SOCM and The Alliance working together to end MTR
Feb 1st, 2010 by admin
This great story was in SOCM’s new E-newsletter!
Campbell/Anderson Chapter Members Fight to Stop Mountain Top Removal
Several Campbell/Anderson chapter members are very active in the fight to stop Mountaintop Removal coal mining (MTR) in Tennessee. Vickie Terry, a member in Eagan, recently attended a meeting in West Virginia with Joseph Pizarchik, the Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. The meeting was sponsored by The Alliance for Appalachia, a coalition of 14 organizations in central Appalachia working to abolish MTR and work towards just and sustainable communities in Appalachia. SOCM is a founding member of the Alliance. Vickie told Director Pizarchik about water quality problems in her community and the concern she has for her granddaughters growing up in an area suffering from the pollution and devastation of destructive strip mining. Vickie and one of her granddaughters will be traveling to Washington, DC in March with other SOCM members to lobby for the Clean Water Protection Act and the Appalachian Restoration Act.
The Campbell/Anderson chapter is also very excited about working for good green jobs in their counties and are working on a project to map assets in their communities and a job-income survey to try and help pinpoint what people want to focus on for a bright sustainable future for the places they call home. For more information on the Chapter,
click here.