60 Groups To Warn WV Coal Chemical Disaster Is Most Recent U.S. Water "Sacrifice Zone," Urgent Need Seen For Obama Order To Protect Water

Other Energy-Compromised Water "Sacrifice Zones" in CO, LA, MA, NC, ND, OK, SC, TN, TX & VT to be Highlighted; Groups Across the Nation to Call on President Obama to Sign Draft Executive Order Defining U.S. "Energy/Water Roadmap."

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Considerable attention is being paid right now to a spill from an above-ground storage tank containing coal-processing-plant chemicals that contaminated the drinking water of 300,000 West Virginians, but the truth is that such water "sacrifice zones" are now an all-too-common occurrence across the nation, according to a warning that will be issued Thursday (January 30, 2014) by 60 local and national environmental groups across the U.S.

The groups will mount a new push for White House leadership to protect water resources from problem energy extraction and production by urging the enactment of a draft Executive Order. Under the White House action plan, federal energy policy - including tax breaks and subsidies - would be contingent on the creation of a clear roadmap outlining U.S. water resources and the most water-responsible energy choices.

To underscore the need for action, the groups will draw attention to 10 recent U.S. "sacrifice zones," where, as in the most recent West Virginia case, irresponsible energy industry practices have compromised water resources, including drinking water. The "sacrifice zones" to be highlighted are located in Colorado, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont.

Speakers on the phone-based news event will be:

    --  Janet Keating, executive director, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition,
        Huntington, WV;
    --  Tracy Carluccio, deputy director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Bristol,
        PA;
    --  Grant Smith, senior energy analyst, Civil Society Institute, Newton, MA;
        and
    --  Bob Arrington, retired mechanical engineer, board member of the Western
        Colorado Congress, and a resident of a Battlement Mesa, CO, retirement
        community, which faces oil & gas development, and has been the site for
        studies considering the health impacts of fracking.  Bob's
        unincorporated town faces ongoing water contamination issues, and over
        the last year a leaky pipeline has spewed thousands of gallons of fluids
        into a tributary of the Colorado River.

TO PARTICIPATE: Join the live phone-based news conference (with full, two-way Q&A) at 1 p.m. EST on January 30, 2014 by dialing 1-877-418-4267. Ask for the "West Virginia/energy sacrifice zone" news event.

CAN'T PARTICIPATE?: A streaming audio replay of this news event will be available as of 5 p.m. EST on January 30, 2014 at http://www.CivilSocietyInstitute.org.

SOURCE Civil Society Institute, Newton, MA