Season’s Greetings and Thank You
Season’s Greetings from OVEC! We sure do hope you are in the midst of a most-excellent holiday season. We know it’s a busy time of year, so we’ll be quick in saying: Thank you for all your support in 2014! It takes all of us to protect and defend our water, our mountains and our communities. See you in 2015…

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Come Out for WV Chemical Leak Anniversary Events
…which is another reason we wanted to contact you at this busy time. We wanted to make certain you know about the events taking place on January 9 and throughout the month.

January 9 marks the one-year anniversary of the major chemical leak of crude MCHM and other coal-cleaning chemicals at the Freedom Industries’ tank farm along the Elk River, a mile and a half above WV American Water’s municipal intake pipes. The drinking water of nearly 1/6th of West Virginia’s population was contaminated for days on end. Some in the affected area are still not drinking the tap water.

We hope those of you living close to Charleston, WV will join us for January 9 to mark the one-year anniversary of this disaster. On January 9 and throughout the month of January, we’ll celebrate our progress and learn about ways we can safeguard and improve clean water protections.   

In early 2014, citizens mobilized as the water crisis unfolded, demanding reforms at the state and federal level to strengthen protections of drinking water supplies. Out of this organizing work emerged the West Virginia Safe Water Roundtable, a coalition involving 28 organizations, including OVEC, committed to working together to ensure the availability of clean, safe water to sustain life and a vital economy in West Virginia.

Please do join the roundtable groups for January: A Month of Water. We kick things off January 9, with citizen education workshops on water issues sponsored by the WV Rivers Coalition at the WV Culture Center from 3-5 p.m., followed by a 6:30 p.m. Honoring the Waters candlelight vigil, on the banks of the Kanawha River across from the State Capitol. There’s much more going on the 9th and throughout the month, check out all the details here.

Defend our water: come to the chemical leak anniversary events.

~Volunteers needed in the Charleston area to post and hand out fliers for the January 9 events. Reply to this e-mail if you can help.~

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End-of-Year Reminder
OVEC is a 501-c-3 organization, so your donations are tax-deductible. Remember to make your contribution to OVEC by tomorrow, December 31, to earn charitable gift credit on your 2014 income taxes.

If your membership has lapsed or if you are not currently a member of OVEC, please join us as we work together for a cleaner, brighter future.

You can join and or donate via credit card here, or click the PayPal icon here or you can mail a check to:

OVEC
Attn.: Maryanne Graham
P.O. Box 6753
Huntington, WV 25773-6753

Your support keeps us going — thank you! See you next year…

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