MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL, COAL,

Please read this mountaintop removal report by Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch has issued a major new report, The Coal Mine Next Door: How the US Government's Deregulation of Mountaintop Removal Threatens Public Health. Coal River Mountain Watch provided input including a tour, interviews, and contacts for the lead researcher. You can read the report (with video) here, and a news report about the report, with a timeline, here. The timeline photos include a good deal of CRMW’s work, including Ed Wiley’s walk to Washington for Marsh Fork Elementary, Mountain Justice events, and sludge safety work (that’s my hand dipping sludge from the creek).

From the report’s summary:

"This report focuses on how Congress invoked the Congressional Review Act, a little-used law that gives it veto power over federal agency rules, to cancel the Stream Protection Rule, enacted after eight years of agency review, that required coal companies to monitor their impact on streams and restore them at the end of a mining project. The Trump administration subsequently canceled a half-completed federally-funded study the National Academy of Sciences was conducting on the potential health effects of surface mining in central Appalachia, even though dozens of scientific studies indicate that it poses serious threats to the health of nearby residents and destroys their environment. (Emphasis added) In doing so, the administration not only assured the continuation of a hazardous form of mining but also robbed the public of an important tool to assess its true cost."

Please chip in an automatic recurring gift of $10 per month here  to support our efforts to bring the hazards of mountaintop removal back into the national spotlight. Thanks!

To end the public health threats from mountaintop removal, tell your US representative to support the ACHE Act.

The Appalachian Community Health Emergency (ACHE) Act will be introduced again in the new Congress, so please help make a buzz now. Whether your representative has served for a decade or is one of the newly elected crop, they need to hear from you.

Learn more about the ACHE Act and find contact information for your representative here, and follow the ACHE campaign on Facebook here and on Twitter here

Please support Coal River Mountain Watch without spending anything extra.

First, if you shop at mid-Atlantic Kroger stores, you can sign up here and select Coal River Mountain Watch as the group you want to support. Then just use your Kroger card as you normally do when you shop. We just received our quarterly notice: 36 households contributed over $270. That’s about $30 per household per year—a significant help for just a few minutes of signing up. Please enroll here today!

Second, *if* you shop through Amazon, you can support us by simply going through AmazonSmile here and select Coal River Mountain Watch. Amazon will donate one half of one percent of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases, so your holiday gift-giving gives a little more.

Please support Coal River Mountain Watch with a tax-deductible year-end gift here.

Whether it’s a one-time boost or a monthly sustaining gift, whether it’s $10, $100, $1,000, or some other amount, it’s very much needed and very much appreciated. You can target your gift to one of our projects:

The Judy Bonds Center for Appalachian Preservation here

The Tadpole Project, including Coal River Environmental Education for Kids (CREEK) here

The Coal River Intensive Monitoring Project (CRIMP)/Citizens’ Enforcement Project (CEP) here

The Show & Tell Energy Education & Policy (STEEP) project here

If you’d rather donate by check, our address is

CRMW, P.O. Box 303, Naoma, WV 25140.

We can also accept donations of stock; just reply to get the details.

Follow us on Facebook here and Twitter here.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Vernon Haltom

Executive Director

Coal River Mountain Watch 

Coal River Mountain Watch: Coal Baron Blankenship: Guilty

The verdict is in.

The jury has found ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship guilty of conspiracy to violate safety laws, a misdemeanor with a possible sentence up to a year. They found him not guilty of securities fraud and making a false statement. He’s free on bail until his sentencing in April. His attorneys will appeal. More details are here.

What does this all mean? Has justice been served? Opinions vary, with a lot of folks saying he got off easy. Hopefully coal executives will think twice before blatantly violating safety laws. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to start complying with other laws intended to protect the people, such as environmental laws and bridge weight limits. They certainly haven’t ended mountaintop removal, as our flyover with CBS 60 Minutes yesterday made very clear. Since coal companies aren’t ending mountaintop removal on their own, we need your support to keep working for that end.

Yes, CBS 60 Minutes was here.

The “oldest and most-watched newsmagazine on television” contacted us earlier this week, so yesterday we served as tour guides on the ground in the Coal River Valley and in the air with our friends at Southwings. We hope some of the footage will make it into their report, which should air Sunday, Dec. 20.

We work hard to tell the world about mountaintop removal, sludge dams and other coal industry abuses. Hosting local, national and international reporters is an important part of our Road Show/Storytelling project, but we need your help to keep doing it.

Would you please support this work with a tax-deductible gift of $100 today?  Every donation is appreciated, and every donation is tax-deductible, no matter how large or small. We have a goal of raising $20,000 this month. We NEED to raise $20,000 this month to keep up with bills and keep doing our critical work. Please click here to help today.

Alpha executives seek $14.8 million in bonuses while cutting retirees’ benefits.

Yes, the executives that drove Alpha Natural Resources into bankruptcy want bonuses to remain at the wheel through the proceedings. Meanwhile, the miners whose blood, sweat and tears made those executives rich, those who expected the retirement benefits that they earned for their loyal service, stand to lose those benefits. More details are here.

Maybe Alpha needs to change their slogan from “running right” to “running right over the people that we threw under the bus.”

We urgently need your help.

Coal companies, even bankrupt coal companies such as Alpha, continue using their millions to destroy the mountains and influence policy. We, on the other hand, rely on our loyal supporters’ generosity. Please support our work with a tax-deductible gift here.

It’s easy to make a big difference with small recurring donations of $10. It’s all tax-deductible, very much appreciated, and urgently needed.

If you prefer, you can mail your tax-deductible donation to

CRMW

P.O. Box 303

Naoma, WV 25140.

We can also accept donations of stock, which can help you out with a tax deduction while you support our work.

Please share our work, like us on Facebook here, and urge your friends to help us meet our goal of $20,000 this month.

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Vernon Haltom

Executive director

Coal River Mountain Watch 

Blood on the Mountain tomorrow

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow, Sept. 4, Blood on the Mountain is coming to Charleston, WV. From the producers of The Appalachians and Coal Country, “Blood on the Mountain is a searing investigation into the economic and environmental injustices that have resulted from industrial control in West Virginia.” Come see this documentary that includes commentary by CRMW Co-director Debbie Jarrell and volunteer Gary Bone. Film co-director Jordan Freeman interned with CRMW and was on staff for a while. Get your free ticket here and bring a friend!

WHEN: Friday, September 4, 2015

6:00 PM Reception at the Culture Center, WV Capitol Complex, 1900 Kanawha Blvd E

7:00 PM Film starts, discussion follows screening featuring special guest speakers (runtime: 93 minutes).

WHERE: WV Culture Center, 1900 Kanawha Blvd E, Charleston, WV, 25305

WHO: Blood On The Mountain, Directors Mari-Lynn Evans and Jordan Freeman, and special guests to be announced.

Mark your calendars for these upcoming opportunities to pitch in and help out:

Peachtree Creek cleanup Sept. 12: This Day to Serve event, conducted by the Tadpole Project with help from a mini-grant from Volunteer West Virginia, is your opportunity to get your feet wet in one of the most beautiful spots in the Coal River Valley. We’ll be cleaning from the mouth of Peachtree Creek to Peachtree Falls. The Tadpole Project will provide bags, gloves, drinks, and snacks. Meet up at the CRMW office directly across the street from the Naoma Post Office at 10:30 and bring a friend.

If you can’t make it, can you pitch in $25 to support the Tadpole Project’s ongoing work to keep our river and streams clean for kids and other living things?

Stream Protection Rule hearings through Sept. 17: The federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) is hosting a series of hearings for residents to voice their thoughts about the long-awaited Stream Protection Rule.

Upcoming hearings are:

Thursday, September 3 - Lexington, KY

Thursday, September 10 - St. Louis, MO

Thursday, September 10 - Pittsburgh, PA

Tuesday, September 15 - Big Stone Gap, VA

Thursday, September 17 - Charleston, WV

All hearings are 5:00-9:00 PM. We recommend arriving 30 minutes to an hour early to sign up for your 2-minute speaking slot. Details about locations are here.

Look out for talking points to come, or contact us and we’ll get them to you.

Winter is coming. Can you help us winterize?

The Judy Bonds Center for Appalachian Preservation is a big building with lots of room for meetings, events, volunteers, and visiting groups. It’s also a big, old, drafty building that’s hard to keep warm in the winter. To keep warm, save on heating bills, and reduce our carbon footprint, we’re filling in gaps and insulating.

Your tax-deductible donation of $25 covers a 39-foot roll of insulation and three tubes of caulk. Your help now will keep the space warm and cozy when Santa comes to see the kids in December.

Remember to renew your Kroger Community Rewards enrollment or sign up to support Coal River Mountain Watch.

If you shop at Kroger, it’s easy to support Coal River Mountain Watch without spending anything extra. Just gohere, have your Kroger card handy, and select Coal River Mountain Watch as the group you want to support. Then all you have to do is use your Kroger card when you shop, and Kroger will donate a portion of your purchase to support our work.

Thanks for all your support, and have a great day!

Vernon Haltom

Executive director

Coal River Mountain Watch 

RSN: 1,000 People Needed to End Mountaintop Removal, An 'Obvious and Conspicuous' Injustice, Elderly Nun Gang Raped in India

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

WE NEED 480 DONATIONS @ $30 TO FINISH THE MARCH FUNDRAISER. WE HAVE SEEN 480 DONATIONS IN A SINGLE DAY. COME ON READER-SUPPORTERS!

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

Julian Assange: An 'Obvious and Conspicuous' Injustice

teleSUR
Excerpt: "They are trying many, many different ways to attack the organization and me using conspiracy on the one hand but also non-espionage charges that make it easier to extradite people."
READ MORE

The Fight Over Seattle's $15 Minimum Wage
Ned Resnikoff, Al Jazeera America
Resnikoff writes: "A federal judge will rule early next week on whether to temporarily suspend a portion of Seattle, Washington's $15 minimum-wage law, pending the outcome of a longer inquiry into whether the legislation is constitutional."
READ MORE

LAPD Helicopters Flying Overhead Don't Deter Crime. They Antagonize Minorities
Hamid Khan, Guardian UK
Khan writes: "The Los Angeles Police Department recently revealed that it is using helicopters to fly over high-crime areas as a way of deterring criminals. This tactic is being touted as 'cutting edge' by the police - but it is anything but that."
READ MORE

Netanyahu Lags Behind in Final Polls Before Israel's Election
Agence France-Presse
Excerpt: "Final opinion polls put Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party four seats behind its centre-left rivals, days before the general election."
READ MORE

CIA Director: If Assad Falls ISIS Will Takeover Syria
Middle East Eye
Excerpt: "CIA director John Brennan said on Friday that the US did not want a chaotic collapse of the Assad government as it could open the way for militant groups to take power."
READ MORE

Elderly Nun Gang Raped in India, Sparking Outrage
Al Jazeera America
Excerpt: "A group of bandits gang raped an elderly nun on Saturday when she attempted to stop them from robbing a Christian missionary school in eastern India, police said, the latest crime to focus attention on the scourge of sexual violence in the country."
READ MORE

1,000 People Needed to End Mountaintop Removal
Jeff Biggers, EcoWatch
Biggers writes: "'Mountaintop removal is on the ropes,' said Bob Kincaid, with the Appalachian Community Health Emergency campaign and board president of Coal River Mountain Watch in West Virginia, 'but we need 1,000 people to join us and contribute and open the door to Appalachia's future.'"
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

 

Not far enough.....

Coal River Mountain Watch offered the information below reminding us that we're all DOWN WIND of DIRTY COAL. 

By now you've been flooded with emails about the EPA's proposed rules to reduce power plant emissions. So mountaintop removal coal mining, the cradle of climate change, is over, right?

Wrong.

The John Amos power plant near Poca, WV.

If the rules are implemented, they will eventually reduce demand for coal burning in US power plants. But they don't address coal exports. They don't address coal used for steelmaking, such as much of the coal in Coal River Mountain. They don't address the health impacts of mountaintop removal. And they leave the specifics of compliance up to the states, many years from now.

States like West Virginia, whose politicians are already fighting the new rules, and whose regulators seem incapable of enforcing even the most modest existing laws.

So before the champagne starts to flow at the victory parties, please consider helping frontline, front-end communities like ours. Mountaintop removers are not taking a break, so we can't either. There's a lot you can do, and we urgently need your help through the summer.

Your tax deductible donation of $25 feeds a volunteer or intern for a week. $100 gets a trainer to a community meeting to help residents battle new mountaintop removal sites in their neighborhoods. And recurring monthly donations go a long way in sustaining all of our work.

You can attend the 10^th annual Mountain Justice Summer training camp, coming up June 14-22 in eastern Kentucky. Learn about administrative, legislative, and more adventurous means of tackling mountaintop removal. If you can't go to camp, you can help send someone else. $100 in fuel gets a carload of our staff and trainers to Mountain Justice camp and back. Or you can sponsor an attendee at Mountain Justice.

And those new EPA rules? You can comment here. Our position is that efficiency measures and renewable energy need to be greatly increased without delay. However, there's presently no means to make coal-controlled states like West Virginia comply. The plan also recommends increased reliance on shale gas and nuclear energy. Both have their own drawbacks, not least of which are the impacts to the air, water, land, and safety of environmental justice communities from extraction to transport to waste disposal. Fracking already takes a heavy toll on Appalachia and elsewhere, and the EPA grossly underestimated the impact of methane emissions.

Thanks for your support. Remember to like us on Facebook, and come visit us sometime.

Vernon Haltom, Executive director, Coal River Mountain Watch

Making a bad rule a bad law in West Virginia

Even if you don't live near a Mountaintop Removal site, we're all 'down wind' of Dirty Coal or threatened by Coal Ash. [Massachusetts is no exception.]

From CRMW:

We had a win. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down a 2008 rule change that made it easier for coal companies to dump their rubble into mountain streams. Now, if only the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement would reinstate the previous rule and actually enforce it, coal companies would have a harder time doing mountaintop removal. Until then, it’s a hollow victory. Read more here.

Unfortunately, there’s a bill in the US House that would make this bad rule a bad law. Please go here to tell your representative to oppose HR 2824.

Alpha's Edwight mountaintop removal site above Naoma, Pettry Bottom, and Sundial, WV. Flyover courtesy southwings.org

Yesterday, the federal EPA proposed a settlement with Alpha Natural Resources, the company responsible for most of the mountaintop removal in the Coal River Valley. Under the proposed consent decree, Alpha would pay a $27.5 million fine and spend another $200 million to reduce pollutant discharges at 79 mines and 25 preparation plants in WV, KY, VA, TN, and PA. The EPA says that Alpha violated water pollution limits more than 6,000 times from 2006 to 2013.

Alpha’s Edwight mountaintop removal permit is up for renewal. This 2,000-acre mess in our backyard continues to endanger our community’s health with blasting dust in our air and contaminants in our water, as well as the ongoing blasts that rattle our homes and mountains.

If you can make it, please come out to the informal conference tonight, March 6, 2014, at 6:00 PM at the NEW Marsh Fork Elementary School, 5960 Coal River Rd, Rock Creek, WV, 25174. If you can’t attend, please take a moment TODAY to email the WVDEP at Thomas.E.Wood@wv.gov and tell them that you OPPOSE the renewal of permit number S301299. Here are some good reasons:

-WVDEP consistently ignores or denies the many health studies indicating that mountaintop removal harms our health. Here's a list, and here's a link to the most recent study about airborne dust from mountaintop removal.

-WVDEP refuses to effectively enforce laws at this site. They ignore citizen complaints, issue a tiny fine, or simply enlarge the permit boundaries to include off-site damage. See violations (where they actually issued a violation) here.

-WVDEP ignores the danger of blasting to the rock overhangs along Coal River Road. Alpha should pay for the cleanup and repairs from the Dec. 27 cliff collapse that cut off the road for nearly two months.

-WVDEP has no business renewing a permit that they cannot or will not enforce.

Thanks for all your support. Please consider a one-time or recurring donation to support our work to protect our communities.

Vernon Haltom, Executive director, Coal River Mountain Watch 

Poisoned Water, Lack of Regulation

Dirty Coal has destroyed communities, poisoned water and destroyed environments.
Dirty Coal owns elected officials with generous campaign contributions.

Please add your name to the petition below - it's time to end Dirty Coal!

While 300,000 West Virginians are still suffering the effects of having their water system poisoned by a coal chemical leak, we are still trying to do what we can by delivering to communities most in need. Since the very first day after the spill, we've been delivering water and supplies.

We need your help. Please donate to help cover the cost of water, supplies, and delivery. Please write "Water" in the notes. You can also donate by check to CRMW, P.O. Box 303, Naoma, WV 25140.

The official verdict, based on "shaky science," is that the water is now okay to use, except by pregnant women, in spite of the many reports of rashes, headaches, nausea, and other symptoms, and in spite of new revelations that additional chemicals were leaked. Our governor and the water company may have turned their backs on the most vulnerable, but we will not.

This disaster has been largely ignored by the mainstream media, but there have been reports by Jon Stewart, Chris Hayes, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Rachel Maddow. Please keep spreading the word, via letters to the editor, Facebook, or just telling your friends.

Mountaintop removal and coal waste sludge (the end product of the spilled chemical) contributed to ruining so many water sources that 300,000 in nine counties depended on one inlet for their water. Without an effective regulatory agency, coal companies have done as they please for years.

Please join over 26,000 people who have signed this petition demanding that the federal Office of Surface Mining intervene and protect the water and health of West Virginians from unchecked industry.

Please enjoy and share the images of last night's vigil at the WV Capitol and around the world. We must not let our leaders wash their hands of this affront to basic human decency. And don't forget to join over 2,500 friends in liking us on Facebook.

Vernon Haltom, Executive director, Coal River Mountain Watch

Al Jones of the West Virginia Department of General Services flushes the water as he reopens a restroom on the first floor of the state Capitol in Charleston, W.Va. (photo: Steve Helber/AP)

Chemical-Related Hospital Admissions in West Virginia Have Doubled Since Water Deemed Safe

By Emily Atkin, ThinkProgress

21 January 14

t took nearly five days after a major chemical spill in West Virginia for residents to receive the go-ahead to start using their water again.

 

Nearly 7,500 gallons of crude MCHM - a little-known chemical used to wash coal - had leaked into the Elk River on Jan. 9, perplexing state officials on how exactly to get the chemical out of the water and what exactly it would do to people if they used it. It was Jan. 13, a Monday, when the first bans were lifted. As of Saturday, everyone affected by the spill was given the all-clear - water everywhere, state officials said, was now fine to drink.

 

In a perfect world, that would be the end of the story. But according to statistics released by the state health department on Saturday, it turns out that since the bans on water began being lifted, hospital admissions and calls to the poison control center have doubled. Emergency room visits have nearly tripled.

 

On Jan. 12, the day before do-not-use orders began being lifted, health department officials cited 10 hospital admissions, 169 people treated and released from the emergency room, and a little more than 1,000 calls to the poison control center.

 

By Saturday - the same day the final 2 percent of people affected by the spill got their water back - those numbers had increased significantly. According to a report in the Charleston Gazette, health officials said 20 people had been admitted to the hospitals, 411 had been treated and released from the emergency room, and 2,302 had called the poison control center. Of those, 1,862 were human-related, 98 were animal-related and the rest were requests for information only.

 

Saturday's numbers were also much greater than Thursday's numbers, when health officials said only 317 had been treated and 14 had been hospitalized.

 

Part of the increased hospitalizations and calls may be due to confusion on the part of West Virginia residents, who in the last week have been repeatedly given conflicting information about the spill and whether they should use the water. The "do-not-drink" order finally lifted on Saturday, for example, was in a town that had actually had their ban lifted on Tuesday. On Thursday, however, West Virginia American Water rescinded their statements that the water was safe to drink, after water from a fire hydrant registered chemical levels above the 1-part-per-million (ppm) limit.

 

It's not the only instance of conflicting information. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said pregnant women should not drink water with any amount of the chemical in it, despite West Virginia American Water saying two days earlier that water in some areas was safe to drink.

 

Chemical levels in the water must be below 1 ppm for human ingestion. But health experts have questioned that logic. Specifically, some are saying that the study being widely used to determine whether the water is safe does not include several chemical components that leached into the water.

 

"A key corporate study used by federal health officials to set a screening level for 'crude MCHM' in the West Virginia American Water system actually tested a pure form of the material's main ingredient and might not account for potential toxicity of other components," the Charleston Gazette reported on Friday.

 

The chemical that is thought to have spilled, crude MCHM, is actually a mixture of chemicals that is used to wash coal of its impurities, explained Evan Hansen, president of Morgantown-based Downstream Strategies, in an interview with Climate Progress' Kiley Kroh on Saturday. Of those multiple ingredients, only one of them has any information about exposure limits, he said.

 

"If crude MCHM is truly what leaked, it's possible that we don't even know which of this 'cocktail' is most harmful," said Hansen. "We could have set a threshold based on the wrong one. We may be testing the wrong one."

 

So far, however, no official diagnoses have been reported linking patients' symptoms to water exposure.

 

"As far as the data and recommendations we have from West Virginia American Water, the water is safe to use," Rahul Gupta, health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, said.

 

"We're not saying it's safe. West Virginia American Water is saying it's safe. We are taking their word for it."

 Nothing is known about most of the chemicals in our environment:

The Big Impact Of A Little-Known Chemical In W.Va. Spill

by Elizabeth Shogren

January 13, 2014

 

Listen to the Story

All Things Considered

3 min 6 sec

 

West Virginia officials say they also turned to safety information companies, which are required to provide information on the chemicals they possess. But that so-called material safety data sheet included very little data in this case.

"The entries were largely 'data not available' for this particular compound," says Sharon Meyer, a toxicologist from the University of Louisiana, Monroe.

 

Experts weren't surprised that the scientific literature had so little information about MCHM, because there is very little toxicological research about many chemicals. Priority for testing is given to chemicals used by consumers or in food preparation.

"There are 85,000 chemicals in commerce right now in the United States, and we cannot possibly test all the chemicals for all their different properties," says Rolf Halden, an engineering professor at Arizona State University who researches how chemicals move through the environment and people.

 

Still, the spill shed light on how little is known about many chemicals. Members of Congress have been debating for years whether to update the 1976 law that governs these chemicals, the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Lynn Bergeson, a lawyer who specializes in the regulation of toxic chemicals, says she hopes the West Virginia accident will convince lawmakers that it is urgent for them to act.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/13/262185930/mysteries-persist-surrounding-west-virginia-chemical-spill

For West Virginians – Still Major Unknowns about Chemical Spill

January 16, 2014 4:00 PM

Listen to the Story

All Things Considered

4 min 27 sec

• Playlist
• Download

The chemical spill from the Freedom Industries tank farm has raised questions around chemical regulatory procedures. For more information, Melissa Block speaks with Ken Ward, a reporter with The Charleston Gazette.

http://www.npr.org/2014/01/16/263123726/west-virginia-chemical-regulations-stay-beneath-the-microscope

 

Our mountain collapsed on our road.

 

Dirty Coal Corporations extract COAL using Mountaintop Removal, destroying communities, mountains, ecosystems, water and they're exempt from environmental cleanup costs.

 

We are all connected to Dirty Coal extraction if our electric energy is produced using DIRTY COAL.

 

 

 

Post by Larry Wood.

Our mountain collapsed on our road.

The cliffs above Coal River Road collapsed and severed the only route through most of our communities, just about a mile from our office. We suspect the daily seismic shocks from blasting at the mountaintop removal sites nearby. The state blames the rain.

Here on the front lines at Coal River Mountain Watch, we've warned for years that this day would come. Luckily, no one was hurt. But the road is completely blocked for at least a week, and school resumes Thursday. We are filing a complaint with the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) that the coal company never took proper precautions since we raised the issue over 11 years ago. And we're opposing renewal of the nearest mountaintop removal permit, where violations, including blasting violations, are routine and effective penalties are nonexistent.

Please help us protect our communities by making your tax-deductible donation here today.

Speaking of the OSM, today they responded to our petition that they take over the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection's mine permitting and enforcement functions. They will further evaluate 5 of our 19 allegations, including that the WVDEP fails to address potential flooding impacts and fails to regulate selenium pollution. We are disappointed that they are not going to address sludge dams or illegal permitting, but we're not going to accept continued inaction on these and other issues. Stay tuned: our Citizen Action for Real Enforcement (CARE) campaign is going to stay busy in 2014!

Thanks to your generosity, and especially a sizable stock donation, we exceeded our December goal of $10,000. But we still need all the help you can provide. Please make your year-end tax-deductible donation here today. And please consider recurring monthly donations.

Thank you from the front lines, and Happy New Year!

Vernon Haltom

Executive director, Coal River Mountain Watch