Dear Friend,
The Mountain Watershed Association, home of the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper, is now in its 21st year. Your support has helped to sustain our organization since its inception in 1994. For nearly two decades, we have made great strides toward the protection, preservation, and restoration of the Indian Creek and greater Youghiogheny River watersheds. We are grateful for your past investment, and we ask you, once again, to support our work by joining or renewing your membership today.
Over the past year, and thanks to your commitment, we have:
- Secured funding to construct an in-house laboratory to analyze water samples for E. coli bacteria. This will allow us to continue our popular Swimmable Waters program, through which we sample weekly at popular swimming locations in the watershed, in Summer 2016. We make our sample results available on theswimguide.org so you can make informed decisions about where to safely recreate.
- Raised the alarm regarding water contamination in our community. With the number of contaminated wells rising due to the leaking impoundment at the Kalp shale gas well site, MWA refuses to let the situation be ignored. As a result of our advocacy efforts, families are receiving finally receiving clean water.
- Filed a friend of the court brief with the Department of the Interiorā€™s Internal Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) supporting the federal Office of Surface Mining in the ongoing dispute over illegal logging on the site of Amerikohlā€™s proposed Curry Mine. With our ongoing vigilance and opposition, Amerikohl withdrew their permit to surface mine on the Curry property. The IBLA decision has the potential to change how logging on permitted mine sites is regulated statewide.
- Distributed over $50,000 in small grants to grassroots organizations and activists working to protect their communities and their watersheds from shale gas drilling through our Direct Support Fund. We have also secured an additional $75,000 in funding to continue this program through 2016.
- Continued to focus on the Indian Creek Valley Trail, restoring one section that was washed out and completing necessary maintenance on other sections. We invited the community to form a Trail Council; this council is now actively meeting to establish a plan for promoting and maintaining this community asset.
- Renewed our commitment to protect our area from the proposed Rustic Ridge deep mine. LCT Energy continues to push to mine in this watershed despite the millions of dollars of state and federal funding spent to treat all the discharges from past mining and the very real concerns regarding potential future damage. We have provided expert analysis, coordinated letter-writing campaigns, requested public hearing, filed comments, and hosted community meetings.
You can learn more in our 2015 Annual Report. We have secured over $7 million in project funding to clean up the pollution impacting our streams and lands and to establish new segments of the Indian Creek Valley Trail. Beyond the beauty and health these activities have brought, the Laurel Highlands will see an economic benefit as well. Every $1.00 invested in the clean-up of abandoned mine drainage in our watershed returns $2.40 to the local economy. Expansion of the Indian Creek Valley Trail will also create opportunities for economic revitalization and local businesses in the form of rentals, services, restaurants, lodging, and other amenities.
Renewal of your membership to the Mountain Watershed Association is the most powerful means for you to support the restoration, conservation and protection of the Laurel Highlands region and will allow us to continue this vital work in the Indian Creek and Yough River watersheds. Please consider investing in your organization today. Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Beverly Braverman, Executive Director
Virgil Shaffer, Co-President, Board of Directors
Jerry Gearhart, Co-President, Board of Directors