For more than five years, OVEC board member Regina Hendrix and the WV Sierra Club have led efforts to secure special historical status for Blair Mountain. Such status would prevent mountaintop removal on large portions of Blair Mountain. Through amazing perseverance, despite setback after setback, they were finally successful in having 1,600 acres of Blair Mountain nominated by the state of West Virginia for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

In September, the DEP granted a permit to Mingo Logan Coal Co. to surface mine over 300 acres, completely within the area that has been nominated for Historic status.

OVEC and WV Highlands Conservancy are working with lawyers from the national Sierra Club to try to stop any mining on that site. Our fear is that Mingo Logan will destroy enough land and waters that the site would no longer be eligible for National Register status. We have people watching the site.

(In a different, earlier legal case led by Joe Lovett and Earthjustice attorneys, a company buried a stream where we were trying to stop a valley fill. Once the stream was gone, we no longer had legal grounds to stop the valley fill.)