Water and Coal - Rant Warning!!!!

You can't drink the water in Whitesburg. Well you can, but it's probably not safe, due to coal mining run-off. People have to buy huge jugs of water, a la the dentist's office, that get shipped from VA. I've cooked oatmeal and made tea with the KY water, and even though it's supposed to be safe after it's been boiled, it just doesn't taste right. It's strange because I am such an advocate for drinking tap water and find the whole bottled water industry complete and utter bullshit. But sometimes, you have to get your water from elsewhere.

Did I mention that I'm in the United States right now? Not a third world country, or the sight of a recent natural disaster. Okay, so I know that many people in US cities don't drink the water. But is that because it is actually unsafe, or because it just doesn't taste like our ideal of water? I that if the water in New York were actually hazardous to drink, there would be a huge public outcry, and the coal companies that were doing the polluting would be forced to pay huge fines and clean up their acts. But wait, this is Appalachia. As long as the lights are on, nobody says anything.

I'm a lot more conscious of where my electricity comes from now that I'm in a town where coal mining is a major employer (heck, it is probably the biggest employer). Coal runs the space heater that keeps me warm, the computer that allows me to blog, and the heat for the water in my shower, water that I can't drink because of coal companies. It's all one big carbon circle. Even though coal powers my home in WV, it's a lot further off when coal mining is an abstract concept that happens in some less nice part of the state. Whitesburg is absolutely beautiful, but I know that a couple of valleys over, there is surface mining going on.

Ever since the arrests of Oberlin students who were protesting mountain top removal in West Virginia last October, I've been very internally conflicted about the issue of mountain top removal. It's clear to me that surface mining is terrible for the health of the land and the health of the people. Coal is not a renewable resource, and neither are the Appalachian mountains, while things may seem okay now, in the future there will be serious repercussions that will be obvious to even the staunchest of coal advocates.

On the other hand, I am very uncomfortable with the idea of outsiders coming in to an area, and telling people that they have to take away their way of putting food on their tables and paying for water they can't drink, without offering a viable economic alternative for their communities. I know that there are many Appalachians who are working to end mountain-top removal and find new economic alternatives, but as a West Virginian at Oberlin, I don't always see this aspect of the argument.

During this month, I hope to learn more, and attempt to resolve this internal conflict, or if that is not possible, find a way that I can become part of a solution that will work for both the environment, and the people who live in that environment. I am an outsider in Whitesburg, and I don't pretend not to be. I don't have a solution for this issue, and even if I thought I did, I wouldn't even want to pretend that it was the best one. I am going to watch, listen, and learn, and above all not be the outsider who comes in to try to tell the dumb Appalachians how to run their lives. For now, I can make playlists that will hopefully make the days of WMMT's listeners a little brighter.

This was a very heated post. I feel very passionate about this issue (obviously) and don't yet know a lot about it (obviously again). Learning about it and becoming calm enough to state my feelings in a few sentences is a secondary goal of this winter term project.