Take Action on Tennessee Coal Ash Disaster

by Emily Gertz · 2009-01-08 18:55:00 UTC
Topics:

Coal slurry covered landscape in Tenn.

Part of our mission here at Change.org is to bridge the gap between knowledge and taking action. Here are some ways to help and take action on the Tennessee coal fly ash disaster:

United Mountain Defense has been distributing drinking water and health information to people who have been affected by the flood; taking samples of water and ash daily for testing; and, blogging daily from the scene.

UMD has posted these requests for assistance:

  • Funding and support from other non profits and foundations for bottled water, personal protective equipment for residents and on-the-ground volunteers, biometric sampling of impacted residents, air quality monitoring, and water quality monitoring.

  • A paid staff person. "United Mountain Defense has done all this work with a dedicated volunteer force. Some of our volunteer force is becoming very concerned about paying the utility bills for the volunteer supported Volunteer House."

  • "If you have any questions, concerns, have special skills to volunteer or would like to donate money or other resources please contact United Mountain Defense at 865 689 2778."

Progressive Future has started an online petition asking President-elect Obama to "reconsider your postition on clean coal, and focus on investing in clean, renewable energy sources."

Friends of the Earth has put up an online letter drive to members of Congress to "support a moratorium on the construction of new coal-fired power plants and rapidly phase out existing coal facilities and replace them with clean energy alternatives, such as wind and solar, and energy efficiency."

Mountain Justice has relayed a request from local activist Bonnie Swinford: Donations to help people in the area of the flood who are becoming ill and need to get expensive medical tests.

Hat tip to Intern Mike for tracking these actions down.

Image: Home in area flooded by coal ash sludge. Via United Mountain Defense.

Emily Gertz
PREVIOUS STORY:
Inhofe Watch: 'We know how to use coal in a clean manner.'
NEXT STORY:
Stopping the Water Grab in Nevada

COMMENTS (3)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.