Rally at EPA focuses on the value of clean water

KFTC members were among the crowd that rallied Wednesday in front of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, DC, calling for an end to mountaintop removal and protection of the region’s water.

Residents of Central Appalachian states brought with them more than 100 gallons of brown, black and red water that have been collected from water sources in Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.

“Sometimes the water runs orange, and you wouldn't want to touch it, much less drink it. But what’s more dangerous is when toxic water from your tap looks and smells totally fine. People sometimes drink it for years without knowing that they’re drinking toxic water and that’s what’s making them sick,” said Josh May of Magoffin County, a member of STAY (Stay Together Appalachian Youth) and KFTC. “We are bringing this water to the EPA as a way of holding them accountable. We’re having them sign for it so that they can formally acknowledge the problems that we’re living with everyday in the mountains."

Mountaintop removal coal mining has destroyed more than 300 mountains and buried or poisoned more than 2,000 miles of streams in eastern Kentucky. Nearly two dozen studies have documented higher levels of a cancer, heart and respiratory disease, and a variety of other illnesses associated with living near a mountaintop removal operation.

“There is no longer the luxury of time – we need the EPA to act now because people are sick and dying now,” said Dustin White, a community organizer with Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition in West Virginia.

The KFTC members and others have been in Washington all week as part of the annual Week in Washington coordinated by the Alliance for Appalachia. In addition to today’s rally, they have been meeting with agency officials and members of Congress around water, energy and economic development issues. A number of the meetings have focused on federal participation and support for efforts in the region to help the economy move beyond dependency on coal.

Meetings with members of Congress focused on support for the Clean Water Protection Act, a bill which would enact some basic protections for Appalachian streams.

On Monday, the groups delivered a petition to the EPA, asking officials to begin a formal rule-making process to implement a conductivity standard for streams. A federal court ruled last year that the EPA needed to go through such a process before it could enforce that standard.