Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW)

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Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW) is a grassroots organization begun in 1998 in response to the fear and frustration of people living near or downstream from huge mountaintop removal sites. We began as a small group of volunteers working to organize the residents of southern West Virginia to fight for social, economic, and environmental justice.
We are a small non-profit working in communities impacted by the irresponsible practices of the coal industry in southern West Virginia.
The mission of Coal River Mountain Watch is to stop the destruction of our communities and environment by mountaintop removal mining, to improve the quality of life in our area and to help rebuild sustainable communities.

Activities
• We combine our local knowledge with technical expertise to fight for local interests threatened by the coal industry.
• We pressure regulatory agencies to do their jobs to protect the health of our communities and create policy change through educating the public and our local and national representatives.
• We educate and mobilize citizens to organize and stand together for environmental justice.
• We envision stronger and more self-sufficient communities that are in control of their natural resources.
• We understand that powerful industry interests corrupt regulatory agencies and democracy beyond southern West Virginia.
• We stand in solidarity with other communities that are fighting for local self-determination in the face of industry pressure all over the world.

Projects
Coal River Mountain Watch is working on multiple fronts to fight mountaintop removal coal mining and build the movement for environmental justice in Appalachian communities impacted by coal mining.
• Save Coal River Mountain: The ongoing campaign to save the last mountain in the Coal River watershed from mountaintop removal. This includes our proposal for a wind farm on Coal River Mountain, as an alternative to mountaintop removal mining.
• Citizen Enforcement: We are training citizens to challenging mining permits and putting pressure on the Department of Environmental Protection to do their job: properly regulate mining and prosecute permit violations.
• Marsh Fork Elementary: A successful campaign to move Marsh Fork Elementary School out from under a coal sludge impoundment.
• Sustainable Energy and Economic Diversification (SEED): An effort to develop alternative energy and economic options and work towards a post-coal future.
• Sludge Safety Project: A joint project with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition to improve water quality by eliminating underground coal slurry injection and coal sludge impoundments.
• Tadpole Project: A project to restore the Marsh Fork of the Big Coal River and to foster community pride in the river.

Jen Osha Buysse is the Project Coordinator of Coal River Mountain Watch (CRMW).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.