"Sludge" - Documentary of a Disaster

Vast rivers, rolling mountains, and small towns, all reminiscent of Frostburg, MD, are shown throughout the documentary film "Sludge", shown on April 19th, 2012 at Frostburg State University's Focus Frostburg during  their movie day,  Focus Frostburg raises awareness on sustainability and climate awareness by holding events, speakers, and other social and media outlets for not only students attending Frostburg but the entire community.  Operating under the slogan "Learn-In for a Sustainable Future", the Focus Frostburg events will continue to run in the Lane Center until April 26th, 2012. Starting on April 18th, guest speakers, faculty, and other types of media began taking over the Lane Center in an attempt to grab the attention of anyone around and hopefully get some to focus on the changing climates, human environment interaction, and the ability to sustain the earth's valuable yet depleting resources.   "Sludge", the Appalshop film by Robert Salyer, focuses on a Kentucky coal waste disaster which affected Wolf Creek and Coldwater Fork, two parts of the Tug Fork River. In October 2000, a coal sludge pond broke and let 306 million gallons of sludge into the Tug Fork River tributaries. Continuing up the river, it eventually made its way to the Ohio River which was about 75 miles upstream. Salyer spent 4 years documenting the disaster which killed 1.6 million fish and contaminated water systems for over 25,000 people.  "Sludge" documents many of the local people from the Martin County community and offers their insights and feelings towards the Martin County Coal Company and their parent company Massey Energy.  "Something was done in '94 and  Massey thought it was ok. That's not a decision we  made. We submitted a plan and they looked at it and said 'That'll work'. Well, something happened again",  was a quote shown in which a gentleman was speaking to members of the community and trying to make sense of what had happened and why. The camera panned through the Martin Countians as their faces were struck cold as stone by hearing those words and realizing the disaster could have been prevented had the correct measures been taken by the coal company 6 years prior. In between interviews and testimonials, various illustrations and cartoons flow over the screen depicting the many different sides of what a disaster of this proportion can cause. Politicians furiously covering up spills, oil monsters, people crazed and running from chunks of coal, just about anything the most creative minds could come up with from the corruption and ecological catastrophes which they had based these representations. The corruption was  the result of cases involving the former director of the Natonal Mine Health and Safety Academy.  Much of the focus of investigations into the matter were by Jack Spadaro, the  former director of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy and main investigator of the Martin County spills. "The charge was pretty clear. We were to find out why it happened and not pull any punches, no matter how it looked for the agency", said Spadaro when speaking of his resignation from the investigation team after the Bush administration stepped in and took over the report he had been working on for months which was to be changed heavily as to not hurt the agency.  "When the official report was released, I was asked by the head of the agency to sign the report. I refused. I still refuse". Corruption in the investigation continued until Spadaro was eventually fired after investigators searched his office, confiscating computers, files, and anything they could label an incriminating document. He was eventually falsely accused of abusing authority and others about failure to follow procedures. Spadaro fought back against the false accusations and won few small battles. Robert Salyer  began his documentary on 3 days after the spill in Martin County and continued for 4 years in order to raise awareness of the dangers of human impact on the environment. His documentary was a gritty, well put together film which left the viewer almost angry at the coal company which had destroyed such valuable and irreplaceable ecological structures. Causing the most anger was the information that there are now 235 sludge ponds still remaining in the affected areas and they maintain the possibility to break into other water sources, just as in the Martin County spills 12 years ago. Phrased best from a Martin County local, "You look now and it looks just so pretty. It looks so nice. People think oh my goodness I just want to live there. But if they know really what happened here, then they think eh maybe I don't want to go there after all". For information on "Sludge" or the Martin County spill, including a video trailer for "Sludge" or to get the DVD for yourself, visit : Appalshop.org/sludge/