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Mail your donation form and check to: OVEC, PO BOX 6753, Huntington, WV 25773.
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Winds of Change, Fall 2014
A landmark June decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia found that high conductivity from mountaintop removal mines owned by Alex Energy and Elk Run Coal Company violates key clean-water protections.
Winds of Change, Summer 2014
In July of 2013, Bill Hughes sent a detailed e-mail to the owner-operator of Jay-Bee Oil & Gas’ Lisby Marcellus Shale gas operation. The well pad is about six miles southeast of Middlebourne, on Big Run Road in Tyler ounty, WV, and it’s been a problem for people living nearby since the operation “first pushed dirt,” Hughes says.
Winds of Change, March 2014
Don’t drink the water. Don’t shower. Don’t cook with it or wash your clothes. There’s half a century gone. Gone most of us who went to Elk Grade School, gone, too. Gone the white frame homes, the small brick duplexes, the school we marched to for our polio shots. Gone the quick-tongued streams, gone the valleys, filled with mountaintop, gone from the fog-draped skyscape. It’s licorice scented air, not sun-dried cotton sheets, licorice wafting from the tap.
Coal Industry Would Like To Push & Poison Us Out of Here
When I first read this document 12 years ago, it infuriated me. Starting on page 13, the essay includes points that amount to a depopulation plan for southern West Virginia. I think it infuriates me even more now, after everything that’s happened since then. The latest: the January 9 “leak” into the Elk River of 10,000 gallons of a chemical used in coal prep plants from an uninspected,decrepit tank farm and the subsequent poisoning of the water supply of about 300,000 West Virginians, a water crisis that is still unfolding today, nearly a month later.
Winds of Change, December 2013
Perhaps those buried in the Jarrell Family Cemetery can rest a little easier now. In August, family members of the deceased filed a lawsuit in Boone County Court aimed at repairing and protecting the cemetery from further desecration.
Synopsis: Increased Risk of Depression for People Living in Coal Mining Areas of Central Appalachia
Main Points: Individuals residing in areas where mountaintop removal is practiced experienced significantly more poor mental […]
Synopsis: The Environmental Price Tag on a Ton of Mountaintop Removal Coal
Main Points: While several thousand square kilometers of land area have been subject to surface mining in the Central Appalachians, no reliable estimate exists for how much coal is produced per unit landscape disturbance. A one-year supply of coal would result in ∼2,300 km of stream impairment and a loss of ecosystem carbon sequestration capacity comparable to the global warming potential of >33,000 US homes.
Winds of Change, September 2013
On the lovely summer evening of July 26, about 80 OVEC members and supporters, many pictured above, gathered to picnic at Coonskin Park in Charleston, WV. We venture to say that everyone had fun, enjoying meeting friends old and new. Thanks to everyone who came out.
Winds of Change, June 2013
Victory: Supreme Court Pilot Program Now Permanent! In 2012, Allen Loughry became the first and only candidate for state Supreme Court to take advantage of public financing of his campaign, using a pilot program established thanks to our WV Citizens for Clean Elections coalition. Remarkably, Loughry won the election, defeating the politically powerful Tish Chafin.
The Health Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Mining
In 2011 a group of researchers from West Virginia University and Washington State University published a study on the association between exposure to mountaintop removal (MTR) mining and the increased rate of birth defects in Central Appalachia.
Synopsis: Personal and Family Health in Rural Areas of Kentucky With and Without Mountaintop Coal Mining
Main Points: Surface water emerging from MTM mining sites, or present in ground water proximate to […]
Winds of Change, March 2013
We reached a legal agreement in November 2012, whereby Patriot Coal will immediately begin phasing out mountaintop removal and other large-scale surface mining. Patriot is the second-largest producer of surface-mined coal in West Virginia.
Winds of Change, December 2012
Over the 15 years that OVEC has been fighting mountaintop removal, we’ve heard members who live near MTR talk about their health concerns. Today, a growing number of peerreviewed, published scientific studies link living near mountaintop removal to higher rates of many illnesses including cancer, birth defects, and lung and cardiovascular disease, as well as to lower life expectancies.
ACHE Act: Please call Senator Rockefeller
Please call Senator Jay Rockefeller at 202-224-6472 to let him know that we all support his […]
Winds of Change, September 2012
How would our region be different if OVEC had never existed? Let’s start by looking at the Huntington Tri-State area (Huntington, West Virginia; Ashland, Kentucky; Ironton, Ohio).
Synopsis: How Many Mountains Can We Mine? Assessing the Regional Degradation of Central Appalachian Rivers by Surface Coal Mining
The authors mapped surface mining from 1976 to 2005 and linked this data with biological and water quality for 223 streams.
PowerPoint: Atmospheric Particulate Matter in Proximity to Mountaintop Coal Mines
The present study considers the potential for human exposure to air- and water-sourced contaminants from MTM activities.
Winds of Change, July 2012
No matter how it is mined, the coal we burn for electricity is a driving force of global climate disruption. However, mountaintop-removal-mined coal disrupts and destroys entire communities and ecosystems even before it is burned.
Winds of Change, March 2012
In addition to coal and gas, West Virginia possesses another extremely valuable resource: water. In fact, the state owns the water in all streams and rivers within the state as well as several rivers, such as the Ohio, that border the state.
Winds of Change, December 2011
On September 26, the US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, held an “oversight field hearing” in Charleston, WV.