Dear folks,
I would like to invite you to come down to the General Sessions Court in the Kingston Courthouse on Monday Oct 19, 2009 at 9AM. All the charges against me are supposed to be dropped but I wouldn't put it past TVA to try and disrupt my life a little more. thanks, matt landon full time volunteer staff person for United Mountain Defense

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST SET TO BE CLEARED OF CHARGES IN ROANE COUNTY COURT FOLLOWING UNJUST ARREST BY TVA POLICE AT COAL ASH DISASTER SITE

Kingston, Tenn., Monday October 19, 9AM – United Mountain Defense volunteer, Matt Landon Jones will appear in the Kingston Courthouse following a six month restriction order following his unjust arrest at the coal ash disaster site of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on March 5, 2009. Matt Landon Jones has been restricted from communicating with any TVA employees engaged in clean up and recovery efforts at the disaster site and any non-TVA workers involved in the cleanup. He was also restricted from trespassing on any TVA property or traveling on or within the 750 foot elevation of the Emory, Clinch, and Tennessee Rivers which directly impacted his water monitoring efforts on these rivers.

Matt Landon Jones says, “Even though I expect all of the charges to be dropped and my name to be cleared TVA will never be able to repair the emotional stress they have caused both me and the residents of Roane County.” Even with all charges dropped he will still have to pay at least $700 in court fees.

On Mar. 5, 2009 Matt Landon Jones was arrested by TVA police in Roane County Tenn., where the TVA coal ash disaster occurred on Dec. 22, 2008. At the time of his arrest, Matt Landon Jones was driving 65-year-old Eva Hewitt to her home on Swan Pond Road after a community meeting. After arriving at her home, TVA police came onto her property to arrest Matt Landon Jones. The officer warned him that he drove through a TVA roadblock without a proper pass; his red residential pass was confiscated earlier that week. Matt Landon Jones contends that the roadblock was unstaffed at the time and illegally set up by TVA. The officer told Matt Landon Jones that a resident needed to be in the vehicle with him when he drove on the public road. Once Hewitt exited the vehicle and explained that she had just been escorted home, as partial blindness prevents her from driving, the officer arrested Matt Landon Jones for trespassing with a motor vehicle. He was held on $3,000 bail in the Roane County jail and transferred to Bradley County Jail and was incarcerated for 36 hours. He is currently charged with entering a restricted area, trespass in a motor vehicle, and disobeying a traffic control device. The TVA officer recognized Matt Landon Jones from an incident earlier in the week, which is described below.

Matt Landon Jones stated, "The TVA police repeatedly abused the rights of United Mountain Defense volunteers and this fact will be revealed just as TVA’s lack of safety was exposed by the Office of Inspector General report. UMD volunteers were delivering drinking water, gathering water and air samples and working with local community residents and we were constantly harassed by the TVA police as though we were criminals.”

On March 23, 2009 TVA police confiscated and retained part of UMD’s air monitoring equipment for two weeks and 4 days in an effort to further disrupt the air monitoring program.

On Tuesday, Mar. 3, 2009, UMD volunteers Matt Landon Jones and Tom Swinford, were detained while gathering independent air quality samples in Roane County, Tenn. The air monitoring program was initiated in response to local resident's complaints of worsening respiratory problems since the disaster and UMD's discovery that TVA's air testing was inadequate.

UMD volunteers found a testing location downwind of the spill and received permission from the property residents to assemble their monitoring equipment. Almost immediately, TVA and Roane County police were on the scene hassling UMD members. The police questioned residents and the property owners about UMD's use of their land, reviewed the lease agreement and questioned all of the UMD volunteers. The police took note of the volunteer's identification and seized the camera that filmed the entire event. After detaining the two UMD volunteers for several hours, the TVA police ordered the removal of the air monitoring station.

Matt Landon Jones stated, “Numerous reports have exposed flaws in TVA’s water monitoring program, worker safety program and coal ash containment programs and I will work to expose the flaws in TVA’s air monitoring program which may be endangering the health of Roane County residents.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has a chance to play a role in helping provide the parallel air monitoring that TVA denied to independent air monitors and United Mountain Defense requests that they fulfill this obligation.

“United Mountain Defense will continue to gather air quality samples in an effort to provide unbiased data to the residents of Roane County,” said Matt Landon Jones.

There will be a press conference outside of the Kingston Courthouse following Matt Landon Jones court case.

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About United Mountain Defense

United Mountain Defense (UMD) is a Knoxville based non-profit dedicated to protecting Tennessee's watersheds, air, mountains and communities. We have many years of experience working on issues relating to surface mining and its impacts on communities. A primary focus of UMD has been in scientific data collection, community organizing, and data collection and analysis from federal and state agencies. (link...)

Dear folks
The next air monitoring training will occurr April 18, 2009 5PM-7PM at Shelter Number 1 in Roane County Park on Hwy 70 down by the Watt’s Bar Lake.

There will be a hotdog dinner for those taking part in the training.

If you can learn to program a digital watch, use a pair of tweezers, and put some vinyl gloves on your hands then you can use this air monitor. There are also a bunch of other ways to help with the air monitoring program that don't include fine motor skills. Its that simple.

Look out for future trainings on interpreting the raw data, and more how-to-use the air monitoring equipment

There have been two air monitoring trainings so far and three Roane County residents know how to install the Mini Volume air monitors. UMD is working with the Global Community Monitor to provide air monitoring. We have the support of Mike Farmer and are working with other local residents and governments to set up monitoring in their areas as well. The first six air samples have been sent off to the laboratory and we expect the raw data back by April 6, 2009 at which point we will pass the data along to Roane County.

If you have any questions please call Matt at 865 689 2778.
Thanks, Matt Landon full time volunteer for United Mountain Defense and dedicated Roane county volunteer

Check out United Mountain Defense at (link...)
Check out Global Community Monitor at (link...)

Dear folks,

I hope that yall are well. Things are going good here. Just enjoying a little bit of American freedom. So I went to court in Kingston, TN this morning at 9 AM. It was an interesting experience. I met my public defender and learned that TVA had presented a motion to revoke my bond because I had asked a CTEH employee to help set up parallel air monitoring sometime in the future and that I had also set up an air monitor with a land owner's express permission on their property that had been purchased by TVA. This land owner was not allowed by TVA order to tell me that the property had been sold and so I had no way of knowing that it had been bought by TVA. After my court case today a TVA police officer informed UMD volunteers Tom and Bonnie Swinford that they were not allowed to visit this resident or do air monitoring on the property because TVA owned the property and the TVA police could decide who was allowed to enter the property. This resident is staying on this property for a few more months and had a pre- existing contract with UMD to do air monitoring and photograph the disaster site. This resident is very concerned about the quality of air coming from the disaster site near the property.

I was threatened with up to one year in jail for my work with the air monitoring program. Truthfully I love yall but it sorta freaked me out today to hear that I may spend a year in jail because I put up an air monitor.

TVA is very scared about the samples that we are taking with this air monitoring equipment and they are willing to threaten me and other UMD volunteers to keep this valuable field work from being done. We need your help. UMD volunteers have listened to your concerns about air and water quality, we have done the sampling, and we have been threatened with jail time because of our scientific monitoring.

So after speaking with my public defender and letting them know that I would not plead guilty to any of the charges the prosecutor came back with a deal. They would drop one of the charges and just give me a fine for two of them with a guilty plea. No deal!!!! I called for a pre-trial hearing. The prosecutor began to squirm and made some phone calls to the TVA so they could rally the arresting officers and the CTEH employee. Just before the pre-trial hearing began the prosecutor came back with another deal. All of the charges would be dismissed!!!! Sounds a bit better, but what is the catch.

Well for the next six months I cannot travel on the Clinch or Emory River from Interstate 40 to mile marker 4 on the Emory River. I cannot enter the 750 foot elevation (100 year flood plain) near these two rivers. I cannot interact with any TVA employees or any other company workers employed by TVA to work on the Coal Ash Disaster. The $3,000 bond will be held for the next six months until a follow up trial date of Sept 21, 2009 at which time I will have to pay court costs of nearly $600. If at any time I break any of these clauses I will be pulled back into court and all bets are off probably meaning jail time.

So what does this all mean? Well the future of your community's water and air monitoring program now rests with you, the community members. I can provide the training and skills but have now had a MAJOR dent put into the amount of access that I have to the disaster site and the area surrounding TVA's Kingston Steam Plant. If you want this air monitoring project to continue then I would please ask you to step up to the plate, get the training, and set up an air monitor on you or your neighbor's land.

Here is how you can help:

1) document your health issues/ go to the doctor or hospital, take the MSDS sheets

2) come to a Tennessee Coal Ash Survivors Meeting Tues 6PM rotating locations

3) get training to gather air/ water/ coal ash samples

4) give water monitoring people a boat ride on the river during the dredging to gather samples

5) contact UMD if you would like to have an air monitor set up on your property

6) contact your elected officials and ask for independent air monitoring

7) contact TDEC and CTEH and ask for parallel sampling with UMD's air monitors

TDEC- Air Resources

Tracy Carter Senior Director 615- 532- 0127

Air Pollution 615- 532- 0554

Call 1-888-891-TDEC (8332)
ask.tdec@tn.gov

CTEH

Phone (501) 801-8500
Email: support@cteh.com

Alright yall, please let’s find a way to work together and gather the much needed independent data that you have asked for. As much as I want to help your community I am not willing to spend a year in jail for the cause. You as community members have the power to install these monitors and the power to gather this information. Please feel empowered to do so.

Thank you, matt landon volunteer staff for UMD and dedicated volunteer for Roane County

Dear folks,
I wanted to let you know about a training session for the citizen's air monitoring program that is happening at 1PM on Saturday. This monitoring program is up and running we are gathering air samples and we want as many residents, local elected officials, or local governments to get training in how to use this monitoring equipment. We are using 2 Mini-Volume air monitors produced by Air Metrics, (link...). We are working with the Global Community Monitor which has provided training and experts to interpret the data, (link...). Please call Matt at 865 689 2778 or 865 292 1320 for directions to tomorrow's training or set up a future training.
Till then ,matt landon full time volunteer staff United Mountain Defense