During the week of June 13 in Lexington, KY, a meal of toxic coal sludge scraped out of a stream in eastern Kentucky was delivered to the president of a coal advocacy group, hundreds of concerned citizens attended an anti-mountain top removal (MTR) rally and march that ended at Kentucky Utility's headquarters, a film festival educated Lexingtonians about the dangers of strip mining and its repercussions, and activists passed out literature on the streets, all part of Mountain Justice Summer's week in Lexington, Kentucky.

Mountain Justice Summer (MJS), an anti-MTR campaign occurring in a
number of Appalachian states, is working to raise public awareness
about the adverse environmental, economic, and health effects of this
form of strip mining, and to pressure the corporations involved into
ceasing their destruction of one of the world's most biologically
diverse ecosystems.  Volunteers have come from as far away as Arizona
and Seattle to join local organizers and residents of West Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and southwest Virginia.

A large downtown rally and march, preceded by four banner drops on
major Lexington roads, ended MJS's Lexington week on a high note as
over 175 people listened to residents of the coal fields speak out
against MTR, marched peacefully past a counter-rally at Kentucky Coal
Association (KCA) headquarters, and presented a list of demands to
Kentucky Utilities, an electricity company that provides much of its
energy from MTR-mined coal.  Organizers also put on an energetic skit
with such characters as King Coal and The Sludge Monster outside the
Kentucky Utility headquarters.

During the rally, MJS activists presented Bill Caylor, President of
KCA, with a silver platter of toxic sludge collected at the October
2000 slurry spill in Martin County, Kentucky.  Caylor dipped his
finger in the goo and stuck it in his mouth, to the bewilderment of
onlookers.  In April of 2004, at a Kentucky University panel
discussion, Caylor had accepted a challenge to eat sludge after
claiming that it was as harmless as dirt.  Sludge, the carcinogenic,
heavy-metal-filled by-product of the coal cleaning process, is often
stored by the billions of gallons behind dams at MTR sites that are
directly above houses and even elementary schools.  The Martin County
spill has been called "the worst environmental disaster in the
southeastern United States" by the Environmental Protection Agency,
and Massey Energy, the coal company responsible, was fined $5,500.

After the sludge delivery, MJS activists engaged in healthy dialogue
with Caylor about the economic and environmental concerns of MTR and
the role that KCA plays in energy consumption.  "We asked him to write
a policy on conservation for KCA," said Benji Burrell.  Caylor is
reported as saying, "In our next board meeting in October, I'll
present [these ideas] to the board and we'll talk about writing a
conservation policy."

Earlier in the week, MJS organized a screening at the Kentucky Theater
of films relating to strip mining in Appalachia, including Mucked, To
Save the Land and People, Kilowatt Ours, Sludge, and The End of
Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream.
Roughly 200 people attended the educational event, and stayed for the
ensuing question and answer session with Lexington organizer Dave
Cooper.

Throughout the week, the MJS activists engaged people on the street in
conversation about MTR, gathered signatures for local non-profit
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), tested streams affected by
mining sites, and interviewed coal truck drivers to compile
information on dangerously overloaded trucks.  Said MJS activist
Kenlan Chiosso, "Seeing the local children hold anti-MTR signs at the
rally was one of the most rewarding parts of the week."

Mountain Justice Summer (MJS) seeks to add to the growing
anti-MTR citizens movement. Specifically MJS demands an
abolition of MTR, steep slope strip mining and all other forms
of surface mining for coal. We want to protect the cultural
and natural heritage of the Appalachia coal fields. We want to
contribute with grassroots organizing, public education,
nonviolent civil disobedience and other forms of citizen action.

Historically coal companies have engaged in violence and
property destruction when faced with citizen opposition to
their activities. MJS is committed to nonviolence and will not
be engaged in property destruction.

To let them know how you feel,
contact:

Massey
Energy

(destroyer of mountains, waterways and communities in WV and KY;
also viciously anti-union)

4 North 4th Street, Richmond, VA 23219

Phone: 888.424.2417, 804.788.1824

Some of Massey's top managers:

href="mailto:katherine.kenny@masseyenergyco.com,john.parker@masseyenergyco.com,michael.allen@masseyenergyco.com,steve.sears@masseyenergyco.com,gary.smith@masseyenergyco.com,gary.temple@masseyenergyco.com,tom.kielty@masseyenergyco.com,thomas.dougherty@masseyenergyco.com">katherine.kenny@masseyenergyco.com,john.parker@masseyenergyco.com,

michael.allen@masseyenergyco.com,steve.sears@masseyenergyco.com,

gary.smith@masseyenergyco.com,gary.temple@masseyenergyco.com,

tom.kielty@masseyenergyco.com,thomas.dougherty@masseyenergyco.com



Contact us at href="mailto:mountainjusticesummer@gmail.com">mountainjusticesummer@gmail
.com and visit href="http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org">www.mountainjusticesummer.org
for more information