Ken Bonerigo appeared on the cover of City Paper last August after his sailboat was boarded and searched by Homeland Security’s Project SeaHawk, because he’d been videotaping coal-importing company Kinder Morgan’s operations on Shipyard Creek. Bonerigo’s initial motivation was to stop the coal dust that regularly covered his and every other boat at the Cooper River Marina. When his camera caught KM spilling coal into the water, then washing the detritus right into the creek, he posted them on YouTube and started racking up hits and comments from enraged citizens and neighbors. KM wasn’t happy, and it called Homeland Security on him the next time he took to the water to tape. His actions directly led to interest from both City Paper and The Post and Courier, resulting in CP‘s ongoing coverage of Kinder Morgan, and the P&C‘s groundbreaking investigation of mercury levels in the blood of South Carolina residents as a result of emissions from coal-burning power plants. And Ken’s still out there taping today.
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