Mountain Talk: Another Chemical Spill in 'Chemical Valley'; Land, Power & Our Economy; Hazel Dickens

Last month, a chemical leak once again rattled the community of Institute, West Virginia. On April 22nd, a leak at a plant which processes silver caused a violent chemical gas reaction which killed two people, and sent dozens more to the hospital. And after the leak, a shelter-in-place order was issued to the community for more than five hours, during which time (not to mention afterwards) local residents had to wonder about the safety of the air they were breathing, and of the water coming out of the tap.
And, if any part of this story sounds familiar, that’s because, sadly, it is. The town of Institute has been the scene of multiple scary, and stressful, chemical spills over the years: in 2008, another chemical explosion there killed two people, and injured eight more. And back in 1985, a cloud of gas leaked from what was then the Union Carbide plant in Institute— and this leak came just months after the horrific leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, had made global headlines by killing at least some 16,000 people, and injuring tens of thousands more.
And knowing what had just happened in India, when this 1985 leak happened in Institute, it was understandably a tense time for the community. This time was documented in the 1991 Appalshop Film “Chemical Valley,” and to begin Mountain Talk today, filmmaker Mimi Pickering brings us a radio adaptation of that film.
Then, we hear selections from a panel held last month at the University of Kentucky about the history and future of Appalachia’s economy, a discussion which was called “Shifting Power in Rural America.” In these clips, Appalachian scholars John Gaventa & Gabe Schwartzman discuss land ownership in our region, and how that has historically helped determine who has power in the mountains— and how all of that might be changing now. Finally, we close the show with an episode of the former WMMT radio documentary series “Southern Songbirds,” produced by Rachel Goodman, about the life and music of the great WV singer & songwriter Hazel Dickens.
(MUSIC in this show, apart from the Hazel Dickens tunes in the 2nd half, comes from: Tommy Hunter, from the June Appal Records release "Deep in Tradition"; Glenn Jones & Laura Baird, from the Free Music Archive; and Don Bikoff, also from the Free Music Archive.)