{"id":3658,"date":"2018-08-20T05:44:24","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T09:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3658"},"modified":"2018-08-20T07:29:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T11:29:55","slug":"citizen-action-comes-of-age-in-west-virginia-in-fight-against-rockwool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3658","title":{"rendered":"Citizen Action Comes of Age in West Virginia in Fight Against Rockwool"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s step back for a moment to 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sierra Club was promoting its Beyond Coal campaign in West Virginia &#8212; by which it meant &#8212; hey, let\u2019s include all of the above, including fracked natural gas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QwO17PLbkTs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wrote a story for <em>Corporate Crime Reporter<\/em> about how fracking was destroying various parts of West Virginia. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the story ran, I got a tip from two local West Virginia Sierra Club members. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They had heard that Chesapeake Energy is donating millions of dollars to Sierra Club.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two whistleblowers wrote the President of Sierra Club and asked &#8212; do you take money from Chesapeake Energy?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The President of Sierra Club writes back &#8212; \u201cWe do not and will not take any money from Chesapeake or any other gas company. Hope all&#8217;s well with you both.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But have you ever? I asked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.corporatecrimereporter.com\/chesapeake02022012.htm\">Two days later, Sierra Club admits taking over $25 million from the gas industry<\/a>, mostly from Chesapeake.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">West Virginia is sick of being run over by out of state corporations and their enablers, including so called public interest groups and corporate political parties who often are nothing more than handmaidens to corporate power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And now, spontaneous uprisings are breaking out in West Virginia. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last year, we saw the teachers rise up, go on strike, and successfully challenge the corporate controlled legislature.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now we are seeing a citizen uprising in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia where a Danish multinational &#8212; Rockwool &#8212; is proposing to build an insulation factory that will emit 393 tons of hazardous air pollutants through two 200 foot smokestacks across the street from an elementary school.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of the traditional indicators are that there is majority opposition to the facility. More than 8,000 people have joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/2167681516810120\/\">Citizens Against Rockwool Facebook page. <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hundreds of people show up for community meetings. And the local officials who greenlighted the plant are on the run.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But a key indicator is that the citizens are channeling Nancy Reagan and just saying no. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No to &#8212; let\u2019s study it. No to &#8212; let\u2019s see if we can make this plant operate in a friendly manner. No to &#8212; hey, it\u2019s Danish, it must be good. No to &#8212; let\u2019s negotiate with the company. No to Rockwool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or as the group put it in a recent press release &#8212; \u201cWe do not have the luxury to wait months and years to see studies about the health impacts this plant will have on our community. We do not want to be anyone\u2019s scientific guinea pig. Our message is loud and clear: Stop Toxic Rockwool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The citizens justifiably don\u2019t trust Rockwool &#8212; Danish or not. It\u2019s proposing a heavy industrial plant in an area that is historic and residential. It\u2019s the wrong facility at the wrong place &#8212; and given the uprising &#8212; the wrong time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The president of Rockwool\u2019s North American operations, Trent Ogilvie, flew into West Virginia last week &#8212; a public relations firm in hand &#8212; to try and put down the uprising. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Things did not go as planned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Part of the problem for Rockwool is that Ogilvie makes absolute statements that are clearly wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wtop.com\/local\/2018\/08\/exclusive-amid-furor-president-of-new-w-va-factory-vows-safe-air-quality\/\">He told WTOP<\/a>, a Washington, D.C. news radio station, that &#8220;very few citizens are very negative&#8221; against the facility. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A better bet is that few citizens in the area are supportive. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ogilvie points to a similar Rockwool facility in Milton, Ontario. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNobody is complaining,\u201d Ogilvie told<em> This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nobody is complaining?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All you have to do is Google it, <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/drive\/folders\/1m9K-ZbOn1caGl9WwVyU8l3aafKZbqyKM\">as the \u201cvery few\u201d citizens of West Virginia who oppose the Rockwool facility have done.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI watched Roxul build this monstrosity over a two-week period from my front window. It towers over the old eyesore,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehalton.com\/opinion-story\/2936068-writer-right-about-roxul-expansion\/\">wrote one citizen to the Burlington Post in 2009.<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m guessing this will put the fumes higher over the town and that the south end of Milton will suffer from the emissions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And other articles documenting citizens in Milton complaining about odors and pollution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I asked Ogilvie &#8212; how is the company\u2019s record when it comes to occupational safety?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cEspecially in North America, our safety records are great,\u201d Ogilvie says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have you had any issues with occupational safety enforcement?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cNo,\u201d Ogilvie says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/roxul1.pdf\">What about the incident in 2017<\/a> where a worker at Rockwool\u2019s insulation manufacturing facility in British Columbia, Canada was feeding foil facing around a rotating heat drum? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The worker&#8217;s arms were caught between the heat drum and the tension roller, and the worker was injured. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An investigation by WorkSafeBC, British Columbia\u2019s worker safety enforcement unit, determined that the machine had not been guarded or locked out, and the work procedures for the machine did not include lockout. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The investigation found that \u201cthe firm failed to ensure machinery was effectively safeguarded and locked out to protect workers \u2013 these were repeated and high-risk violations.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The company was originally fined $122,444.55 \u2013 which was later reduced to a warning letter on appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When asked about this, Ogilvie says \u2013 \u201cI know about the accident, which was sad.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI don\u2019t know where the information is coming about a violation against the factory,\u201d Ogilvie said. \u201cAnd I run the business in North America.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/roxul.pdf\">The information is coming from WorkSafe BC<\/a>, the enforcement unit that brought the case against the company you are in charge of. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Very few opposed to the facility in West Virginia, no complaints about the facility in Ontario, and I don\u2019t know where the information is coming about the worker safety violation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not credible, not credible, not credible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is no question that Rockwool is out to crush the growing citizen opposition. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe are going to build this facility here,\u201d Ogilvie says with absolute certainty.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But on the ground, citizens think Rockwool and Ogilvie are blowing smoke. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regina Hendrix is the local Sierra Club representative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And unlike the national Sierra Club of 2012, she\u2019s not up to playing footsie with corporations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sdmLT-2WoWs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She\u2019s not an all of the above kind of citizen. She wants no part of Rockwool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Hendrix agrees that Rockwool is going to build the facility &#8212; \u201cbut not in Jefferson County.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hendrix moved to Jefferson County from the Kanawha Valley &#8212; to get away from cancer causing pollution there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hendrix is one of eight siblings. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSix out of eight of us have had cancer,\u201d Hendrix told This Week in Morgan County. \u201cThe only ones who have escaped it are me and my baby sister. I have many relatives with cancer. Right now, my brother is dying from metastasized cancer. And a cousin who always led a very clean life is having chemotherapy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hendrix believes that the industrial facilities along the Kanawha River are causing cancer. And she doesn\u2019t trust Rockwool\u2019s claims about safety.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI moved to the eastern panhandle because I knew there was no coal underground and I knew there was no gas,\u201d Hendrix said. \u201cAnd I figured there would never be this kind of pollution like is proposed by Rockwool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hendrix figured wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the citizen uprising in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia could make things right again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s step back for a moment to 2012. Sierra Club was promoting its Beyond Coal campaign in West Virginia &#8212; by which it meant &#8212; hey, let\u2019s include all of the above, including fracked natural gas. I wrote a story &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3658\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3658"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3668,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3658\/revisions\/3668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}