Joan’s Gone

I often sought advice from Joan. She opened doors on Capitol Hill for groups like OVEC.  She helped us get our stories to legislators, helped them introduce legislation that would protect our health, our water, our mountains. She helped us get our stories to regulators and she spearheaded efforts at Earthjustice aimed at making regulators enforce laws already written, laws that were supposed to be protecting our health, our water and out mountains.Joan wasn’t just a central figure in the movement to protect Appalachian’s health and future by ending mountaintop removal. She was a clean water advocate for communities nationwide.  Air breathers and water drinkers everywhere are better off because of her intelligence, the network of connections she built, her tenacity and her fearlessness.Joan Mulhern died December 19, 2012 after a long illness.

Joan, thank you for your work. Thank you for you friendship. Thank you for your heart.  Why do you have to go so soon?