Boone County Updates: Bob White Listed Among Planets Disappearing Destinations

Boone Countys OVEC organizing team is hard at work and weve been having meetings as we need them.

Here, we recognize that we have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to stop mountaintop removal from destroying our culture one community at a time. Learning to organize your own neighbors in the impacted communities is key to our success.

If you arent sure about what mountaintop removal is doing to our county, join with OVEC and the great volunteer pilots from SouthWings (www.southwings.org) to get a birds eye view. Several of your neighbors have already taken flyovers to see, often for the first time, the vast sprawl of mountaintop removal above our communities. Thirty folks are already on the waiting list for upcoming flyovers.

A new book, Disappearing Destinations, by Kimberly Lisagor and Heather Hansen, documents 37 places around the planet that are in peril and what can be done to help save them. Places in Appalachia such as Hawks Nest in Fayette County and Bob White in Boone County are listed alongside places like the Amazon and the Florida Everglades. See www.endangeredplaces.com.

m Coal trucks are running amok in Boone County. Speak up for your community and attend Public Service Commission meetings. Call (304) 245-8481 for info. In the meantime call in your complaints to the PSC at 1-866-SEE-TRUX or 866-733-8789.

m Thanks to a national effort, water-testing training is coming to Boone County. Let us train you on how to test your water and how to read the results you find. Get your name on the list of trainees now. Call (304) 245-8481.

m Be a stream saver in your area. Keep an eye on local streams and call in complaints to the DEP on blackwater spills. The spill hotline number is 800-642-0490. Keep a good record of the conversation (dates, time, and who you talk to). Follow up on the complaint to see that it is investigated.