14 Arrested at W. VA Mountaintop Removal Site

Activists chained themselves to a bulldozer and excavator at Massey Energy's Coal River Mountain site this morning. They want Massey to stop plans to blast the mountain for coal and make the site into a wind farm instead.The protestors are worried that blasting could compromise a nearby coal sludge impoundment dam.From the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition press release: "Blasting for part of the operation could begin at any time, very close to a nine-billion-gallon toxic coal waste sludge dam called the Brushy Fork Impoundment. Blasting would occur above underground mines close to the dam and the lake of toxic coal waste it impounds."In December, a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant's coal waste pond burst and spread hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic material across hundreds of acres, knocking one house right off its foundation.