The Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues hosted the quarterly meeting of the Heartland Coalfield Alliance on Friday, November 15th with a tour of both proposed and previous mine sites the day before. The tour highlighted areas that would be impacted if the proposed North Canton mine is built, including Canton Lake which is the water supply for more than half of Fulton County.
The group also toured Wee-Ma-Tuk, a golf course subdivision built on the old Truex-Traer Coal Company land. Though the land has been formally “reclaimed” with millions of dollars invested, damage from subsidence, leaching pollutant and waste pile remains.
During the Heartland Coalfield Alliance meeting, updates were provided on local campaigns from the Canton citizens group, Citizen’s Against Longwall Mining, Stand Up to Coal and on behalf of residents opposing the proposed Peabody Rocky Branch strip mine. Efforts to protect communities from irresponsible coal ash disposal and ways to raise awareness of the true cost of coal were discussed, as well as how to continue building the beyond-coal movement and foster inter-basin connections.
The next Heartland Coalfield Alliance meeting will be in early 2014 and is open to folks interested in transitioning Illinois Coal Basin communities (IL, IN, KY) away from a coal-based economy. The Heartland Coalfield Alliance, of which Prairie Rivers Network is a founding member, advocates for residents of the Illinois Coal Basin, whose communities bear the burden of our country’s reliance on coal for electricity.
For more information, please visit: http://heartlandcoalfieldalliance.org/
