By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — They stood on the steps of the state Capitol because they’ve been fighting for other places.
For Kathy Ferguson, it’s been Institute, her historically majority-minority unincorporated community some 10 miles away burdened by environmental hazards from chemical facilities for generations.
“Folks in Institute have been under siege with regard to chemical pollution since the 1940s,” Ferguson said, recalling a Union Carbide plant that federal regulators say emitted some of the highest levels of the carcinogen ethylene oxide in recent years was first built during World War II.
For Maury Johnson, it’s been the creek waters in Monroe County in the path of the still unfinished Mountain Valley Pipeline, the 303-mile, 42-inch-diameter gas pipeline project that he’s opposed throughout its eight years of development…
