Nina & Mick McCoy

Nina & Mick McCoy

Nina McCoy

Inez, KY

I first met people from KFTC when we went in 2000 to lobby for a bottle bill in Frankfort.  We found out that there was such a thing as KFTC. Then we started to get involved with an incinerator that was going in here. We got a lot more information about the incinerator thanks to KFTC. We became members after the bottle bill fight. 

As a biology teacher, I’ve always been interested in environmental issues. Even in the 1980’s, I had an environmental group here at the high school.  We did things like picking up garbage and things like that.  But I came to realize that picking up the garbage just kind of gave other people a reason to throw it out.  I thought “Well, we need to approach the problem in a different way.”  That’s why I decided the bottle bill was a good idea.  And, that led me to KFTC.

I think that KFTC is what we need.  Because people individually just feel too overwhelmed, and cannot feel that they can do anything.  This empowers people to feel that they can do something.

I think too that we both kind of see this as a spiritual issue - protecting the planet.  And its not going to be something that is easy to do, ever.  Because the bible will tell you that greed’s a hard thing to fight. And so we basically just say: “We’re just going to have to keep trying.” We see it as our mission, as our cross to bear.
   
A shining moment in our work was the ruling that, according to the Clean Water Act, you can’t fill in the streams. Judge Hayden said that basically mountaintop removal is against the law.  Because you are just filling in massive amounts of streams. So that would be definitely a shining moment. 

We have found out that we don’t have the regulatory agencies that we thought that we had, and how dangerous that is.  And how we’re losing ground, even as we speak, on judicial issues.  We can’t go to EPA and tell them, “Look what’s been done to us.” They don’t pay attention to us.  Soon we’re also not going to be able to go to the court system and say, “Look at what’s been done to us.” 

Mick McCoy

Inez, KY

I’ve always been against strip mining.  Being here I’ve seen so many of the high walls that were left. The mountaintop removal that’s going on in eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia has really turned my stomach.

In 2000 we had the Martin County Coal/Massey Corporation sludge flood – which released 350 million gallons of toxic waste in two of our creeks. It went into our rivers where we get our water supply – our water supply reservoir was poisoned. There are long-term health effects for people in this area due to the water that is poisoned by the mines with their black water events. Black water events are still happening. They’ve happened ever since – from the 70s. But that was the big one.  

Pre-KFTC, I would go out and raise my voice in different circles, and maybe write a letter here or there to a representative, but I was acting as just an individual.  And it was like I was just cursing at the moon. With KFTC, I came to realize that there are many people. It’s true that there’s power in numbers.

It’s like those T-shirts that KFTC had a few years ago – “Be wise – organize.” Another said “Don’t go it alone.”  Because you can’t go it alone.  You have to have a group of people fighting and lobbying on behalf of the issues that are dear to your heart.

It’s downright lonesome sometimes, in this area fighting for issues.  And you think: “What the hell am I doing this for?  I mean, nobody else cares.”  But somebody’s got to care, and you have to be true to your own self. We gotta keep on keeping on.

In June of 2002, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, along with a couple of other groups, went to Washington, DC to a senate subcommittee.  And we got to voice our opinions, and tell the world – like “the whole world is watching.” It was one of those shining moments – showing what was going on in eastern Kentucky. 

Senators listened to us.  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke.  Hillary Clinton was there on that committee and she spoke. Senator Lieberman was there. Unfortunately, the Republicans had boycotted the event, because of Kevin Richardson, a Backstreet Boy who’s from the Daniel Boone National Forest. They didn’t think a Backstreet Boy had anything to tell them about the environment, but he has a hell of a lot to tell them. 

You got to see people in those positions, like Mrs. Clinton, and Lieberman, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and see that they were with you.  And it gave you – it pulled you out of that beaten down mood that you were in. You say well, maybe…there is hope.  When people in those powerful positions agree with you. It’s a good feeling.

One of the things we learned: the agencies that are supposed to protect us, such as EPA and the Division of Water, even MSHA and all these agencies set up to be the watchdogs for us?  Hell, they’re the guard-dogs of the corporations, of King Coal.  That’s the scary thing we found out.

It even makes it more important for the future to change the direction of this country. It’s so important for us to make people realize that the problems reach from Martin County up to the White House. It’s all connected. If we don’t wake up, if we don’t do something, then Appalachia is just going to be the dumping grounds.  It’s going to be a sacrificial area – we can sacrifice Appalachia for their coal. 

It’s a very important time within the next 5 to 10 years.  It’s scary, but we’ve got to fight the good fight.  That means changing the political picture of this country too.

The problem we have here is people feel… fatalistic.  They feel, “Well this is the way it’s done everywhere.” And by God, it’s not done this way everywhere. There are rules for corporations to follow outside of eastern Kentucky. But I think people think “Well, they probably do this in the north, and the south, and the east and west.” No, by God, they don’t. They don’t wherever there are people who will stand up and say: “You can’t do this. We’re not going to take it anymore.” 

That’s what we need.  And with organizations like Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and the expertise that they have in going out there and fighting for these same causes, we can win.  I swear we can.