Holding Government Accountable: Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

Over the last several months OVEC volunteer-members and staff have traveled to DC numerous times for meetings with members of other environmental groups and with officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Office of Surface Mining (Reclamation and Enforcement), as well as assorted members of Congress.

Many thanks to everyone who has taken part in these meetings, especially to Chuck Nelson and Joe Stanley who put in loads of effort in obtaining more meetings than those we already had scheduled including one with the new head of the OSM(RE), Joseph Pizarchik, whose nomination we had opposed.

We also had meetings, organized by the Alliance

for Appalachia, with Pizarchik and other OSM officials in the coalfields.

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make certain OSM hears how the agency is failing us in Boone, Lincoln, Logan, Mingo, Raleigh and other West Virginia counties, as well as Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.

We will continue meeting with all these agencies and governmental officials as we continue to demand protection of coalfield communities.

If you want to join us, contact an OVEC organizer (leave a message for Maria, Robin or Stephanie at (304) 522-0246) and get active!