Dana Kuhnline

Last week, dozens of residents from Appalachia and allies from across the country rallied at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to pressure the Obama administration to protect Appalachia’s water and future from coal pollution. Those wishing to contact the CEQ to support residents can take action here.

The CEQ oversees the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Surface Mining and other agencies that are responsible for protecting Appalachian residents from the severe water and health impacts of mountaintop removal and other dangerous coal practices.

Unfortunately, Appalachian leaders who met with the agencies were disappointed with the attitude the administration showed toward concerned citizens that traveled many hours to D.C. for the visit. The agency representatives asked for more time to work on the issue of mountaintop removal, but mountain leaders have been waiting five years since an Obama administration Memorandum of Understanding that promised action against the destructive practice as well as reinvestment in the economy of the region.

The tragic and unbelievable series of toxic spills in Appalachia in 2014 — from the chemical spill that impacted more than 300,0000 people in West Virginia, to the slurry and coal ash spills in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina — are just the most recent disasters to showing the failures of the Obama administration to follow through on its promises to protect Appalachian communities. More than 500 mountains have been destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining and the region is ready for a just transition to a economy beyond this destructive practice.

The next day, residents engaged in a sit-in on the front steps of the CEQ and waited several hours for an agency representative to come out to speak with them — eventually even hosting a square dance with a live band playing traditional Appalachian music in front of the CEQ. In addition, residents organized a bucket brigade to collect clean water from D.C. to bring back home to their communities that do not have access to safe water to drink.

When no representative from CEQ agreed to meet with residents after several hours of waiting, residents placed a report card on the steps that evaluated the progress so far of the Obama administration on important areas such as protecting the health and water of Appalachia. Participants in the rally gave the administration a grade of “incomplete.”

Appalachian citizens rally in front of the White House for “Our Water, Our Future.”