People Pressure Works! Keep the Calls Coming on Toxic Water Bill
The WV Senate soon will be considering the Toxic Water Bill, HB 2506.

Thousands of folks have been contacting the legislators over the bill when it was before the House, and the buzz at the WV State Capitol is that your calls for clean water are working. Keep it up! This article reports on how your calls and letters helped convince a Republican delegate to break party lines and vote against HB 2506.

Please use this easy way to send a letter, courtesy WV Rivers Coalition, to your WV senators now.

A call is better than a form letter, so if you can take just a few extra moments, please call your senator to tell them NO! to HB 2506, no to dumping more dangerous toxins and cancer-causing chemicals in our drinking water supplies.

If you don’t know who your senator is, you can find out using the senate district maps here. Or, if you have a cell phone, text your zip code to 520-200-2223. You’ll get a text back with all your representatives names and numbers. 

As you know, there are so many more bills that need your attention and calls, and things change quickly. For instance, your calls will be needed on this one!:

Bill exempts oil, natural gas industry from WV chemical tank safety law 

To stay up-to-date on the WV Legislative Session, be certain to sign up for WV E-Council Action Alerts. Follow both OVEC and E-Council on Facebook and Twitter, too.

OVEC is an active member group of WV Environmental Council (with our executive director serving on the board of directors, and our outreach coordinator serving as vice president).  

Return to Index

Pipelines, Compressor Stations and Shale, Oh My!Informational Meeting: Are you a fan of clean air and water? Do you want to maintain your property rights? If so, those are just a couple of reasons to join OVEC at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15 at the Main Cabell County Library, 455 9th Street (corner of 5th Ave. and 9th St. in Huntington) for an informational meeting on the area’s proposed fracked-gas pipelines. Join and share the event on Facebook here. 

Topics we’ll discuss include the 36-inch diameter Mountaineer Xpress (MXP) pipeline, which is proposed to be built between Marshall and Cabell Counties. A public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement for MXP and its associated compressors stations is on now. (More on that below.)

We’ll also talk about other pipelines proposed for our area, as well as the Rogersville Shale which lies beneath our feet. Click here for more information about this meeting. We sure hope to see you there!  

Learn more about the threats our region faces in this blog: Our Moral Imperative is to Protect Water, Not Fossil Fuel Corporations

MXP DEIS Comment Period On: FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) has just issued the DEIS (draft environmental impact statement) on MXP. We have a lot of detail about that here, including links so you can download the DEIS, and information on how you can submit comments. 

Hard copies of the DEIS are supposed to be available in public libraries in impacted counties. We have verified that the DEIS is available in the Central City library near the OVEC office, as well as the main Cabell County library in downtown Huntington, and the Putnam County library. We should have received a copy at the OVEC office, but so far have not.

We are working on talking points to help you make your comments. Check the blog for updates, or e-mail info@ohvec.org with “MXP talking points” in the subject line so we can follow up with you.

MXP DEIS Public Comment Meetings: 
*Monday, March 20: 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Sleepy Hollow Golf & Country Club, 3780 Sleepy Hollow Drive, Hurricane, WV 25526

Tuesday, March 21: 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Ripley High School, 2 School Street, Ripley, WV 25271

Wednesday, March 22: 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Doddridge County Park Meeting Facility, 1252 Snowbird Road, West Union, WV 26456

Thursday, March 23, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. at New Martinsville City Hall, 195 Main Street, New Martinsville, WV 26155

Tuesday, March 28, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Cane Ridge High School, 12848 Old Hickory Boulevard, Antioch, TN 37013
Come out, speak up! Power in numbers!

*OVEC’s Monthly Membership Meeting: Our monthly membership meetings usually convene at the OVEC office at 5:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month. But, this month, the meeting will rolled into the MXP public comment meeting, on Monday April 20 in Hurricane. E-mail keena@ohvec.org for details.

OVEC’s Monthly Membership Meeting – Moved! Join us for MXP DEIS Mtg in Hurricane

Training to Monitor Streams Threatened by Proposed Pipelines: In Cabell, Wayne, Putnam, Jackson and Roane counties, we have “stream teams” in place. We’re monitoring locations where the proposed MXP would cross over or under streams. Stream teams are in place in other counties for other proposed pipelines. We always need more volunteers, and here’s your chance to receive training so that you can join a stream team. 

Join the training on Saturday, April 8 from 10 – 4 at the UU Congregation in Charleston. Details and registration information here. Register by April 5.

Return to Index

National Academy of Sciences Wants to Hear from You on MTR and Human HealthIn early August of 2016, the Charleston Gazette reported that an “expert team being appointed by the National Academy of Sciences will examine a ‘growing amount of academic research’ that suggests ‘possible correlations’ between increased public health risks for Appalachian residents and living near mountaintop removal coal mining.”

In an action alert that month we noted: “The committee of experts undertaking this study is to hold four town hall meetings to gather information from folks like us about mountaintop removal’s health impacts. The locations and dates for these meetings have not yet been announced. Stay tuned.”

Finally, we have several dates:

• May 22-24 in Charleston, WV (we don’t have exact location yet)
• Update: The WV meeting will be May 23 in Logan, WV. Details here.
• June 20-22 TBA in Kentucky
• August 21-23 TBA
• Another meeting TBA

You can sign up for updates on the study and meetings here.

We will definitely be posting updates and encouraging people to attend the meetings in Charleston, so, once again, stay tuned. Do contact us now at info@ohvec.org or 304-522-0246 if you are interested in helping get folks out to the meetings to speak up about what mountaintop removal has done to their health. 

More information here. 

Return to Index

Treehuggers’ Ball, 30th Anniversary, Sister People’s Climate Sister, More
There’s so much coming up! In April, we have several Earth Day events, and we are in need of volunteers to help with tabling. Please contact Keena at 304-522-0246 or keena@ohvec.org if you would like to help out with Earth Day events, or any of the events listed below, such as planning the Treehuggers’ Ball. 

Save April 28 – 30 now, as we hope you will join us for a whole weekend of events to help us mark our 30th anniversary: 

April 28: 20th Treehuggers’ Ball and 30th Birthday Bash! at the V Club, with headline act Rumpke Mountain Boys and many more bands, a picnic on the patio, silent auction, and more
April 29: People’s Climate March – Sister March in Huntington
April 30: Guided Bird Watching Hike at Greenbottom Wildlife Management Area

We’ll have more details on these April 28- 30 events soon. 

Also upcoming: 

March 14: Showing Up for Racial Justice Huntington Meeting

March 18: Rally For Public Lands

March 16: Together We Rise: A Community Conversation on Race  

March 30: Greater Huntington Area Solar Co-op Meeting

There’s so much more. Check our online calendar here.

We are looking for vendors and volunteers for this event, May 20: 3rd Annual Huntington Sustainability Fair 

Return to Index