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possible if they’re willing to do it." But acid seeps and flows, once established, are there to stay.
Tenacious landholders in the coal fields who refuse to sell to the mining companies find their properties less and less livable. Surrounded by stripped land, incessant machinery noises, and lights burning all night, such property is “not esactly the kind of place you’d want to live,” says Rick.
“So, one by one, they’re giving up.”
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When Rick and Susan acquired their farm, there was little mining activity in the area. There were no strip mines in Braxton County. Soon, the miners were active in the very same watershed where the farm was situated.
This was a balancing point in their lives. Susan, at least in hindsight, would have chosen to pack up and move to another farm site. The alternative was to oppose the powerful collusion of industry and government and protect their rights as Americans.
Rick was a patriot in the root sense: “I live in West Virginia and the United States, not just Braxton County.”
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Rick began to spend time away from home, researching, organizing, learning basic water chemistry. He founded the Braxton Environmental Action Program, the seminal West Virginia Mountain Stream Monitors, now a respected statewide organization which monitors the effects of mining and other disturbances on water quality.
He realized that the viability of the stream running through his farm — and thus his lifestyle and livelihood — was endangered by planned mining activity.
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