Huge Thanks to the 93 individual donors and a generous grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation's Krakoa NH Fund! We appreciate the support to cover costs of purchasing this rugged vehicle, now hard at work for our Citizens' Enforcement Program keeping an eye on polluters and giving tours to journalists.  

Huge thanks to everyone who has gotten us halfway to our revised goal of $9,000 for a replacement vehicle to monitor the coal operations in our area! We went ahead and bit the bullet and got a 2018 Ford police Interceptor from WV State Surplus. While the price was a good deal, it's still a major expense for our lean, mean organization. We're keeping our fingers crossed for some important grant renewals, but most of those would be in the fall and not guaranteed that we'll get them. So we're asking, if you have the means, to chip in to support this critical part of our work. And while the Interceptor primarily supports our Citizens' Enforcement Program, we also use it for giving tours and taking our message to conferences, festivals, and other events. We're at $4,567 now; could you please chip in to help get us to $9,000 at https://secure.givelively.org/donate/coal-river-mountain-watch/citizens-enforcement-truck? Thanks!

On May 17, 2024, Lexington Coal Company signed a payment agreement with WV Dept. of Environmental Protection to settle the $2,997,067.50 in delinquent penalties they owed the people of West Virginia for hundreds of violations across their coal mining operations. On June 15, 2024, LCC made the initial payment of $299,705.75 in accordance with the agreement. On Sept. 17, 2024, WVDEP and LCC entered into an amended payment agreement that included newer delinquent penalties, for a total of $3,182,510.00. Monthly payments of $144,659.55 were to have been made on the first of each month for the remaining 22 months until the debt was paid in full. WVDEP confirms that LCC only made the initial payment. We are now 11 months after the initial agreement and more than three years past the original violations. When asked about WVDEP's plans to collect this debt and the additional delinquent penalties that have since been assessed, WVDEP states "The alternative enforcement process is ongoing, and we will not provide further comment at this time."   About $2 million worth of these fines have resulted from CRMW's birddogging WVDEP and complaining to the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement about WVDEP's practice of allowing violations to go unabated for months or years beyond the legal limit. Suddenly, WVDEP started assessing the required fines, and then they provided a memo to inspectors and supervisors reminding them of correct procedures.

Your interests (clean air, water, stable climate, species preservation) are adversely affected by renewal of this permit.   Comment Tues, 3/25/2025 at 5PM EDT. Comment online at https://meet.google.com/zsp-jhvk-job?hs=224 or by phone at 1+678-631-8517 PIN 568550176 or by email to Laura.B.Claypool@wv.gov. Say that you oppose renewal of Taishan Coal LLC’s permit number O002084. 

On Feb. 26, 1972, Pittston Coal Company’s waste sludge dam in Logan County, WV, collapsed, killing 125 people and leaving 4,000 homeless. As we remember this solemn anniversary, let’s also remember that thousands of people in Appalachia live under these massive dams. Thank you Appalshop and Mimi Pickering for documenting this crime against humanity in the documentary "The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkQpI0qQSJM. While new standards were emplaced after the disaster, they’re only as good as the integrity of the companies (known for disasters) building and operating the dams and diligence and enforcement by government regulators (known for lax enforcement and giving coal companies whatever they want). With climate chaos driving more floods with greater severity, and regulatory agencies being gutted, hamstrung, and weakened, citizen vigilance is even more important now. Below are some of the sludge dams near us.