WERU Special – Coal Mining 1/24/12

Broadcast Time: 10am
Program Topic: coal mining in southern West Virginia

Key Discussion Points:
a)Coal companies have assaulted the landscape of southern West Virginia with large-scale surface mining operations, blasting off the tops of mountains. As coal leaves the state, so does the money it generates, leaving poor communities with polluted wells, respiratory ailments, flash floods, and unnecessary miner deaths.
b) Junior Walk of Coal River Mountain Watch shares what he has seen over the past twenty years including citizen efforts to relocate an elementary school, which sits below an impoundment filled with toxic coal waste.
c)Writer Denise Giardina describes growing up in a coal camp, community solidarity with striking mine workers, and her own love of the mountains.

Guests by name and affiliation:
A)Junior Walk, outreach coordinator of Coal River Mountain Watch
B)Denise Giardina

FMI: www.crmw.net, www.denisegiardina.com

Call In Program: n
Political Broadcast:y
Host:Carolyn Coe