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Patricia Feeney, a water rights activist and 2005 Berea graduate,
will speak at her alma mater May 3, at 3 p.m. in Phelps Stokes
Chapel. In her presentation Water Rights Are Human Rights:
A Berea Graduate’s Journey to Justice in the Appalachian
Coal Fields, Feeney will address her efforts to clean up water
contamination caused by coal mining in West Virginia.
The event is the 2006-2007 Berea College Service Convocation and
is co-sponsored by the Campus Christian Center and the Center for
Excellence in learning through Service (CELTS). The program
is free and open to the public.
Feeney’s interest in the coal fields of Appalachia started
while Feeney was a student at Berea College where she worked locally
and nationally with the Student Environmental Action Coalition
to raise awareness of mountaintop removal and water contamination
by the coal industry. While at Berea, Feeney was also involved
in the nation-wide Student Energy Justice Movement, in addition
to working closely with the Sustainability and Environmental Studies
(SENS) program and HEAL (Helping the Earth and Learning) to promote
a more environmentally sustainable campus at Berea College.
Her interest in attacking the problems related to mining and contamination
lead to receiving a Compton Mentor Fellowship in 2005, a 12-month
grant that allowed her to support and organize the efforts of citizens
in coalfield communities whose water had been contaminated by coal
sludge. Her project, titled Resources and Solidarity: Coalition
Building for Water Security in Appalachian Mining Communities, focused
on producing resources and water security for citizens in coalfield
communities and organizing a delegation of Appalachian coalfield
residents to attend the United Nations Commission on Sustainable
Development.
Feeney currently works as a community organizer in Mingo County,
West Virginia as a staff member of OVEC (Ohio Valley Environmental
Coalition), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving
and preserving the environment in West Virginia. OVEC works with
community volunteers to protect the environment in which they live
from mountaintop removal and coal sludge contamination.
For more about OVEC, visit their site http://www.ohvec.org.
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