let the mountains (and the people) be!
I have just returned from a nine day stay in West Virginia, enjoying the “wild and wonderful” landscape and doing work to help a low income family in Summers County. The people of West Virginia are hardworking and independent and more vulnerable to environmental health risks than residents of almost any other state.
Mountain top coal mining is doing great damage to the longterm viability of the West Virginia ecosystem and already constitutes a dire threat to human health by contaminating and/or shutting off sources of drinking water.
The Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act (H.R.526 – ACHE Act) asks the federal government to put a moratorium on new mountain top removal projects until its health risks are properly and fully assessed. Please ask your representatives to co-sponsor this bill and show that we are indeed “united” states when it comes to protecting each other from grave threats to health and well-being.