Stream polluted by mountaintop removal

Friday Jan 18, NYTimes writes "The nation’s fourth-largest coal producer, the Massey Energy Company, was hit Thursday with a $20 million fine, the largest civil penalty ever levied by the federal government for a pollution violation of this type under the Clean Water Act.

The fine was part of a $30 million settlement with the government over accusations that the company violated water pollution permit limits more than 4,500 times from January 2000 to December 2006. The government said Massey had polluted and clogged hundreds of streams and rivers in Kentucky and West Virginia by releasing millions of pounds of metals, sediments and acid mine drainage into their waterways.

Here's the article U.S. Fines Mine Owner $20 Million for Pollution

And we want to do what; buy power for the next 50 years from a new coal fired power plant? Did we lose our thinking caps!!!!????

Read this PD article from October to see what Matt Zone thinks and plans and then click here to read about other villages and download what Bill Callahan thinks. Somehow Bill's argument strikes me as more well considered than Matt's. How about you?

Here's another perspective on coal from John Bolton, MD via Hillbilly Savants (I love the description of this blog -- "This blog is about our Appalachia - the real one, not the Hollywood-stereotype nor the third-world nation-esque stereotype being sold by do-gooders, or even the neo-Romantic sylvan stereotype that Rousseau would probably buy into. It should be interesting."

Here's what John had to say:
"If you think that having a coal fired power plant next door to your town will be an asset, drive up to what is left of the community of South Clinchfield,VA, in the shadow of AEP's Clinch River (Carbo) plant. Talk to the residents as I have. Listen to their stories of fumes from the smokestack flooding down to ground level when a cool night brings a temperature inversion. Hear how dust from the trucks coats the skin of their infants and blackens their bath water as if they had been working in the mines. Does it also fill their lungs? Sadly, only time will tell. I do not think that "black lung" benefits will be available to neighborhood children or adults who will be forced breathe rock and coal dust from the waste coal trucks. Add to this the fumes from a coal fired power plant and confine them in the small bowl that contains the town of St Paul. This could be a true witch's brew."

We want to saddle Southern Ohio (and the rest of the watershed which by the way includes the land west of the Appalachians to the Mississippi River and all the way to the Gulf of Mexico) with this??!! Really? Isn't there an alternative? The streams will look a funny color and it won't be someone's greywater system dye.

Over the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to visit friends who live in the suburbs outside of Cleveland and I have visited neighborhoods inside of Cleveland. 

I was very surprised to see our neighbor and friend Kurt Weaver featured in the stodgy, old PD.  I was even more amazed to find out that Steven Litt followed up on the story to reveal Kurt's real thoughts about Cleveland architecture. 

YOU ARE THE BEST REPORTER IN NEO -  YOU HAVE informative and educational NEWS!

From Article 19 and Neil Nisbet on camera: The Self and Bitter Ripples

The work: clips from 'The Self' by Fin Walker, a duet performed by Kajza Ekberg (pictured above) and Phil Sanger. 'Bitter Ripples' choreographed by Hofesh Shechter and performed by the whole company

Read about it here.

By Daniel M. Kammen 12/11/07

The January 14, 2008 Cuyahoga County Commissioner's meeting started sounding much like a New England Town Meeting.  

Coming down the hall towards the fourth floor Commissioner’s public meeting room, the Town Crier's sharply ringing hand bell competed with his yells of  Hear Yea! Hear Yea!

Naga DDB Malaysia painted the poster for this Regional Environmental Awareness straight on the tiles of pool.
“Don’t let this be our future. Save our rainforest, stop global warming.”

There was only one bid for the Breuer designed Ameritrust Tower opened this morning at 11:00 AM by Cuyahoga County.  That bid was submitted by K & D Development, who are the developers of the Stonebridge Condos on the west side of the Flats next to the Detroit Superior Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The above photo shows the artist's rendering of the K & D development proposal which, in my opinion, will nicely emphasize the Breuer Tower. K& D put the cost of the development at$ 200 million.

A while back, I posted this Pittsburgh-based site www.mymave.com as a place to advertise your skills.  Last night, talking to Ed Hauser--who described marketing his problem-solving talents--I realized that this is still available and free to anyone who has a skill to market. 

Over the years I've valued RealNEO as a place to share diverse writings ranging from simple sustainability strategies we can inculcate into our regular lives to grandiose and futuristic visions of entire new worlds crafted within our own. I take pride in being with this team and community since inception and contributing our website's taxonomy and providing engaging content.  I've even found the opportunity to express myself more artistically through poetry. At much risk, and at times, with controversial unabashed candor I've shared personal hardships and anguish - and I can now say doing so has only enriched my personal development on physical, emotional and spiritual planes. 

It cracks me up to see kids come in to the library to sing!  They plug in the headphones and start grooving to a tune on line and the next thing you know I have to go into shhhh! mode.
Is there a way to tap this energy?  So,  who is mining this? 

On Friday January 11, 2008 Cleveland, Ohio Mayor Frank Jackson announced that the City was filing suit against 21 banks/financial firms.  The suit alleges that the defendants created a public nuisance in Cleveland.  The alleged  nuisance was created through issuances of thousands of “sub-prime” loans which are alleged by the City to have caused the abandonment, vacancy, and subsequent demolition of thousands of Cleveland residential buildings.

Sense 8 is another beautiful film by Katrina McPherson and Simon Fildes.

If you are interested in Contact Improvisation, send me an email via realneo, and I will help you contact (excuse the pun) the folks in Northeast Ohio who do this every Sunday in University Circle.

We all need neighbors.  They help us out in times of need.  They also drive us crazy.  What to do?  Tomorrow is another day.  Let's hope it heals the unnecessary rifts that divide.

If one knows where to look, there are amazing people and experiences to be found in Cleveland - like some hard-core union trades-folk cutting loose with great music and times in a gathering-place known as Club 75, not to be found around E75 and St. Clair, late the NEO-warming January night of the 10th, 2008. These back-street socialites, led here by Crazy Marvin on blues harp and Bobby Fox on fiddle, meet regularly for Urban-Iron Chef cookoffs that Lola and Lolitta would love... making NEO real.

I just received fantastic news from Annie Stahlheber with the Cardiovascular Task Force and Cuyahoga County Board of Health.  East Cleveland won one of only three $25,000 grants awarded nationally by Kaboom! as Playful City, USA.  This awards video reviews all the winners, from honorable mentions to grand prize grants.  East Cleveland's award is presented at the conclusion of the video and includes a nice bit featuring Mayor Eric Brewer and a select group of East Cleveland's young players.