West Virginia Pride

By AV's Intern Team | February 10, 2014 |

By Hannah Spencer Through this disaster I have been reassured that I am proud to be a West Virginian. The folks who make me proud to be a West Virginian are those who haven’t had work since the water crisis, but are still at their local fire departments and churches handing out supplies every day.…

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Fending For Yourself

By AV's Intern Team | February 10, 2014 |

By William Holsting We don’t have the licorice smell now, but when they started flushing it smelled bad for awhile. I still don’t trust the water. You wash your hair and you feel itchy and scratchy about your ears, and I don’t know if it’s the water or just in my mind. I would feel…

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Life is Surreal Since the Chemical Spill

By AV's Intern Team | February 10, 2014 |

By Linda Frame “That’s a First World Problem, Mom,” my teenage son told me one day. I can’t remember now what trivial thing I was complaining about. Because that was before the chemical spill. On Thursday evening, Jan. 9, I was where I am a lot of the time, at the grocery store. I noticed…

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Forty Minutes from Fresh Water

By AV's Intern Team | February 10, 2014 |

By S. Rhodes My community is partially in Putnam and partially in Cabell County. I have many elderly neighbors, and yes, there are also children and handicapped individuals that need access to clean water. Water distribution in this area was cut off on Jan. 18. I own a small business that I run out of…

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By AV's Intern Team | February 9, 2014 |

Citizen Stories On January 9, 2014, a chemical called MCHM leaked into the water supply of 300,000 West Virginia residents, causing a crisis unlike anything that America has dealt with before. These are stories of the affected as well as those of folks trying to help. Forty Minutes From Fresh Water “The smell alone, with…

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Uncertainty Upstream

By AV's Intern Team | February 7, 2014 |

Appalachian Water Watch Responds to the Spill By Erin Savage, Water Quality Specialist for Appalachian Voices When I first heard about the chemical spill in Charleston, W.Va., on the morning of Jan. 9, I emailed the rest of the Appalachian Voices staff and immediately started packing an overnight bag. While I didn’t exactly know what…

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