United For Coal? What About United For People and Safe Drinking Water?

Just one to three more weeks, and we might know if the water in southern West Virginia is safe to drink. Not one to three weeks till it’s safe to drink, but one to three weeks before we can determine if it MIGHT be safe.

            The poisonous spill of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol in the Elk River occurred on the ninth of January, over six weeks ago, and we might have to wait another three weeks before we can determine any amount of safety of this water. In the meantime we’ve had school closings and businesses straining to stay open.

            Back in 2012 an organization called United For Coal got turnout in the hundreds, perhaps thousands to “take a stand for coal” against an imaginary “war on coal” that was to be blamed on Barack Obama as he ran for reelection. Where are those people now? Do they not have any concern for themselves, their neighbors, and their children as they are denied basic drinkable water? Those folks lined highways carrying signs and wearing bright yellow T-shirts. A United For Coal website claims that our government, is committing, “Regional Genocide” in relation to Appalachia and the coal region. The site goes on to say, “They have summarily executed the entire coal industry thru (sic) overreaching environmental regulation.”

Line up, wear T-shirts, and wave flags for coal and Mitt Romney while your water gets poisoned

I try to avoid similar over-the-top rhetoric—like using the word genocide when I’m not talking about historical situations in Rwanda and Nazi Germany—as the United For Coal site does. But think about it for a while, what comes closer to genocide than poisoning drinking water for 300,000 people? Where are these protesters? Where are their signs and T-shirts? If you’re going to line up along highways and freeways and wave to supporters as they drive by and honk their horns, what does it take to motivate you? A 100-foot stream buffer rule as part of surface mining regulations, or not being able to bath for weeks on end and having to pick up plastic containers of water down at the shopping mall?