On March 15th students with Mountain Justice Spring Break drove around to photograph and document the TVA ash disaster. They were immediately provided with an armed escort which followed them around everywhere. TVA apparently filed a notice to the students university that they students trespassed on tva property, protested, refused to give their names--etc.
Watch for yourself. All the TVA police did not interact with the students much at all--one TVA officer talked to them--they mainly followed them around with their black tinted glass suvs.
Free armed guard to students. Reports have it that TVA took down their guard shack on swan pond road that matt got arrested for driving past.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGtD-_iOv3c
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
People March, Speak and protest TVA on a rainy day.
This is the first of three videos of the TVA protest. On March 14 2009 a protest (which was organized months before the TVA ash spill disaster occurred) at the TVA headquarters in Knoxville. TVA is the largest purchaser of coal in North America--the message was that king coal is a dangerous, depleting and destructive 19th century technology that has no part in our century. From the cradle to the grave from strip mining to global warming AND the toxic ash coal is filthy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0jqUpdxtYE
On March 14 2009 a protest when had been called for months before the TVA ash spill disaster occurred at the TVA headquarters in Knoxville. TVA is the largest purchaser of coal in North America--the message was that king coal is a dangerous, depleting and destructive 19th century technology that has no part in our century. From the cradle to the grave from strip mining to global warming AND the toxic ash coal is filthy. Shout out to Mountain Justice Spring Break organizers and participants--yall helped us in Tennessee exactly in the way we needed it exactly when we needed it and we will never forget.
The March
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3xtX62kPfY
The arrest
March 14 2009 14 people stood up to the largest purchaser of coal in North America and were arrested for it. From the cradle to the grave coal is destructive, depleting and dangerous. This is a shout out to all of those who got arrested to block this coal addict with their bodies. Coal is a 19th century technology that has not part in this century no matter how many public relations companies they hire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hZhjd2dNBg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0jqUpdxtYE
On March 14 2009 a protest when had been called for months before the TVA ash spill disaster occurred at the TVA headquarters in Knoxville. TVA is the largest purchaser of coal in North America--the message was that king coal is a dangerous, depleting and destructive 19th century technology that has no part in our century. From the cradle to the grave from strip mining to global warming AND the toxic ash coal is filthy. Shout out to Mountain Justice Spring Break organizers and participants--yall helped us in Tennessee exactly in the way we needed it exactly when we needed it and we will never forget.
The March
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3xtX62kPfY
The arrest
March 14 2009 14 people stood up to the largest purchaser of coal in North America and were arrested for it. From the cradle to the grave coal is destructive, depleting and dangerous. This is a shout out to all of those who got arrested to block this coal addict with their bodies. Coal is a 19th century technology that has not part in this century no matter how many public relations companies they hire.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hZhjd2dNBg
Thursday, March 12, 2009
UMD swipe test
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-31a35227.html
Hey yall, we have our air monitoring stations up and rolling now and expect results in next week. We did a prelim "swipe" test where we put out glass and swiped it with sterile cloth as per instructions of the scientist we are working with at three sites. This is just to give us a baseline and fingerprint. UMD is open source so here are the results of the swipes. If anyone has any input on what this initial data means please email me at christopherscottirwin@yahoo.com
Within a week we should start having data rolling in from our monitoring stations--this is bombproof and admissible in court. We will make that data available as well.
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-31a35227.html
Hey yall, we have our air monitoring stations up and rolling now and expect results in next week. We did a prelim "swipe" test where we put out glass and swiped it with sterile cloth as per instructions of the scientist we are working with at three sites. This is just to give us a baseline and fingerprint. UMD is open source so here are the results of the swipes. If anyone has any input on what this initial data means please email me at christopherscottirwin@yahoo.com
Within a week we should start having data rolling in from our monitoring stations--this is bombproof and admissible in court. We will make that data available as well.
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-31a35227.html
Monday, March 9, 2009
1000 UMD stickers--free for swan pond area folks.
Bumper stickers--we now have a 1000 bumper stickers that say UNITED MOUNTAIN DEFENSE
We are offering them free to anyone that wants one that lives in or near swan pond and deals with the ash. Lets give the TVA a hundred cars that say UNITED MOUNTAIN DEFENSE on the back of them.
If you want a free one mailed to you email unitedmountaindefense@yahoo.com with your address and we will mail it. We will also bring them to meetings to pass out.
unitedmountaindefense@yahoo.com
$3 bux if you don't live in the area but just want one. Email above.
We are offering them free to anyone that wants one that lives in or near swan pond and deals with the ash. Lets give the TVA a hundred cars that say UNITED MOUNTAIN DEFENSE on the back of them.
If you want a free one mailed to you email unitedmountaindefense@yahoo.com with your address and we will mail it. We will also bring them to meetings to pass out.
unitedmountaindefense@yahoo.com
$3 bux if you don't live in the area but just want one. Email above.
Friday, March 6, 2009
UMD volunteer arrested for helping grandmothers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2ltonE1IdM
On March 4 2008 two grandmothers from Swan Pond asked UMD volunteer Matt for a ride home cause they didn't drive. Matt agreed and dropped the last one off at her home when TVA police came onto her property to arrest Matt. In the video the officer first tells Matt that he warned him that he had to have a resident with him when he drove on the public road. When the resident came out and Matt explained that he DID have a resident with him the officer changed the rules and arrested him for something else. Matt was polite, was not breaking any traffic law--he was simply giving to Swan Pond Grandmothers a ride home--one who is half blind. The officer knew who Matt was--this is part of the pattern of non stop harassment of UMD volunteers.
On March 4 2008 two grandmothers from Swan Pond asked UMD volunteer Matt for a ride home cause they didn't drive. Matt agreed and dropped the last one off at her home when TVA police came onto her property to arrest Matt. In the video the officer first tells Matt that he warned him that he had to have a resident with him when he drove on the public road. When the resident came out and Matt explained that he DID have a resident with him the officer changed the rules and arrested him for something else. Matt was polite, was not breaking any traffic law--he was simply giving to Swan Pond Grandmothers a ride home--one who is half blind. The officer knew who Matt was--this is part of the pattern of non stop harassment of UMD volunteers.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
UMD volunteer arrested by TVA for driving 2 grandma's home.
This is so insane I cannot believe I am typing this.
I just got off the phone with UMD volunteer Matt Jones--he left me on speaker phone as the TVA police dragged him off. What was he doing?
He was literally dropping off 2 Swan Pond Grandmothers--one of which is blind in one eye--home. He had two grandmothers in the car that could not drive and he was giving them a ride home from the TDEC public meeting.
We hope to have video up on this asap. Matt is being taken to the Roane County Jail.
We are going to find out what bail is when he is arraigned. This was purely 100% TVA arrest--Roane officers had nothing to do with it.
More information to come as we get it.
Chris Irwin
I just got off the phone with UMD volunteer Matt Jones--he left me on speaker phone as the TVA police dragged him off. What was he doing?
He was literally dropping off 2 Swan Pond Grandmothers--one of which is blind in one eye--home. He had two grandmothers in the car that could not drive and he was giving them a ride home from the TDEC public meeting.
We hope to have video up on this asap. Matt is being taken to the Roane County Jail.
We are going to find out what bail is when he is arraigned. This was purely 100% TVA arrest--Roane officers had nothing to do with it.
More information to come as we get it.
Chris Irwin
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
TVA police delay start of independent air monitoring program
March 3, 2009 4 PM
Dear folks and TVA employees,
TVA Office of Inspector General consider this as an official complaint and file it as such.
The Tennessee Valley Authority Police detained Matt Landon and Tom Swinford of United Mountain Defense after the two UMD volunteers deployed the first air quality monitor on private property around TVA's coal ash disaster in Harriman, TN. United Mountain Defense was on site with the residents at this time. Swinford and Landon legally mounted the air monitor on a power pole located on private property. Tom Swinford is an electrical journeyman and supervised the work today to make sure everyone was safe while working near the electrical wires.
After being detained for nearly 2 hours the Police ordered the United Mountain Defense volunteers to remove the monitor delaying the start of the air monitoring program. Landon video taped the whole event until an officer confiscated his camera. At this point the police began searching Landon's pockets and person for weapons without reasonable or easily articulated cause.
After the first camera was confiscated Swinford turned on his video camera and kept the film rolling. At various times the TVA officers pulled Swinford to the side and stated that he would not be allowed into the area again. TVA seems to forget that all the roads that UMD travels on are public or private roads not owned by TVA. TVA forgets that UMD volunteers have relatives in the Swan Pond Community and have an open invitation to visit residents or their property near the disaster site at any time day or night and UMD WILL visit these people whenever we want to.
One TVA officer told Swinford that he was so embarrassed because he couldn't actually arrest Swinford for being on private property with permission of the land owner.
Unfortunately these officers are only following orders from Tom Kilgore and we hold him personally responsible for the delay of the community's independent air monitoring program. Today's actions show that TVA will use any means to keep independent sampling from occurring including violating private property owner’s rights and threatening volunteers with unjust arrest, search, and seizure. TVA is so invested in keeping the truth about the air quality from reaching the public that they would violate civil rights in order to keep the data a secret. TVA may have delayed the program for one day but they DID NOT stop it. United Mountain Defense will continue to travel anywhere that we want to and will gather lots of air samples with or without TVA's permission. Keep your eyes open for fresh YouTube videos as we crank up UMD's web presence.
In order for TVA to stop generating so much negative publicity by hassling United Mountain Defense volunteers we request that the TVA leadership make some decisions that will permeate the whole TVA organization informing all employees to begin completely cooperating with UMD volunteers. There isn't much that can help TVA's public image at this point but this small step would help TVA greatly because UMD will get ANY footage, samples, data, access, or anything else that we need or want in dealing with this disaster and it is in TVA's best interest to allow this access and monitoring to occur un inhibited.
Seriously, matt landon United Mountain Defense Volunteer Staff
Dear folks and TVA employees,
TVA Office of Inspector General consider this as an official complaint and file it as such.
The Tennessee Valley Authority Police detained Matt Landon and Tom Swinford of United Mountain Defense after the two UMD volunteers deployed the first air quality monitor on private property around TVA's coal ash disaster in Harriman, TN. United Mountain Defense was on site with the residents at this time. Swinford and Landon legally mounted the air monitor on a power pole located on private property. Tom Swinford is an electrical journeyman and supervised the work today to make sure everyone was safe while working near the electrical wires.
After being detained for nearly 2 hours the Police ordered the United Mountain Defense volunteers to remove the monitor delaying the start of the air monitoring program. Landon video taped the whole event until an officer confiscated his camera. At this point the police began searching Landon's pockets and person for weapons without reasonable or easily articulated cause.
After the first camera was confiscated Swinford turned on his video camera and kept the film rolling. At various times the TVA officers pulled Swinford to the side and stated that he would not be allowed into the area again. TVA seems to forget that all the roads that UMD travels on are public or private roads not owned by TVA. TVA forgets that UMD volunteers have relatives in the Swan Pond Community and have an open invitation to visit residents or their property near the disaster site at any time day or night and UMD WILL visit these people whenever we want to.
One TVA officer told Swinford that he was so embarrassed because he couldn't actually arrest Swinford for being on private property with permission of the land owner.
Unfortunately these officers are only following orders from Tom Kilgore and we hold him personally responsible for the delay of the community's independent air monitoring program. Today's actions show that TVA will use any means to keep independent sampling from occurring including violating private property owner’s rights and threatening volunteers with unjust arrest, search, and seizure. TVA is so invested in keeping the truth about the air quality from reaching the public that they would violate civil rights in order to keep the data a secret. TVA may have delayed the program for one day but they DID NOT stop it. United Mountain Defense will continue to travel anywhere that we want to and will gather lots of air samples with or without TVA's permission. Keep your eyes open for fresh YouTube videos as we crank up UMD's web presence.
In order for TVA to stop generating so much negative publicity by hassling United Mountain Defense volunteers we request that the TVA leadership make some decisions that will permeate the whole TVA organization informing all employees to begin completely cooperating with UMD volunteers. There isn't much that can help TVA's public image at this point but this small step would help TVA greatly because UMD will get ANY footage, samples, data, access, or anything else that we need or want in dealing with this disaster and it is in TVA's best interest to allow this access and monitoring to occur un inhibited.
Seriously, matt landon United Mountain Defense Volunteer Staff
March 3rd 2009 more harassment of UMD volunteers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frr-e8C5k6Y
March 3rd 2009 UMD volunteers began setting up air monitors around the TVA ash disaster. We found one spot downwind that was perfect--and go permission from the local that lived there. Within minutes TVA and Roane County police came and detained our volunteers, questioned the person that lived on the land, questioned the owner of the land, read the lease agreement, questioned all of our volunteers and took their ID--snatched a camera out of one of our volunteers hands and ordered us to take down the air monitoring station. Why doesn't TVA want independent air monitors around the site?
Ash spill linked to breathing problems
A third of the people living near the toxic coal ash spill from a TVA power plant in East Tennessee are reporting respiratory problems, and about half have experienced increased stress and anxiety, according to a Tennessee Department of Health survey.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090228/NEWS01/902280330
Yall from DAY 1 UMD has been handing out material handling sheets and advocating people be careful breathing this ash.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090228/NEWS01/902280330
Yall from DAY 1 UMD has been handing out material handling sheets and advocating people be careful breathing this ash.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
TVA published their Corrective Action Plan TODAY!
http://www.tva.gov/kingston/cap/TVA_Corrective_Action_Plan_Draft_D5.pdf
TVA published their Corrective Action Plan TODAY!
TVA published their Corrective Action Plan TODAY!
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