Just like a super-hero, the Sierra Club swoops in and saves the day! Protecting the water quality of two rivers and their subsidiary streams, the Gauley and New Rivers, Sierra club has won its case agains Powellton Coal Company, so now both rivers have been saved from contamination (previously toxic levels of aluminum, iron, manganese and other suspended solids had been detected in the water).

The fish can breathe and swim at ease now, or at least we can be confident that their water quality will not get any worse in the near term. Rafters, Kayakers and West Virginia Whitewater Rafting Outfitters are rejoicing as the spring brings the mountaintop runoff. It must be nice knowing the water is a little bit cleaner this year, because of the valiant, commendable efforts of the Sierra Club, the Ansted Historic Preservation Council and the WV Department of Environmental Protection Agency!

The case was brought to the public's attention during summer of last year, when Sierra Club and the Ansted Historic Preservation Council "secured an order from the West Virginia Surface Mine Board prohibiting Powellton from removing any additional coal at the Bridge Fork West mountaintop removal mine on Gauley Mountain." - from Sierra Club Press Release.

Then they had to continue to battle, as an appeal was made because a subsidiary of Powellton Coal Co., Fola Coal Company and Consol Energy, were still mining, and doing it the cheap, harmful way (for our global environment) dumping toxins into the local water ways. Well all that is over now, after a February 3rh ruling that decreed that the coal companies had in fact been in violation of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (otherwise known as the Clean Water Act), and were forced to suspend all mining and dumping activities until they could ensure the public that what they were doing was not harmful to the water quality in the New and Gauley Rivers.

GO Sierra Club! Way to win one for the rafters, the kayakers, the swimmers and the fishers - indeed, even those who work for Powellton Coal Company (although they might not see it yet), this is a win for them, too, as this is the same river for them as it is everyone else: and it should not be over-polluted in the present term, spoiling it for their children's later use, for short-term economic gains. The Coal Companies were in need of some overseeing, so what they were doing might not come back and harm themselves. Everyone in this world is effected by environmental issues of this nature. The water supply must be kept clean so we can maintain an equilibrium within biotic cycles.

Thanks Sierra Club and Ansted Historical Preservation Council, for calling this to everyone's attention, and securing a cleaner, safer and more livable future for all Americans and world citizens alike (and that includes you, Powellton Coal Co. CEO's and workers! -- just get it cleaned up, re-worked from a scientific control and eco-friendliness standpoint -- and then commence working on your business's growth and prosperity -- because you can't jeopardize the wellbeing and happiness of others to satisfy your own: It's in the Constitution!)