Montcoal , West Virginia ( CNN ) -- I am West Virginia born and raised , and I come from a long line of coal miners . My father , grandfather , brothers , husband and son-in-law either are or were coal miners . My husband spent 35 years as an underground union coal miner and he died of black lung . I live near Coal River Mountain and my community is experiencing a tragedy . The situation here , before this disaster , had already compelled me to become an environmental activist , committed to doing everything I can to stop the destructive practice of coal extraction known as mountaintop removal . I am not trying to stop all coal mining . I believe coal mining will be with us for a very long time , considering our enormous thirst for energy and our slow transition to renewable energy . Throughout Appalachia , 2,000 miles of headwater streams have been destroyed and over 500 mountains have been decapitated by mountaintop removal . I stood by and did nothing until Massey Energy brought this fight to my door . Three years ago , Massey applied for a permit to blow the top off the mountain behind my house . The company plans to level 6,600 acres of Coal River Mountain and turn it into a moonscape where no living , breathing thing can survive . I believe a higher and better use for this mountain is the Coal River Wind Project . On Monday , April 5 , an enormous explosion went off at the Upper Big Branch mine at Performance Coal Co. , a subsidiary of Massey Energy . Thirty-one men in our community did n't come home that day . We do n't yet know the names of all of the deceased and I dread the day when the list is read and we , at last , know our connection to those who did n't make it . I felt extremely blessed when I knew that my family members who worked at this mine were home and safe . I know many friends and neighbors will be among those we lost and I grieve for all of the families involved . On April 6 , many heartbroken and terrified families kissed their loved ones at the door and sent them off back to work underground . These very brave men enter these mines knowing their fate will probably be the same as their friends ' on April 5 or the same as my husband 's . Now , although these very proud , brave and strong men make about $ 70,000 a year , if they had a choice , many of them would never go underground again . The problem is that we live in a mono-economy and there are no choices . The coal industry has a death grip in the state of West Virginia and we have some of the best politicians money can buy . We also have some very honest , good and environmentally friendly politicians . Their numbers are small and it is considered to be political suicide to do anything in West Virginia that appears to be anti-coal . Many of our representatives have tunnel vision and refuse to advocate for job diversity in the coal fields . Coal is a finite resource , and no matter when you think , it will eventually run out -- someday we will have harvested all of the economically feasible coal . When that day comes , how will the people we love support their families ? I live at ground zero for mountaintop removal and because of the stand that I and many other people have taken to stop it , tensions run high in the coal fields . We are all being used by an outlaw industry and corrupt politicians and we are all driven by fear . The men who work in surface mining are terrified they will lose their jobs . I am terrified that my granddaughter will not have clean drinking water when she is of child-bearing age if we do n't stop this . Massey Energy 's record speaks for itself . With an enormous amount of violations and previous deaths at this mine , I will leave it to you to decide if this company puts profits before the safety of its workers or views its employees as a disposable commodity . We are coping with this enormous tragedy , and sometimes tragedy brings communities together . I can only hope that something good will come out of all of this bad . The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Lorelei Scarbro .
Lorelei Scarbro comes from a long line of coal miners ; husband died of black lung . She says Montcoal is grieving and terrified , but brave men still went to work after tragedy . Scarbro fights for the rights of miners and tries to to stop mountaintop coal removal . Scarbro : Massey Energy had violations and previous deaths .