 Brittany Patterson | Ohio Valley ReSource
Coal River Mountain Watch’s headquarters in Naoma, West Virginia.
For the last 20 years, those have been the tenets of Coal River Mountain Watch, said Vivian Stockman with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
“It takes a lot of courage to stand up when you re right in the middle of it and that s what Coal River Mountain Watch has been doing for its two decades of existence,” she said.
A simple wooden sign hangs above the office entrance with the group’s logo and a motto: “Remembering the past, working for the future.” As the group hits the 20-year mark its leaders are taking stock of accomplishments, some painful losses, and the work ahead.
‘True Activist’
The group counts some hard-fought victories in its 20 years of existence, including securing a new campus for Marsh Fork Elementary School, which was previously located in the shadow of an active mining operation owned by Massey Energy.
An earthen dam and impoundment sitting above the school was permitted to hold 2.8 billion gallons of liquid coal waste. The waste pond and dam were constructed by the same mining company that was responsible for a similar impoundment in Martin County, Kentucky, that failed in 2000, sending millions of gallons of slurry into two tributaries of the Tug Fork River.
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