Cross-posted from ilovemountains.org
January 26, 2009

You may not know this, but iLovemountains.org is managed and funded not by a single organization, but by a coalition of groups from across Appalachia who work everyday at the grassroots on environmental issues such as mountaintop removal.

We will be taking one Monday each month to spotlight one of the amazing organizations that makes up the Alliance for Appalachia.

This month’s featured organization is the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. OVEC was formed in 1987 and since then has become a vital voice for environmental justice in the coalfields of West Virginia. Based in Huntington, WV, OVEC organizes around numerous environmental issues pertinent to the region including mountaintop removal mining, coal slurry impoundments and contaminated water, and the need for clean, alternative energy and green jobs.

The story of Maria Gunnoe, a resident of Boone county, gives a human voice to the reasons behind OVEC’s many initiatives. Since being affected by mountaintop removal mining near her home, Maria has become an organizer with OVEC. The text below is excerpted from an interview with her published in “Like Walking on Another Planet.”

Mountaintop removal moved into my backyard in 2000. Since then, I’ve been flooded seven times, lost two access bridges, the use of my water, and about five acres of land.

In response to all the floods, and to the coal company’s claims that this was an “act of God” takin’ place in my back yard, I began organizing other people here in the neighborhood. People around me was bein’ affected or were in line to be affected by this same mountaintop removal site.

OVEC first learned of mountaintop removal in 1997, when directly-impacted residents came to us to tell us about the issue and ask for our help. OVEC organized and hosted the first-ever public forum on mountaintop removal, and has been organizing in the West Virginia coalfields since then. The Coalition works with state, national and international media* to raise awareness about and ultimately hopes to end this extremely damaging form of coal mining. So far, OVEC has held back 90 valley fill permits at proposed mountaintop removal operations through litigation. Besides a host of newspaper and magazine articles, our work has been featured in music, books and films.

People around here are swiggin’ down contaminated water all day long, every day. The health affects are sometimes long-term. It’s usually pancreatic cancer or some kind of liver disease, or kidney stones, gall stones, digestive tract problems. And then, too, people’s breathing. The blasting is killin’ people - just smotherin’ them to death through breathin’ all of the dust.

OVEC and its sister group, Coal River Mountain Watch, collaborate on the Sludge Safety Project (SSP), which works to protect clean water and promote human health and safety near coal waste storage sites. The recent coal ash disaster in Tennessee underscores how dirty and deadly the rear-end of the coal-use cycle is. SSP’s work examines and exposes the dirty and deadly front-end of that cycle. We encourage everyone reading this blog to learn more about coal slurry impoundments and underground coal slurry injection by exploring the SSP website and, if possible, attending our Jan. 31 SSP Legislative Kick-Off event–details here.

In addition, you can learn more about SSP volunteers work by listening to this West Virginia Public Radio news story.

As it stands right now, with the new permits I saw last week, they’re gonna blast off the mountain I look at when I look off my front porch. And I get to set and watch that happen, and I’m not supposed to react. Don’t react, just set there and take it. They’re gonna blast away my horizon, and I’m expected to say, “It’s OK. It’s for the good of all.”

OVEC’s work also focuses on solutions to the energy crisis. We’re a founding member of CLEAN , a grassroots collaboration of state and local organizations. CLEAN, a project of the Civil Society Institute, seeks policies that will protect our environment, cease and reverse global warming, disentangle the U.S. from unstable regions of the world, and create a new energy economy that promises jobs and a sustainable and equitable economic prosperity.

To address a root cause of all the issues OVEC has worked on, we lead the West Virginia Citizens for Clean Elections with the West Virginia Citizen Action Group . This upcoming legislative season (Feb. 11 to April 11, 2009), we’ll be working at the West Virginia State Capitol to advance on Clean Elections, Sludge Safety Project concerns and on cemetery protection issues. Join OVEC’s Action Alert e-mail list (two to four e-mails a month, usually) to stay current with our work and/or check out daily news updates.

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* Newspapers that have quoted our members or staff or used our photos include New York Times, Los Angles Times, Washington Post, Toronto Star and scores more. Radio and TV outlets that have aired news of our work include National Public Radio, Bill Moyers of Public Broadcasting, British Broadcasting Company, Danish, Norwegian, Australian and Canadian Broadcasting, and more. Magazines that have featured are work include Smithsonian, National Geographic, People,
E-magazine, O (Oprah Winfrey’s magazine), and dozens more.

Thanks to Vivian Stockman of OVEC for helping put together this post. Check back next week for more news from the mountains, a new edition of Better Know a CWPA Sponsor & Target, and more!