These meetings inspired a group of citizens to organize a study in their area with Hendryx's help. About 45 people were surveyed for self-reported illnesses. Although the sample size was small, Keating said the most important result was empowering people to defend themselves.
"People in the state have been 'done to' and 'done for' long enough," she said. "It's time that people realize that they do have power."
Many of OVEC's efforts have centered around raising awareness in small communities. The organization provides water testing around the state upon request, and in the last two years, has hosted a conference to open up a dialogue between people affected by fracking and others affected by mountaintop removal. At least one faith group plans to help Hendryx conduct a survey this year, Keating said.
"There are a lot of people of faith here, and it's more difficult for politicians or industry to marginalize us when we have solid backing from the faith community," she said.
On the policy front, Coal Mountain River Watch in collaboration with OVEC and other groups won a legal settlement in 2011 that required Alpha Natural Resources, a coal company, to construct selenium treatment facilities at a cost of more than $50 million.
Today, CRMW is helping to spearhead the Appalachian Community Health Emergency Act in the U.S. Congress. The act, introduced in February 2013 by Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Kentucky, would require comprehensive studies on mountaintop removal's impact on human health. It has 45 co-sponsors in the House.
Walk is a member of at least three local advocacy groups, and is a founding member of RAMPS (Radical Action for Mountain People's Survival), which focuses on nonviolent direct action. He recalls one of those campaigns as we walk up a muddy path through Roberts Cemetery, a small island of public land at the center of the Hobet Mountain surface mining complex. Fallen leaves coat the hillside, but when we reach the top, the scene opens up: The mountains are mostly bare of trees. Ahead of us, a thin layer of grass sprouts from a huge pile of rubble that resembles a mountain, and in the distance, a few large machines groan dully. It's a Saturday; the site is quieter than usual.
Walk describes an event that RAMPS put together called the Mountain Mobilization, which happened here at Hobet in July 2012. "It was pretty awesome," he says. "We just had about 50 of our good friends go with us, climb up all over their equipment, and lock ourselves to things, and generally raise havoc that day on that mine site, and shut them down."
The site was shut down for a day, and 20 people were arrested. Their total bail amounted to $500,000. But Walk's goals were to raise awareness and cost the coal companies money, and RAMPS achieved those goals.
Home in the mountainsWalk and I stop the car off the side of Route 3, which runs for miles along the base of Coal River Mountain. We're trying to get a good look at a valley fill, where rock and debris from a nearby mine piles up between the ridges to the south. It's hard to see through the trees, but the sun is coming out on an otherwise gray December day, and flickering off the Big Coal River below. The branches sway in a gust of wind left over from the rainfall.
"I would never live anywhere else," says Walk. He grew up just down the road, and as a kid, spent his free time riding four-wheelers in the mountains.
"My grandpa used to collect arrowheads a lot ... and there was this one place he used to take me on Coal River Mountain called Bear Wallow, and that place doesn't exist any more," he says. "It was on top of a ridge. They blew it up."
After high school, Walk worked in a coal preparation plant for six months. Walk quit working there, but then took a job as a security guard at another plant.
"I felt like I had blood on my hands when I worked that job, and I just couldn't do it," he says. "I knew that the people who lived below that mine site I was making money off of were going through the same things I went through when I was a little kid, and I felt miserable about it. And that's when I started coming around the local organizations around here and seeing what I could do to help out."
Erin L. McCoy wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions. Erin worked as a newspaper reporter and photographer in Kentucky for almost two years. She is now a Seattle-based freelance writer specializing in education, environment, cultural issues, and travel, informed by her time teaching English in Malaysia and other travels. Contact her at elmccoy [at] gmail [dot] com or on Twitter @ErinLMcCoy.
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