January 31

Diana Anderson of the TN Coal Ash Survivors Network and Matt Landon of United Mountain Defense traveled to Deleware today to receive training from the Global Community Monitor (GCM) organization.

Matt Landon of UMD video taped the entire two day training session so that other community members in Deleware, TN, and the world could review the training. Today’s training consisted of learning about the history and successes of the Bucket Brigade, GCM’s most notable air monitoring project. The community that hosted us today was plagued by numerous polluting industries and was in the first steps of beginning to self monitor the air quality. One of the first steps in the process was called a log sheet. A brainstorming session led to the development of the “I SEE, I SMELL, I FEEL” sections for residents to fill out for each air pollution event. Based on these pollution log sheets GCM and the community would be able to decide where to put up Swipe Tests and then Mini Volume Air Monitors.

A really good excerise was for the community members to make a map of the major polluters in the area and show the locations of surrounding houses and other points of interest such as schools, hospitals, existing air monitors, and prevailing wind directions.

This training provided a good basis for how the Bucket Brigade would proceed in TN and we got one step closer to having a solid monitoring plan. Thank you Global Community Monitor for providing a helpful training session.

February 1

Super Bowl Sunday was spent researching a number of online sources of data that we had left untapped till this point.

Matt Landon, United Mountain Defense volunteer staff person, took a virtual car ride through the Swan Pond Community before the coal ash disaster using Google Street View. He found photos of the leaking dam located at 1222 Swan Pond Rd. There was photographic evidence of red iron oxide and heavy metal laden water leaking from the toe of the dam. Whenever water is leaking from the base of the damn it is a bad sign and could foreshadow failure.

We also viewed Roane County property tax maps online. These property maps incorporated aerial photography as well making the property searches so much easier. These maps were not up to date as they did not show the properties recently purchased by TVA along Berkshire Ln and Lakeshore Rd.

Diana Anderson of the TN Coal Ash Survivors Network and Matt Landon of United Mountain Defense met with Sarah Goldberg of the Kelley Campaign, a Public Relations group based in Washington DC. Sarah Goldberg was very excited to meet with us and learn more information about what was happening from our firsthand accounts. The Kelley Campaign has been working on a campaign to counter the “Cl*** Coal” campaign of 2008. The Kelley Campaign is working with United Mountain Defense to help amplify our media presence. They have a staff dedicated to writing press releases, distributing them to national and international media, and helping with ground work logistics like setting up citizen press conferences. This is the start to be a beautiful relationship……

After catching the last 15 minutes of the Super Bowl and seeing that incredible touchdown play by the PA Steelers Matt Landon helped Diana Anderson create her first blog. The blog’s title is the Tennessee Coal Ash Survivors Network. The blog’s address is http://tncasn.blogspot.com.

February 2

Today was the second day of training from the Global Community Monitor. Today Diana Anderson of the TN Coal Ash Survivors Network and Matt Landon of United Mountain Defense learned how to operate Air Metric’s Mini Volume air monitor. This machine is very user friendly and maintains its calibration for one year.

The air monitoring volunteers learned about how to use various filters for the monitors and how to maintain the integrity of the filter sample. They learned how to troubleshoot the monitoring machine. They also learned about properly mounting the monitor on power poles or house roofs and other important sighting instructions.

Anderson and Landon also learned about filling out chain of custody forms, and how to tamper proof the filter cases for shipping to the lab.

We finally got back to TN’s community map we had drawn two days prior. After reviewing this map with GCM staff we decided on locations for Swipe Testing and then Air Quality Testing.

More importantly we learned about the impacts of air pollution on other communities and how similar their concerns are to our own concerns.

We ended the training by looking to the future. Matt Landon of United Mountain Defense helped bring the Bucket Brigade to Appalachia in order to provide another community organizing tool that would give back to the communities. He envisioned using TVA’s coal ash disaster as a pilot project to show how easy it is for communities to do this type of monitoring and help bring it to coal impacted communities across the region. He wants to see Bucket Brigades at Marsh Fork Elementary School in West Virginia and at surface coal mines, coal processing plants, and coal burning plants across the region. Won’t you help?

There is no shortage of a need for project funding. United Mountain Defense is a 501c3 and we are seeking funding or co-sponsoring organizations to help fund personal protection equipment, bottled water, independent air and water monitoring, and real time web cams.

If you are a resident impacted by TVA's coal ash disaster please contact us at 865 689 2778.

If you can make a donation of money or other resources please send a check to United Mountain Defense P.O. Box 20363 Knoxville, TN 37920 or use our PayPal account at www.unitedmountaindefense.org

Ed note:  Matt Landon, a full time volunteer with United Mountain Defense, is reporting from the ground in Harriman, TN.  Because of his chaotic schedule, we receive batches of diary posts intermittently, and we'll continue re-publishing them in chronological order. Here are all of his posts.