The challenge

In West Virginia and Kentucky, where coal is king, mountain-leveling machines are lowering horizons. Mountaintop removal and valley-fill strip mining have decapitated 500 square miles of mountains, buried 1,000 miles of streams and destroyed communities. Coal companies maintain that such mining is essential to the local and national economy, but many West Virginians believe otherwise. Such mining often leaves behind denuded lunar-like plateaus. Mining companies deny that leveling and deforestation of these mountains is causing increasingly common flooding of the homes below. Nonetheless, residents of the mining districts fear that coal slurry impoundment dams above their homes will break when it rains. Coal slurry, composed of mountain debris and chemicals used in coal washing and processing, mixes with rain in these impoundments. On October 11, 2000 one impoundment near Inez, Ky. failed, spilling 250 million gallons of slurry and waste-water (more than 20 times the amount of oil lost by the Exxon Valdez in the nation’s worst oil tanker spill) polluting and killing all aquatic life in more than 70 miles of West Virginia and Kentucky streams. The slurry, with a consistency between pudding and tar, polluted drinking water systems, ruined septic systems and covered yards, in some cases to a depth of eight feet. Though the Inez slurry catastrophe received little national media coverage, the Environmental Protection Agency called it "one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of the southeastern United States." Forty-five other impoundments in West Virginia are considered at high risk for failure, and 32 are at moderate risk. In addition, most local communities are dependent on groundwater, which could be fouled by mining waste.

Seeds of commitment

Dianne Bady, Janet Fout and Laura Forman have worked together for eight years with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC), which Bady and others founded in 1987 originally to fight industrial pollution, but which has focused during the past four years on saving mountains from destruction. Their commitment goes back many years before OVEC. “All of us, since we were very young, have felt a deep connection, a kind of spiritual connection, to the natural world,” write Bady, Fout and Forman. “We love being embraced by the steep hillsides that run down to West Virginia's lifeblood, the streams below. West Virginia is truly almost heaven…The survival of the culture of the Appalachian people depends upon the survival of the mountains themselves.” West Virginia is a region of rivers and valleys, hills and mountains and one of the primary resting and breeding habitats for many migratory birds that populate the Northeast. “This is an awe-inspiring landscape that is embedded in the very soul of our people,” the three leaders write. Their prior work also seeded their commitment. Bady, now OVEC’s director, served earlier as president of the Rusk County (Wisconsin) Citizens Action Group. Janet Fout, project coordinator, is a biologist with extensive grassroots organizing experience, particularly with faith-based organizations. Laura Forman, OVEC organizer, has a long history of working as a local activist.


Accomplishments

• In 1997, OVEC prevented the construction of what would have been the continent's largest pulp and paper mill, after a major paper company refused to use what OVEC considered adequate anti-pollution technologies. To stop the mill, OVEC organized protest rallies at the state capitol and launched a public education campaign. This stimulated state-wide discussion about the issue, including how best to spend West Virginia taxpayer dollars on economic development – and whether the state should give the paper company tax breaks and loans totaling more than $1 billion. This public debate attracted a broad range of constituencies to join OVEC’s struggle. OVEC attracted college students by sponsoring a rock concert called “Pulpstock,” at an outside amphitheater in Huntington. •In 1998, following years of OVEC-organized citizen pressure and a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigation, the Department of Justice reached a settlement with a major regional oil refinery, assigning $32.5 million in fines and requiring environmental remediation. •Pro bono attorneys for OVEC sued the E.P.A. for not enforcing a section of the 1977 Clean Water Act, which requires the state to clean up polluted streams; the lawsuit resulted in the cleanup of 50 streams. •The leaders helped establish the People's Election Reform Coalition/West Virginia (PERC), an ongoing campaign that seeks to reduce the role of money in politics and aims to educate citizens about the need for an alternative way to finance elections. Janet Fout serves as PERC co-chair and Dianne Bady works as a PERC fundraiser. • PERC and OVEC contracted with the West Virginia Citizen Research Group to investigate and publish sources of special interest donations to West Virginia gubernatorial and legislative political campaigns and in 1999, the state legislature passed many of PERC’s campaign finance reform proposals into law. • Because of OVEC’s commitment, several permits for huge mountaintop removal and valley fill operations were stopped, and permits issued for this practice slowed.



Their leadership style

Members of OVEC’s board of directors report that "violence is always close to the surface" and the leaders "know they're taking a chance every time they go out into the coalfields." Consequently the OVEC office has no identifying sign. Nonetheless, Bady, Fout and Forman have succeeded in building a strong movement of hundreds of people. “Some of them are defending the mountains that have surrounded them since childhood,” according to the leaders. “Some are fighting to try to ease the pain of losing what they'd never imagined could be lost. Some are people who live in neighboring areas who feel a strong love and connection to the mountains, streams and coalfield communities. Others want to work on an underlying cause - the current campaign finance system,” according to the three women. They and their fellow activists have woven a complex web of relationships with people inside of government –including some who provide OVEC with vital information but cannot speak out publicly. The OVEC leaders have also created a wide network of diverse alliances. They bring together coalfield residents with hydrogeologists and attorneys who provide technical research, assistance with litigation and other professional services. The three women also work on campaign finance reform with union representatives and supportive public officials. The leaders emphasize that all OVEC goals are ultimately related to economic justice as well as environmental concerns. They insist that decisions within the organization be made democratically and continue to develop leadership skills in volunteers across the state. “We share leadership not only with each other,” they say, “but also with volunteers and coalfield residents, especially those who are the most affected by the problems. They’re the real experts.”


The future

Today, a new push for coal as a primary national energy resource means that OVEC’s success is threatened. “The coal industry and state regulators are working together to get more mountaintop mines permitted, against the wishes of neighboring coalfield residents and the majority of the state’s people,” according to the leaders. Dianne Bady, Janet Fout and Laura Forman are committed to broadening their base to include more students and minorities. Recently they worked with a local N.A.A.C.P. chapter to investigate leaking underground gasoline storage tanks in a minority neighborhood in Huntington, West Virginia. They also hope to work more closely with high schools and universities to train future leaders. In this spirit, OVEC helped students at Marshall University, in Huntington, to create an organization called Student Activism for the Environment. The leaders, staff and volunteers of OVEC also dream of creating a leadership training center. Janet Fout sums up their fierce optimism about the future, and their battle against industrial pollution: “When David met Goliath he looked pretty big. You know what David said? ‘He's so big, how can we miss?’"


More about OVEC and the mountaintop removal

“There is a lot of intimidation from the coal industry. People were always afraid to speak out. They didn’t know where to turn. Now people are not afraid to stand up at a public hearing and tell their story; there is now hope in their eyes. They are fighting a huge battle that has been waged for 130 years.”
– Judy Bonds, community outreach coordinator, Coal River Mountain Watch, crediting OVEC’s leadership

“In the last two weeks, the issue of mining's impact on flooding has become a high-profile topic. On July 8, heavy rains hit many areas of the southern West Virginia coalfields. More than a dozen southern counties have been declared federal disaster areas. More than 6,300 residents have sought flood relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. … In interviews and public meetings, many residents have complained that mountaintop removal and other mining made the flooding damage worse.”
– The (Charleston) Sunday Gazette Mail, July 22, 2001