLESS DESTRUCTION YOURSELF!!! TALK TO THE PEOPLE!!!!! But, don’t waste our time by coming at us with your BS. You sound like one of those a-holes who represents the mining companies. These folks live in enough hell as it is without people like you making comments of a negative nature.!!!! RULLY, ERICA, BRENDA, YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE A FRIEND IN ME AND MY FAMILY!!!!! DON’T LET THE JERKS GET YA DOWN!!! KEEP FIGHTING. We might not be able to save Island Creek, but we sure as hell can save the other mountains!!! I will fight until my dying breath to stop this insanity, and I will continue to tell all I meet about what I have and continue to see.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:41 am
There is evidence of destruction in these photographs. The red stream is proof of the sulphur that has been released from bad mining practices. This renders the stream dead and lifeless. A stream that once teemed with life.