[Coach_Owens87]

Please CO87, tell me how your community decreased the amount of straight pipes in your community! Could part of it been from that terrible group that you bashed called "PRIDE"? Yes that's right. Pride gave thousands of dollars to try to clean up the creeks! Although it probably had a minimal effect because there is still thousands upon thousands of pipes out there, at least they tried. You have to also take into account that sewage is also anything from the sink, tub, and washing machine. These are rampant in eastern kentucky and also in your county as much now as they were back then.

My immediate family member is in a position to be the "decision maker" on donating money, scholarships, and any community projects from coal companies. He doesn't do this because he feels like he has too. He does this because he knows that there are communities out there that need help to accomplish tasks or send the younger generation to school. Sure his company may get a task write off, but you mean that you wouldn't take one on your taxes if you were able too? I feel like mining companies do try to follow the law just like everyone else. Also, once these mines get finished with the land, it does produce flat land in the county that can be used for schools, industrial site, landfills, etc. Flat land is few and far between in eastern kentucky. If you want people to come back to the area (like you said you would want to one day) you must have places for them to build. Why do you think up in the head of the hollows, people build on top of one another....Because they have no where else to go.

Also, if you know any of the "flatlander" that come to pray on our mountains, could you ask them to pray for like a cure for cancer or maybe for me to win the lottery?

Boy oh, Old School, you know your stuff!

Why is everyone saying that I stated sewage running into streams is not a problem, I never said that, Im just trying to say that there more things are happening here than liotering and sewage issues. Mining is polluting our streams and rivers on a bigger scale than people like to think.
You say that pride had an effect on changing sewage problems, and they have, in the last few years over 25,000 people have been added to municipal sewage systems. , I never stated that pride didnt help some, but things wont change here until people change their attitudes, It's just ironic that "Pride" is telling us to appreciate natural beauty, so we go out and clean up, while companies are stripping down the mountains all around us. How can we have pride in our region when we are letting people haul it off?
The reason that I don't like the "pride" program is becuase people here don't have "Pride" in their community. So the whole idea is kinda busted from the start. Don't get me wrong, Pride is a great idea, but I just don't think it is working to well, they need to change their strategies,small scale clean-ups a few times a year don't do much, we need to educate people and make them understand the beauty of this area, and how littering destroys that. Stricter enforcement of loitering fines would help also. This is one of the only regions I know where littering is so rampant. Sewage problems are an issue too, and I think thats why people let the things happening from coal companies slide. We already destroy this area, so what does it matter if companies come in and do the same thing?

And please don't give me that crap about needing more flat land, we don't use what we have, so why do we need more. And you say that flat land would bring people back in, I don't think so. Look at areas of Appalachia in Tennessee and North Carolina, they have striving cities like Asheville, Pigeon forge/Gatlinburg, they have great economies, and why is that? It's becuase they market their natural beauty, people love to see that, they don't like to see "Flat land" in an area where mountains are supposed to be. Now I know that those areas sit in valleys, (which is something we have few of here.) but they don't destroy everything around them and claim it as "progress".

You also proved a point that DW was trying to make, people here stand up from mining becuase they have a long family tradition with mining. A have a family tradition with it also, all of my uncles, 7 of them, and many other family members, work in the mines, or have worked in the mines at some point. IT makes it very hard for me to speak out against something my family is so tied up in, but I cant sit back and not speak my mind.