This is my third year at UMSL as a student in the college of education. From what I’ve seen in St. Louis schools, the reputation of our university precedes itself in the community as an institution that puts forth very qualified and effective teachers. I promise to work hard and to live up to that reputation in the coming years. I am writing to you today with regards to the good name of our school, and its association with a company known throughout the Appalachian region where I’m from.
Earlier this month, you accepted a $750,000 gift from Peabody Energy to update two engineering labs on campus. In return for this gift, Peabody was given the naming rights for our Environmental Engineering Laboratory. As a longtime resident of West Virginia I have to tell you; if you want to see Peabody’s idea of environmental engineering, then come and look at the dead river systems and mountaintops that have been blown apart. On my recent trip to West Virginia over Labor Day, I drove through a dust cloud drifting off of Peabody’s surface mine in Lynnville, Indiana. The visible dust that draped the trees for several miles around the 40 mile marker of I-64 was a sight that I’m not unfamiliar with.
Studies conducted by West Virginia University have linked this particulate matter consisting of sulphur and silica to microvascular dysfunction, which could explain increases of cardiovascular disease in areas of close proximity to mountaintop removal sites. These coal companies unapologetically blast toxins into the air, while allowing lead, selenium, and arsenic to seep into the river systems. The one bit of environmental engineering that these companies seem to be proud of, ‘clean coal’, involves blindly injecting heavy water used in the cleaning process into abandoned, unsealed mines; several Appalachian communities have been a part of medical monitoring systems as a result. The financial costs have been in the millions due to the contaminated water table that thousands of West Virginians rely upon for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Of course, we cannot put a price tag on the many people who have died of their illnesses.
How Peabody Energy could have the audacity to put their name on an environmental engineering lab is beyond me. As far as UMSL’s engineering department is concerned, I really wish you would have found a more appropriate means of keeping the lights on. As your student, I must ask you to return the money to Peabody Energy, and perhaps allow them to use it for the pensions that they are about to be sued for by the United Mine Workers of America. I would like to think that $750,000 is an unfair price for the integrity of our institution. Any students or faculty members who are interested in working with me on this issue should contact me at hardhitpeople@gmail.com
Sincerely,
David Scott
Senior, Elementary Education
