What Happens When We Organize?  Ordinary people come together to make real change.

• Residents Win Emergency Alert System for Sludge Impoundments.  In summer of 2005, SSP leaders and Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) members from Delbarton pressured county officials to install a “Reverse 911” emergency alert system in Mingo County.  Now, if an impoundment breaks or another emergency arises, residents will receive a call telling them to evacuate.  OVEC members in Boone County were inspired by this victory and have since pressured their county commissioners to install the same system.  www.sludgesafety.org

• Community Wins Clean Water.  SSP leaders who are residents of Rawl met with a group of legislators at the Capitol in 2005 to explain their issue and show jars of their black well water.  They spoke with the governor's office and talked to reporters. They won funding for city water to be piped in and, in the mean time, the governor's office allocated emergency funding to pay for bottled water. www.sludgesafety.org

• Citizens Force West Virginia to Study Sludge.  Sludge Safety Project organized supporters from across the state to lobby every Tuesday during the 2007 legislative session, sitting with legislators one-on-one to explain why we need to know more about what is in sludge and how it makes people sick.  The sludge study passed and has forced the state to address the problem.  www.sludgesafety.org

• Citizens Prove Valley Fill Permit is Illegal.  In October 2007, citizens in Dry Branch, WV worked with OVEC to fight a valley fill permit granted near Bim in Boone County.  They proved that the company did not file the community impact or environmental impact statements as required by law.  The judge ruled that the permit was illegal and the fill was halted.  www.ohvec.org

• Citizens Get Permit Revoked for Coal Silo Near Elementary School. The citizens' group, Coal River Mountain Watch, organized residents and supporters to protect the health of children going to school near a coal prep plant. A battle was won after a march through Coal River gained the attention of an investigative reporter. The reporter proved the coal company maps were wrong.  The DEP revoked a permit for a second coal silo near the school and ordered the already-built silo foundation to be destroyed.   The kids were saved from even more dust in their school.  www.crmw.net

• Residents Hold Off Valley Fill.  Laurel Creek residents noticed a valley fill permit said that their creek water was already ruined, so the fill wouldn't make it worse.  However, citizen water tests proved it was healthy water.  In early 2007, more than 40 people, including documentary film makers, came to the WV DEP office in Charleston for a citizen-initiated Surface Mine Board hearing on the permit.  The DEP had to open an over-flow room for all the participants.  Perhaps citizens proving the permit wrong and showing large opposition to the permit is why the company has yet to start an operation that was set to begin two years ago.  www.westvirginiafuture.org
   
• Community Stops Valley Fill.  Residents of Eolia, Kentucky and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth organized, asking their county commissioners to pass a resolution banning a valley fill.   The resolution passed.  Even though the county did not have the jurisdiction to halt to the valley fill, the company decided to comply with public demand – it did not fill in the hollow.  www.kftc.org
   
• Tennessee Residents Win Safer Strip Mining Regulations.  Save Our Cumberland Mountain members (SOCM) worked with state officials in 2006 to make new policies for strip mining in Tennessee: no exceptions to the 100 foot buffer zone protecting streams and essentially no mining in toxic coal seams.  www.socm.org
   
• Tennessee Residents Double Severance Tax on Coal.  Members of SOCM out-lobbied the coal industry in 1974  and the Tennessee state legislature doubled the coal severance tax from 10 cents to 20 cents per ton.
   
• Do you know of a success story?  Call 304-522-0246 or email info@sludgesafety.org and let us know!

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