The Front Porch Blog « Appalachian Voices

A Must-Read Report, Another Reminder It’s Time to Build Something New in Central Appalachia

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 | Posted by Brian Sewell

An updated and expanded report is a potent reminder that coal's decline isn't going away and policymakers should accept the challenges, just as many people already have. Click through to read the report's key findings.

The litany of voices pointing to the writing on the wall for the Central Appalachian coal industry continues to grow. They’re saying the same thing in almost every way imaginable, and have been for some time.

Watching coal production decline and demand shift as other energy sources out-compete coal domestically, it is vital that policymakers in Central Appalachia begin implementing policies and investments aimed at building a foundation for economic alternatives in coal-producing counties. A report released this morning by the consulting firm Downstream Strategies is a pretty good reminder why.

“The Continuing Decline in Demand for Central Appalachian Coal: Market and Regulatory Influences” expands on a January 2010 study and provides a detailed look at the challenges Central Appalachia faces, further making the case for the urgent need to act.

As the report’s lead author, Rory McIlmoil, who recently joined Appalachian Voices’ staff as energy policy director, points out:

Numerous factors influence demand for Central Appalachian coal, each of which has had — and will continue to have — a significant impact on the local economies where the coal is mined. In 2010, we recommended that state and local leaders take immediate steps to help diversify coalfield economies. To a large extent, that has not happened. However, it is vital that public officials begin making the political and financial investments necessary to build the foundation for new economic development opportunities in coal-producing counties.

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Tending to Appalachia’s Bright Future

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 | Posted by Cat McCue

A word cloud created from workshops and panel sessions at the conference show the prevalence of positive thinking and themes. Courtesy of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth

I had never been to Harlan County. Sure, I’ve heard the songs, seen the movie, and know the stories, but nothing compares to being there, driving the Kentucky back roads, stopping in local shops, talking to folks.

It’s beautiful country, especially in April with the redbuds blooming and the bright greens of spring blushing up the mountainsides. It’s a friendly place – people went out of their way to make me feel welcome.

It also has more than its share of economic troubles. This is coal country, after all, where big companies haul out the black rock and most of the profits along with it. Harlan County and most of the surrounding counties have a poverty rate in the range of 20 to 28 percent.

This is not news to people living here. They know it, they live it, and they are looking at a million different ways to change it, to create Appalachia’s Bright Future. This was the name of the three-day conference in Harlan, hosted by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth a few weeks ago. It brought together more than 200 people from eastern Kentucky and beyond for an extended conversation about creating a just economy in the region. There was much discussion about what that even means, and while attendees each had a slight variation, several common themes emerged:

1. There is no silver bullet. There is no single industry or company that will turn it all around. Which is a good thing, most agreed, because a root cause of the region’s woes is being too dependent for too long on one industry.

2. There is no magic wand. No one is going to come in “from the outside” to rescue Harlan, or the rest of Appalachia’s’ coal country.

3. It’s about “leadership in place.” The future lies in nurturing home-grown entrepreneurship. Unlike a generation or two ago, young people today want to stay here, and many people who moved away want to return. This profound sense of homeplace was evident throughout the conference.

4. It’s about community and resilience, improving the quality of life and opportunity for everyone, collaborating with neighbors down the street or two counties over so that all can benefit.

5. It’s also about honoring coal miners and their families, those who have sacrificed in untold ways to help build our nation and power our modern lives, who deserve all the opportunity and benefit of a “just economy” as well.

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Clean Water Protection Act Introduced with 45 Cosponsors

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 | Posted by Thom Kay

Yesterday, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) introduced the Clean Water Protection Act in the 113th Congress with 45 original cosponsors.

The Clean Water Protection Act, H.R. 1837, is a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives which would sharply reduce mountaintop removal coal mining by making it illegal to dump mining waste into valleys and streams. To date, more than 2,000 miles of streams have been buried or severely polluted.

As the bill sponsors point out in their Dear Colleague letter to other members of Congress:

An EPA scientific study in 2008 shows that more than 63% of the streams sampled below mountaintop removal coal mining operations exhibited long-term impairments to aquatic organisms. In some large watersheds, more than half of the streams are impaired.

Last Congress, more than 130 representatives, from Kentucky to Hawaii, took a stand against mountaintop removal coal mining by cosponsoring the Clean Water Protection Act.

It is crucial that we carry over the momentum we built during the last Congress by having a large group of cosponsors. For your Representative to sign onto the bill, they need to hear from you.

Take action now and tell your Congressperson you expect their support of this important legislation.

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Kentucky’s Lab Certification- Is it strong enough?

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013 | Posted by Eric Chance

Yesterday, Appalachian Voices submitted public comments on a proposed wastewater lab certification program in Kentucky. To discharge polluted water, coal companies must receive a permit under the Clean Water Act. This permit that requires companies to test wastewater and report the data to ensure it falls within the limits of the permit. In Kentucky, there are currently no standards for labs that do this type of testing.

The proposed certification program is a direct result of the lawsuits for falsified water monitoring data we filed against three of the state’s largest coal mining companies. Our investigation revealed that many coal companies were repeatedly submitting the same data and knowingly leaving out reports of any violations of their permits. After we filed these lawsuits, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet inspected the labs being used for this monitoring and found that in many cases they were not even capable of correctly performing the required tests.

This graph shows some of the inaccurate data submitted by Frasure Creek Mining before our lawsuits lead them to start using a new lab. Click to enlarge.

We believe that enforcing standards on labs used by coal companies will help ensure that labs report accurate data, and that the regulations meant to protect water and those that depend on it from dangerous pollution are effectively enforced. This proposed rule will be a big step forward and we have applauded the cabinet for its efforts to fix these problems. However, there are several weaknesses in the rule that we hope are fixed before it is finalized.

All too often the cabinet has failed to live up to its obligations to protect the people and environment in Kentucky. That is why our comments suggest that discretionary duties given to the cabinet in this rule be made mandatory. Appalachian Voices will continue to work to require the state agencies to actually enforce these standards.

>>Click here to see our comments
>>Click here to read the proposed lab certification rule
>>Click here to read the draft lab manual

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America’s “Sadness Belt”: Appalachian States Worst in U.S. for Health and Happiness

Monday, March 25th, 2013 | Posted by Melanie Foley

Gallup and Healthways recently released their annual Well-Being Index for 2012, and Appalachia was found once again to be home to some of the least healthy and happy Americans. The most striking result of last year’s Well-Being Index is that while the happiest states are spread throughout the country, the lowest ranking states are all clustered in Central and Southern Appalachia, and the region’s neighboring states.

The Well-Being Index compiles surveys taken from all over the country all throughout the year and organizes them by state, community and congressional district. Participants are asked to evaluate their lives according to six categories:

- Life Evaluation: how a person’s current life compares with their expectations

- Emotional Health: deals with the respondent’s experiences and feelings on a given day

- Physical Health: encompasses diseases, physical pain, sick days, body-mass index, etc.

- Healthy Behavior: addresses both positive behaviors (e.g., exercise) and negative (e.g., smoking)

- Work Environment: questions for workers on job satisfaction, treatment from superiors, etc.

- Basic Access: includes access to food, housing, healthcare, etc.

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Stop Brushing off the Bad Stuff

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 | Posted by Brian Sewell

However complex the causes of the ongoing health crisis in Appalachia, denial accomplishes nothing but the perpetuation of the status quo. Yet every time claims that could negatively impact the coal industry surface, Appalachian legislators throw up a black sheet.

West Virginia University professor and public health researcher Dr. Michael Hendryx’s latest article, “Personal and Family Health in Rural Areas of Kentucky With and Without Mountaintop Coal Mining,” appeared in the online Journal of Rural Health a couple of days ago. The study immediately gained the attention of Kentucky media, and supporters of the coal industry have been quick to write off Hendryx’s methods and conclusions — they just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.

Hendryx has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. He’s the director of the West Virginia Rural Health Research Center and after receiving a Ph.D. in psychology, he completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Methodology at the University of Chicago. Little of that seems to matter, however, because much of his research is concentrated on poor health in Appalachian coal-mining communities, especially those where mountaintop removal takes place.

Like other studies Hendryx has conducted, the eastern Kentucky-focused article relies on comparing data gathered in counties with mountaintop removal to data from counties without it. More than 900 residents of Rowan and Elliott counties (no mountaintop removal) and Floyd County (mountaintop removal) were asked similar questions about their family health history and incidents of cancer to those that the U.S. Center for Disease Control uses in gathering data.

After ruling out factors including tobacco use, income, education and obesity, the study found that residents of Floyd County suffer a 54 percent higher rate of death from cancer, and dramatically higher incidences of pulmonary and respiratory diseases over the past five years than residents of Elliott and Rowan counties.

These results should surprise no one, least of all the families in Floyd County that participated in the study. Yet somehow, supporters of the widespread use of mountaintop removal still refuse to consider that blowing up mountains might impact human health.

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Help Protect Kentucky’s Fish from Toxic Selenium

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013 | Posted by Eric Chance

Two headed trout, a result of selenium pollution. Courtesy of USFWS.

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet is currently attempting to significantly weaken the state’s water quality standards for selenium.

Selenium is a pollutant common at some coal mines that deforms and kills aquatic life. It bioaccumulates, increasing in concentration as it moves up the food chain, affecting larger fish and aquatic birds. At higher levels, selenium is toxic to people. Humans can be exposed to selenium through the water they drink and the fish they eat. Long-term exposure can damage the liver, kidneys, nervous system, and circulatory system.

Selenium pollution is expensive to prevent and to treat. By loosening standards, the cabinet is trying to protect the bottom line of polluters at the expense of the health of the state’s waterways and those that depend on them.

To learn more about selenium and why it is a problem in Kentucky, click here to read our selenium fact sheet (PDF).

Public comments are being accepted through Friday, March 1. Please help protect Kentucky’s fish from the toxic effects of selenium. Take a minute to make your voice heard by submitting a comment.

Even The Daily Show has taken note of the problem of selenium pollution in our nation’s waterways. The clip focuses on pollution from phosphate mines in Idaho, but the similarities between what happened there and what is going on in Kentucky are striking.

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Lesson Learned: The Buffalo Creek Flood

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 | Posted by Brian Sewell

Inspecting the Aftermath: Residents of Buffalo creek worried constantly about the stability of the slurry dams upstream. Nothing was done. Photo courtesy of West Virginia State Archives.

I woke up this morning to a frozen world. Fog and ice descended on the hills above Boone, N.C., last night and are still waiting around for the thaw. It was silent other than the periodic crack of a branch and the following echo that bounced around the hills. Stepping outside after reading Ken Ward Jr.’s remembrance of the Buffalo Creek Flood, I wondered if this stillness was similar to what the residents of communities in Logan County, W.Va., felt that morning 41 years ago today.

To contain the refuse of a coal preparation plant operated by Buffalo Mining Co., a series of three dams were built upstream from the communities along Buffalo Creek in the 1950s and 60s, as Logan County continued to grow into one of southern West Virginia’s prolific coal-producing counties. Dam No. 3, the largest, stood 60 feet above the pond and downstream dams below. When it gave way on the cold morning of Feb. 26, 1972, the others collapsed instantly.

The poor construction and regulation of coal waste impoundments that precipitated the Buffalo Creek Flood intensified during boom times when coal preparation plants used more water and produced more slurry just to keep up with coal production. As Jack Spadaro, a former superintendent at MSHA’s Mine Health and Safety Academy, told me for a story last year, “All along, as these dams were being built, they weren’t really constructed using any engineering methods. They were simply dumped, filled across the valley.”

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A Clearcut Connection Between Mountaintop Removal and Climate Change

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 | Posted by Melanie Foley

Mountaintop Removal and other destructive land uses could turn the Southern Appalachians from a carbon sink to a carbon source in as little as 12 years.

Scientists from the universities of Kentucky and California recently released a study detailing the climate implications of coal extraction by mountaintop removal. If coal mining continues at its current pace, the authors predict the next 12 to 20 years will see Southern Appalachian forests switch from a net carbon sink to a net carbon source — meaning the area will emit more carbon than it takes in.

Consequently, ending mountaintop removal may have more environmental benefits than originally realized. The long-standing goals of mountaintop removal opponents have been to protect human lives, improve drinking water, and support ecosystem health. This new research shows that ending this destructive mining practice would also be a victory in the fight against climate change — and not just by moving away from dirty coal.

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N.C. State Rep. Harrison: Let the EPA Do Its Job

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 | Posted by Davis Wax

Watch N.C. Rep. Pricey Harrison testify before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Environment and Economy.

What should the role of the states be in protecting human health and the environment?

Last Friday, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Economy held a hearing to untangle that complex question. North Carolina Rep. Pricey Harrison testified to the committee on the need for increased oversight and regulatory enforcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The question is not whether states or the federal government have a role in environmental protection,” she told subcommittee members, “but whether each is playing its appropriate role under current law.”

Harrison highlighted the growing concerns of North Carolinians’ surrounding coal ash pollution from disposal ponds owned by Duke Energy as an example of how states are failing to protect citizens. The state began requiring more extensive groundwater monitoring a few years ago. But even now, with known instances of groundwater standards violations, no action has been taken by the state to get Duke Energy to address the contamination.

Another emerging issue is the reckless push to bring hydraulic fracturing to the state. State Senate Bill 76 would allow fracking in the state in two years, no matter the status of the state’s regulatory development, resources or staffing.

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Kentucky Attempts to loosen Selenium Standards, Fish Attempt to Leave the State

Friday, February 8th, 2013 | Posted by Eric Chance

Fish deformed by selenium pollution

The Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet is in the process of making the state’s water quality standard for selenium less stringent. Selenium is a metal that is especially toxic to fish, and is often released into streams through coal mining.

There will be a hearing before the Administrative Regulation Review Committee on Monday February 11, at 1 p.m. in Room 149 of the Capitol Annex, where, according to the Energy and Environment Cabinet website, the public “may” be able to speak out about this, but we still encourage concerned citizens to attend.

Selenium is a toxic nonmetal that is present in some coal and coal ash. Some of Kentucky’s mines release a lot of selenium because they are mining high-selenium coal seams, while others don’t release any.

Selenium is extremely toxic to fish in very low amounts because of its tendency to bioaccumulate. Selenium builds up in small fish and macro-invertebrates, and it accumulates even more in the fish that eat them. Toxic effects of selenium in fish include reproductive problems, deformities, damage to gills and organs, and death. The most obvious deformities are strangely curved spines, and “pop eye” — a buildup of fluid behind the eyes, causing them to bulge out.

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Appalachain Voices and Partners Object to Backroom Deal With Kentucky Coal Company

Monday, February 4th, 2013 | Posted by Eric Chance

Frasure Creek owner, and billionaire, Ravi Ruia's yacht. Note the matching helicopter! Frasure Creek Mining is apparently on the verge of bankruptcy, but it's owners seem to be doing just fine. Click the image to learn more about the boat.

A coalition of citizens’ groups including Appalachian Voices filed objections to a proposed settlement between Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet and one of the state’s largest coal mining companies, Frasure Creek Mining. The agreement would legally resolve over a thousand water pollution violations from 2011 and 2012 at all of Frasure Creek’s mines across Eastern Kentucky, but the agreement will not fix the pollution problems.

Despite the fact that we are full parties to this enforcement action, this agreement was crafted entirely behind closed doors without us. Over and over again the cabinet has made every effort to exclude us and aid polluters. One of our objections to this settlement is that it has violated our right to due process since our names are on this agreement yet we had no say in it whatsoever.

Some of Frasure Creek's false conductivity values

Even more alarming, we expect that if this agreement is entered the cabinet will likely try to argue that this makes another ongoing case that we are involved in moot. That case is primarily based on blatantly false water monitoring reports submitted by Frasure Creek. Prior to that legal action, Frasure never admitted having pollution problems like the ones at issue in this case. It was not until they came under increased scrutiny, following our initial court filing, that they began reporting more truthful water monitoring data, uncovering the pollution violations at issue in this settlement.

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No Longer Hidden in Plain Sight, Thanks to SoutheastCoalAsh.org!

Monday, December 10th, 2012 | Posted by Sandra Diaz

For how large coal ash impoundments can be, they are sure hard to spot.

For example, there are two large earthen dams full of coal ash just north of Charlotte near Mountain Island Lake. Can you spot them?

(Answer: They’re on that long ridgetop to the left of the plant.)

Since Duke Energy is probably not going to place yellow neon signs near the impoundments to alert the public to the dangers that these dams may cause to groundwater or public safety anytime soon, we did the next best thing. Working with Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and other partner organizations like Southern Environmental Law Center and NC Conservation Network, we have helped create Southeastcoalash.org. With just five key strokes (your zip code) you can see where coal ash impoundments are hiding in plain sight near you.

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Congratulations to our conservation allies on a major victory in the fight to end mountaintop removal!

Thursday, November 15th, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell

Patriot Coal Co., one of the largest coal companies operating in Central Appalachia, today announced it will phase out mountaintop removal mining coal mining over the next several years, saying its decision is in the “best interests of the company and the communities where it operates.”

The announcement is the result of an agreement between Patriot and environmental and community groups who have won a series of legal victories to force Patriot to clean up selenium pollution from its coal mines.

Appalachian Voices sends a hearty congratulations to Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy — and especially to Joe Lovett and Appalachian Mountain Advocates — for this unprecedented victory, which is the result of more than a decade of hard work and brilliant legal strategy.

Credit is also due to Patriot’s President and CEO Ben Hatfield for acknowledging the significant impact that mountaintop removal mines have on nearby communities and the environment.

Despite dozens of scientific studies demonstrating severe environmental and health impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, this is the first time a major operator of mountaintop removal mines has acknowledged those impacts.

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Moving Appalachia Forward!

Thursday, November 8th, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell

Editor’s Note: As part of the launch of the “No More Excuses” campaign on iLoveMountains.org, we asked people whose lives have been directly impacted by mountaintop removal coal mining to contribute their thoughts on why President Obama should make ending mountaintop removal a priority in his second term.

The first in the series is a reflection by Nick Mullins, who was born and raised in southwestern Virginia and, until recently, worked at an underground coal mine there. Nick is now studying at Berea College in eastern Kentucky and blogs on the web site he created, The Thoughtful Coal Miner.

What are the Appalachian Mountains? Are they simply huge mounds of dirt and rock covered by forests? Are they containers for vast resources of energy and wealth? To my family — who have called the Appalachian Mountains home for ten generations — the mountains are much, much more. The mountains are our life, our heritage and our happiness. They are our shelters, our providers of clean water. They are a place where community and being a neighbor is more than just living beside someone.

Unfortunately, there are also those who see our mountains only as a source of wealth, rather than as part of our homes and our culture. They see them as obstacles to profit, and the people of Appalachia as the labor resource to harvest it.

Every day more blasts are detonated and more miles of freshwater streams are destroyed by mountaintop removal mining operations in the mountains where I was raised. The clean water that families once depended upon is now and forever stained and polluted.

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Kentucky Governor Under Suit for Pro-Coal Corruption

Friday, October 19th, 2012 | Posted by Eric Chance

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear

Former Mine Permits director Ron Mills claims he was fired for failing to sign illegal coal mining permits.

Mills was a political appointee of Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, whose official website states:

As governor, Beshear has helped restore public trust by creating a culture of integrity in state government that has included rooting out cronyism and implementing stronger ethics standards.

Click below to read the recent Lexington Herald Leader stories:
>>Trial delayed again in case that probes coal’s influence on Beshear
>>Beshear trying to settle lawsuit brought by former mine permits director

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Landmark Settlement Proposed in Kentucky Water Pollution Case

Friday, October 5th, 2012 | Posted by Eric Chance

Appalachian Voices, along with a coalition of citizens’ groups, has reached a historic agreement with International Coal Group, Inc. (ICG), and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet over years of false reporting and water pollution violations in Eastern Kentucky and a failure by the state to enforce the Clean Water Act.

We are very glad to achieve this settlement which will help clean up pollution in streams throughout the coal-impacted region, and we are proud to have worked with our partners in this important case that has already yielded changes in the coal industry and state regulatory agencies. The agreement was filed today in Franklin County Circuit Court and needs to be approved by the judge before taking effect.

Read our press release to find out more about the settlement.

In 2010, we uncovered dozens of pollution monitoring reports submitted by ICG and Frasure Creek Mining to the cabinet that were clearly false. Our analysis showed that some reports included all the same data as previous reports, but the dates had been changed. In other cases, there were multiple and contradictory reports for the same discharge point. Not only were the reports inaccurate, they were masking major pollution problems, as can be seen in the graphs below.

ICG Knott Conductivity

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Half-Baked Coal Ash Bill: A Dangerous Proposition for Our Air and Water

Friday, August 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Sandra Diaz

Air and Water Protections are as American As Apple Pie — and they are under attack.

Most people talk about creating legislation in terms of sausage-making. It can be downright dirty work. But I prefer to think of it as pie-baking, requiring the combination of concentrated efforts while keeping the final product in mind.

Though I am new to the world of baking, I have quickly learned one thing: no matter how great your filling, it is ultimately the crust that makes — or breaks — your pie. The filling is the easy part; just throw some fruit, flour, spices and sugar together – and voila! Pie crusts are very tricky though. If you get a temperature or an ingredient wrong, it doesn’t matter what’s in the pie — the integrity of your pie is toast.

A Bad Pie is like a Bad Bill... But with dire consequences

What does this have do with latest version of the Senate coal ash bill, introduced and sponsored by a number of Southeast Senators like Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Jim Webb and Mark Warner (both from Va.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.).?

The bill is being touted as a compromise of legislation that passed in the House and was first introduced in the Senate last fall. But while minimal improvements have been made to the filling of this legislation, its still a terrible pie overall.

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Official EPA Comments on 36 Ky Permits

Thursday, June 28th, 2012 | Posted by Pallavi Podapati

Appalachian Voices submitted official comments following the EPA’s public hearing on June 2nd and 4th. Our comments affirm the EPA’s objections to 36 water pollutant discharge permits for surface mines in Kentucky. The 36 draft permits were issued by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.

Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA must ensure state compliance with clean water laws to protect public health and the environment. Our official comments explain why we agree with the EPA’s decision, and address misinformation and additional problems with the permits.

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Speaking Out At EPA Hearings in Kentucky

Thursday, June 14th, 2012 | Posted by Pallavi Podapati

Upon our arrival, we definitely stood out. I wondered if we exuded “tree hugger,” but it’s more likely that the “I Love Mountains” buttons gave us away. While no one approached us directly to ask what we were doing there or to start an argument, the rally cries and fire-and-brimstone speeches in the background gave me pause. On the other hand, my fellow AppVoicers seemed comfortable, even delighted, to approach people participating in the coal rally and engage in dialogue.

The June 4th U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hearings were held at the Eastern Kentucky Expo in Pikeville, a massive stadium that seats 7,000. Individuals gathered to voice their opinions on the EPA’s denial of 36 mine permits because of water quality issues. Following the hearing, the EPA will be receiving comments until June 21st.

While things seemed relatively calm during the rally outside, within the Expo things turned nasty. None of the jeering was too off-putting, but the feeling of tension and the combative tone pro-coal individuals took with EPA officials and environmentalists made everyone in our small group uneasy.

Four members of Appalachian Voices spoke at the hearing, Eric Chance, Erin Savage, Matt Wasson, and myself. We talked about Kentucky’s troubled history of failing to enforce clean water protections, and agreed with the EPA that the permits in question lacked appropriate scientific data and safeguards to protect watersheds. We also commented on the devastating health impacts from water pollution caused by mountaintop removal coal mining, and countered coal industry propaganda with data about the recent rise in the region’s coal employment. A member of the Sierra Club, Alex DeShay, also spoke, and we all received very vocal disapproval from the crowd. I wondered if we were in a precarious situation by being the only people who were openly supportive of the EPA’s initiatives.

This is not the Eastern Kentucky I know.

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