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Book Review
| "Lord, We're Just Trying to Save Your Water": Environmental Activism and Dissent in the Appalachian South. By Suzanne Marshall. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2002. xx + 343 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth $55.00.
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| Marshall's book examines the activities of six grassroots community organizations in one of the most understudied subregions of the southern Appalachians: northeast Alabama and northwest Georgia. The book's title is a prayer spoken by Ed Donaldson, an environmental activist preacher who, in 1997, opened his community meetings with those very words. Donaldson's quote is indicative of the many compelling oral histories featured in the book and speaks volumes about the grassroots nature of environmental protest in the Appalachian South. |
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The author's journalistic style is highly engaging, especially in the three chapters dealing with Friends of Terrapin Creek (FOTC), a group Marshall helped to organize as scholar and activist. Indeed, in this last section, the author writes about her experiences in the first person rather than using the more conventional narrative style of earlier chapters. As summarized in Chapter 7, FOTC was created in response to a proposed gold and platinum mine that threatened to destroy the entire Terrapin Creek watershed, an area located near the community of Borden Springs on the Alabama/Georgia border. The group was formed officially on 5 October 1997 by local residents representing all walks of life, including a Baptist minister, building contractor, school principal, and volunteer fireman. |
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Chapter 8 discusses the mining permit hearing process and the regulatory complexities that faced area residents in their battle to save the watershed. Because the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) had the ultimate authority to issue the permit to the Texas-based mining company, the agency was required by state law to hold public hearings during the permitting process. FOTC members quickly educated themselves about stream ecology and gold-mining technologies, as the company, HarGal, proposed to extract gold at the mine site using toxic chemicals such as nitric acid and sodium chloride in the leaching process. |
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The group quickly became known as an effective grassroots organization. In a single year, Marshall notes, members learned to "educate, research, pressure public officials, hold effective meetings, test water quality, link with other organizations, testify at public hearings, and skillfully work the press" (p. 263). In the book's final chapter, we learn that, despite the organization's heroic efforts, ADEM granted the permit to HarGal, even after powerful public testimony from group members like Matt Cleveland, whom Marshall quotes near the end of the book: "I'd like to say Amen to all that has been said already. ... the Creator has made things in this creek; once things are gone, we can't recreate them" (p. 270). |
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Today, a legal appeal of the HarGal permit has suspended the project indefinitely, further honoring the hard work of FOTC members. In the end, Marshall's study of environmental activism in the contemporary Appalachian South demonstrates the ability of ordinary citizens to do extraordinary things. The book also illustrates the importance of the local media in mobilizing environmental movements, as well as the important role that native scholar/activists like Marshall often play in successful grassroots organizations. |
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Donald Edward Davis, an associate professor of sociology at Dalton State College, is the author of Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians. He has worked closely with numerous environmental groups in the Appalachian region, including the Armuchee Alliance, a grassroots organization featured in the above volume. |
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