Below:

• Host a Community Meeting to Protect Your Health and Community

• Nov. 3 -7: Bituminous BANTER in Parkersburg with Mattea, Giardina, Levy

• Nov. 4: Vote. Vote. Vote.

• Presidential Candidates Disdain Mountaintop Removal

• Counter Big Coal's Propaganda - Write Those Letters to the Editor

• Nov. 14-15: Don't Foreclose on the Climate - National Day Of Action

 Host a Community Meeting to Protect Your Health and Community
 

No, this is no Halloween trick, but water like this coming out of your well or flowing down streams sure is scary!  Help Sludge Safety Project stop coal sludge contamination of our most precious resource, water.

In coal-bearing regions of West Virginia, the disposal of coal prep-plant waste is contaminating drinking water. Once clean, healthy water now is laden with toxic chemicals.  The negative health impacts of this coal slurry cannot be tolerated. Clean water is a right  - not a privilege. We need volunteers like you to join with the citizens’ Sludge Safety Project to help protect West Virginia's water.

Help the Sludge Safety Project (SSP) by hosting a meeting to inform your community on how to fight for water justice. Learn about SSP’s efforts to improve your health and hear how people are making a difference in communities across West Virginia. Recruit individuals to lobby with the SSP this upcoming legislative session. Don’t be intimidated - we’ll help you learn how to lobby.  Your voice is your power - claim it! 

Interested in hosting a meeting?  Here are a few tips to get started:

1. Give us a call – we are here to support you.

2. Make a list of people who might be interested

3. Figure out the best time and place – your kitchen, your church, or community center.  (Small meetings are often quite educational because more people speak up)

4.  Invite everyone.

5. Have fun! 

To set up a meeting in your community contact: Patricia Feeney at patricia@sludgesafety.org or Natalie Vanderpool at n_vanderpool@yahoo.com. We look forward to hearing from you! 

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 Nov. 3 -7: Bituminous BANTER in Parkersburg with Mattea, Giardina, Levy
Bituminous Banter week in Parkersburg, W.Va. features a free lecture on coal by two-time Grammy winner Kathy Mattea, a concert by Mattea featuring songs from her new album Coal, the black and white photography of Builder Levy, a panel discussion on growing up in a coal camp with West Virginia author and strident mountaintop removal opponent Denise Giardina, a showing of the film October Sky, and a performance of Coal Camp Memories.

Click here for a pdf brochure with schedule details and location information.

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 Nov. 4: Vote. Vote. Vote.
If you are registered to vote, you can vote early through Saturday during regular business hours at your county courthouse. And as you know unless you've been living off-planet, Tuesday, Nov. 4 is Election Day. Vote. Vote. Vote.   

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 Presidential Candidates Disdain Mountaintop Removal
Speaking of voting, could it be that no matter who is voted into the White House, mountaintop removal will be abolished? The Associated Press just ran this story:  Presidential candidates pan mountaintop removal mining.  And in September, the Charleston Gazette reported Candidates agree on mountaintop removal  and Mountaintop removal a presidential issue; Neither McCain, Obama support mining practice.

OVEC has been working for years to elevate mountaintop removal into a national issue and we eagerly await the day mountaintop removal ends. But, having interacted with a few politicians and coal industry lobbyists... let's just say our work isn't over yet.  For one thing, have you taken action yet on the proposed Buffer Zone Rule change?

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 Counter Big Coal's Propaganda - Write Those Letters to the Editor
Fortunately,  an ever-growing number of people realize mountaintop removal is just plain wrong, so there are lots of folks to share the workload.  Public opinion is certainly on our side, based on some recent polls: Americans oppose mountaintop removal, according to poll;  W.Va. wants more alternative energy, poll shows.

Yet the coal industry continues to portray mountaintop removal as only opposed by a handful of wild-eyed treehuggers. Plus, Big Coal has poured tens of millions in to recent advertising campaigns and sponsorship of presidential debates.

No mater where you live, you can help counter this bunk by writing letters to the editor to your hometown newspaper and to papers in coal-mining counties.  Letters to the editor are hugely important in showing the broad spectrum of people opposed to mountaintop removal and for green energy jobs. Your letters encourage others to take a public stand, too.  Please take the time to write - If not you, then who? This page should help get you started. Find contact information for newspapers nationwide here. 

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 Nov. 14-15: Don't Foreclose on the Climate - National Day Of Action
Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace and other citizen groups are calling for a National Day of Action on Coal Financers on Nov. 14-15. Groups plan hundreds of actions in 24 hours to continue raising awareness about the coal industry and their financiers, Citi and Bank of America.

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