Flash floods have troubled Kentucky for decades. Now, extreme rainstorms are worsening with climate change, increasing the odds of more disasters like the one Bentley’s community endured. For Kentucky’s poorest residents, the people living in flood-prone hollows with surface mines nearby, that means an ever-present threat to both life and hard-won possessions.
The Wilderness Trace KFTC Chapter hosted a celebration of Herrington Lake on September 14. Community members ate hot dogs and learned about a variety of community resources for protecting the water quality of Herrington Lake while listening to Conrad Shiba and Joel Klepac play Bluegrass music. Electricity for the celebration was provided by Wilderness Trace Solar.
State dignitaries came to Inez last Thursday bearing gifts. Before a select group of invited luminaries from the state and local government, they announced money “they” would bestow upon Martin County.
Not a single coal company formed in Kentucky within the past five years has posted a bond required by state law to protect miner’s wages if their employer suddenly shuts down, according to records obtained by the Lexington Herald-Leader. In addition, officials in Gov. Mat Bevin’s administration urged lawmakers last year to pass a bill that would have eliminated the requirement.
The Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) is a water pollution control agency established in 1948 among eight states that border the Ohio River. Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia celebrated the 70th anniversary of ORSANCO in 2018.
Across Appalachia, thousands of coal miners have suffered from black lung disease. In the 1960s, miners organized a movement to end the chronic condition. They convinced Congress to pass new laws that were supposed to make black lung a thing of the past. Today, conditions underground have changed, and the disease has come roaring back.
KFTC members and residents of many other coal producing states and regions have followed the activities of Revelation Energy, LLC with increasing alarm in recent years.
They watched closely as the company went a buying spree, acquiring hundreds of mine permits and hundreds of thousands of acres of mines in Kentucky alone from 2014 to 2018. They tracked notices of dozens of safety, health and environmental violations and overdue taxes charged against Revelation Energy, many of which remain outstanding. (According to the Lexington Herald Leader, Revelation Energy has been the top violator of reclamation and environmental rules in each of the last three years.)
And throughout this year, KFTC members actively organized against proposed mining permits and permit amendments sought by Revelation Energy that threaten water quality and community well-being in Harlan and Pulaski counties.
Twenty-three years ago, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the 19th generation Keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle, began traveling the world conducting World Peace and Prayer Day. It takes place every annual summer solstice due to it’s sacredness among all cultures, to unite people of all faiths and nations to join hands in a day of prayer dedicated towards Mother Earth.
On June 6, the current standards set by the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) for monitoring water quality in the Ohio River became voluntary. Only two of the commissioners representing eight member states and the federal government voted against the measure.
