by Whitney Miller, age 12, Cortland, Ohio

	Not exactly the best quality playground material, is it? photo by Giles Ashford

Hello. I am Whitney Miller and my family in West Virginia has lived with the coal mining for several years. Each year, me and my family go camping at the old house at Mud River. Before, we had a campground at Berry’s Branch, but we had to leave because of the coal mines.

Now our campsite at Mud River is not as much fun because of the coal mining. Before the coal mining came to our campground there were beautiful mountains and rivers. Me and my cousins always played in the river catching crawdads and fish, and we played on a big area of land. We played soccer, football, paintball guns, tackling, and a lot of things. We would go back in the mountains and walk around. It was so much fun.

Now there is a big pond that destroyed the river, field and the mountains. The pond is very beautiful, with very deadly poisons in it. No one can swim, play, live or anything because its filled with poisons and chemicals. At night at our campsite all we hear is loud trucks moving back and fouth on the mountains, they are very noisy.

We are not allowed to go back to the mountains, they are destroyed because of the coal mining. The work that the coal mining has done is very ugly. Its horrible to look at, they have destroyed what West Virginia is known for...their mountains. When they destroyed these mountains they tore down trees and habitats. The animals that lived there have no home now.

Eventually there will be no more places to camp in West Virginia. In my eyes, as a kid, the coal mining progress is shameful. I can’t bear to look at what they have done to beautiful West Virginia.

When I go to West Virginia, I love to look at the mountains, but now when I look at them all I see is disaster. When I go to West Virginia I would love to see the mountains and be able to have adventures in them.

My great grandparents had to move out of their home because the coal company wanted them out of the way. They said no until they couldn’t take the blasting that shook the house every day. My family also isn’t happy with the coal company because of the Clean Water Act. That part of West Virginia gets their water from underground and then the coal company blasts the mountains and it runs down into the water which they drink.

I wouldn’t like it if I turned my water faucet on and black water came pouring out. My grandma and grandpa and I would always go four-wheeling on trails in the mountains. We would also go molly moocher hunting, picnicking, adventuring and more, but now we can’t do as much because the mountains are disappearing.

I love West Virginia, it’s my favorite place to be, and it always will be no matter what anyone does to it.