Surface mining of coal has caused devastating damage to the mountains of Southern Appalachia and continues to affect the citizens of the surrounding communities. The camera’s eye pans the tree-lined mountains that tower above cloud-filled valleys. Dawn breaks through the darkness.

This scene began the screening of the documentary “Mountain Top Removal” produced and directed by Michael O’Connell.

Forevergreen sponsored the film in order to raise awareness of the devastation in Southern Appalachia due to dragline mining of coal.

Dragline mining starts at the top of the mountain by clear-cutting trees. Explosives blast away the topsoil. Artificial lakes are created in the valleys below to contain the by-product called “coal slurry” that is released from dynamiting mountain peaks and separating the coal from the core.

Forevergreen hopes to raise awareness and enact change in the Guilford community about issues such as dragline mining and other environmental concerns.

“The way we have the club set up is to have themes for each semester in order to educate and to bring people together,” said first-year Daryn Lane. “This semester’s theme is environmental justice.” Lane knows O’Connell and invited him to share “Mountaintop Removal” because it is an important issue that fits well with the club’s focus.

O’Connell was asked by an attendee if he experienced any resistance during filming. O’Connell said, “Some of the younger people were nervous about me coming in. I didn’t know anyone and I just showed up at one of their meetings.”

“It was a little nerve-wracking at first,” O’Connell said. “But the people are angry because this is happening in their backyard and it is pretty emotional.”

Just on the other side of the beautiful mountain that opened the film, lie other mountains laid waste by dragline mining. Mountains that used to stretch toward the skies now lie shorn of their trees and their soil. Gray plateaus replace the towering peaks.

One of the main focuses of the film centers on Marsh Fork Elementary School, which sits 400 yards from a 2.8 billion gallon capacity coal sludge dam and 225 feet from a coal processing facility.

A spokesperson of Massey Energy, the company that owns the mine in Marsh Fork, describes slurry as “nothing more than dirt and rock.” He stated that since the coal slurry is indigenous to the mountains, it is completely harmless.

In contrast, a scientist from Duke University states that in their natural form, rocks contain levels of arsenic, lead, and mercury that are harmless, but because the rock has been disturbed and ground into smaller particles, toxic levels of the poisons have been found in the slurry.

The film focuses on the story of Ed Wiley, who walked from Charleston, W.Va., to Washington, D.C., to raise money for a new school in Marsh Fork that would be built at a safer distance from the lake and processing facility. People in the town experience constant headaches, kidney failure, numbness in arms and legs. Many pregnancies have ended with stillbirths, wells produce gray water that stains whatever it touches, and all around the town creeks flow with black water from coal slurry.

President of Forevergreen Alyzza Callahan said, “The fact that water is such a huge resource is often overlooked.”

“Without proper care it will be the next endangered species” said Callahan. “In the corporate interest the water is being polluted for pure capitalistic gain.”

Other problems related to streams and rivers exist due to the changes in the landscape. Under natural conditions, the streams and rivers would be able to dispel heavy rainfalls and melting snow, but with tree and soil removal, flooding occurs more often.

One woman in the film said that her land flooded seven times since the mountain near her home was draglined and that five acres had completely washed away.

She said, “(Coal companies) are hacking away at the foundation of your life. You fight against it, but they think it’s OK for me as a hillbilly to live in the middle of this.”

Professor of Environmental Studies and Geology Angie Moore attended the event and said, “I don’t think people who make money are evil, but the problem here (in the film) is that the companies are making the money and someone else is paying the price.”

“As consumers, if we don’t know where our energy is coming from, then we are just as responsible,” said Moore.

O’Connell admitted that when he began his research, he did not even know that power plants still used coal. What he found was that coal-fired power plants produce 40 percent of the nation’s electricity. 30 percent of that coal comes from surface-mined coal. O’Connell hopes to promote the “Pennies of Promise” campaign that Wiley began with his walk to Washington, D.C., in order to raise money for the new school in Marsh Fork. On June 19-20, Grammy-award winner and West Virginia native, Kathy Mattea will host and perform at a fundraiser called “Mountain Aid” at Shakori Hills in Chatham County, N.C. All proceeds and donations will go towards the eight million dollars Marsh Fork needs to relocate their school.

O’Connell said that, according to Duke Energy, North Carolina is the number two consumer in the nation of mountain top removal coal. Besides raising awareness and educating the Guilford community about dragline mining, Forevergreen hosted the film with the hope that students, faculty, and staff will feel inspired to help enact change participating in the “Pennies of Promise” campaign. Visit penniesofpromise.org to find out how you can help.

You can learn more about mountain top removal at hawriverfilms.com.

Forevergreen invites you to join them each Monday on the second floor of Founders Hall at 8 p.m.