Big Sandy | Kentuckians For The Commonwealth

Chapter: Big Sandy

If you want to find new ways to strengthen the economy, hold elected officials accountable, and be a part of a great community of folks, then we invite you to join the Big Sandy Chapter of KFTC. The Big Sandy chapter includes Floyd, Pike, Johnson, Martin, and Magoffin counties.

Our members have a vision for the Big Sandy area where the economy, democracy, people and land are healthy. To bring about this vision, we organize an annual day of workshops around sustainable agriculture, forestry, efficiency and renewable energy solutions called Growing Appalachia and offer mini-workshops throughout the year. We are also involved in protecting our land and water resources by raising awareness about water quality in Eastern Kentucky. We also work to educate the community on issues of economic justice and voter empowerment.

We hope you will join us at our next chapter meeting and share some of your ideas on how we can work together to bring about our vision of a healthier Kentucky!

Recent Activities

Big win: Judge rejects deals between Kentucky officials and coal company

The Franklin Circuit Court on Monday issued two long-awaited orders rejecting settlement deals between the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and Frasure Creek Mining arising from the coal company’s thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act from 2008 through 2011.

In extraordinarily vigorous language, Judge Phillip Shepherd said that due to the coal company’s actions, “The inherent danger of the violations at issue here to the environment is impossible to determine based on Frasure Creek's wholesale abdication of its monitoring and reporting responsibilities, and the cabinet's inability to fully investigate the environmental harm that is likely to have occurred.”

“Since October 2010, we have been in the courts to see that the law be enforced in the state of Kentucky,” said Ted Withrow, a member of KFTC's Litigation Team. “These rulings by Judge Shepherd serve to enforce that right of the people."

In 2010, Appalachian Voices, Kentucky Waterkeeper Alliance, Kentucky Riverkeeper, KFTC and several individuals made public more than 20,000 violations of the Clean Water Act from 2008 to 2010 by Frasure Creek and a second coal company, International Coal Group (which later settled out of court). Under the law, these violations could be subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. On the 57th day, the cabinet and Frasure Creek entered a proposed consent agreement that included only 1,520 violations and combined fines of just $310,000.

KentuckyElection.org has been updated for the November 4 election!

KFTC's voter guide website has been updated with new information about candidate stances, voting locations, key links and other information to help you cast an informed vote in the election on Tuesday, November 4. We've surveyed candidates running for the U.S. Senate and House, state legislative races, and local races in Louisville, Lexington, Danville, Berea, Richmond, Georgetown, Newport, Florence, Covington, Bowling Green and more!

State’s new general permits for coal mining mean five more years of polluted streams

The Beshear administration this week issued two new general permits for coal facilities that fail to fully address the ongoing and substantial harm to humans and aquatic life from polluted mine was

STAY Together Appalachian Youth 4th Annual Summer Institute

The STAY (Stay Together Appalachian Youth) Project will host the 4th Annual STAY Summer Institute (SSI) from July 31 to August 3 at Camp Bethel in Wise, VA.SSI is STAY's largest gathering of the year and is open to 14-30 year olds from Central Appalachia, including eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, West Virginia, southwest Virginia, and western North Carolina.

The STAY Project is a diverse regional network of young people throughout Central Appalachia who are working together to advocate for and actively participate in their home mountain communities. STAY is about the need for communities now and in the future to have the basic human rights that everyone deserves no matter where they live, their economic background, their race, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or cultural background.

Kentuckians want better protection than what's in the general permit

Members of KFTC and ally groups asked state officials to care about the quality of the water where they live, and recognize its importance for social and economic activity, during a public hearing

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Chapter Feature:

Growing Appalachia

Growing Appalachia
 
Growing Appalachia is a day of workshops about small-scale farming, energy efficiency, and renewables. We hope to provide promising, sustainable ideas people can use to save/earn money or even start a small business! This conference open to anyone looking to broaden their skills. Learn more about the 2015 conference here.

Regular Meetings:

Prestonsburg Office
152 North Lake Drive
United States
Prestonsburg, KY 41653
Monthly chapter meeting

Join us on the 1st Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m. for the Big Sandy chapter meeting.

Chapter meetings are a great time to plan local work, discuss local and state-wide work, meet new people, and much more. Everyone is welcome and invited to attend! Hope to see you there!

Chapter Organizer:

152 North Lake Drive
Prestonsburg, KY 41653
606-263-4982