Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I think it is fair to say that all of us love our bay and our rivers and creeks. Many of us make our living there. All of us find peace and enjoyment there. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the nation and is a large economic engine for our region and state. About 30 years ago, we realized that the bay was in tremendous decline ecologically. If something were not done, we could no longer count on it to support our growing lifestyles.

It was then that my husband and I spent 18 months of Sundays gathering samples, testing them and submitting them to the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to establish the baseline for the Piankatank River. At the time, the bay was assigned a “D-” rating.

Thirty-one years later, all funding has been pulled from the Chesapeake Bay cleanup. Coal ash from the mountains is now allowed to be dumped into the creeks and rivers in the western part of our state. Guess where that toxic coal slurry goes—downstream! Downstream means our name is on it. Our current water quality “C” rating could easily fall to a “D-” or even an “F.” What would that do to our economy?

Our Representative Rob Wittman recently voted to cut the funding for the Chesapeake Bay and to allow coal ash dumping. Because Keith Hodges, our 98th District representative to the state legislature, has said nothing to the contrary, he is apparently in accord with Wittman. This was to “help” the coal miners keep their jobs when their jobs are not threatened by regulation but by automation … and they are not coming back. What they need is re-education.

Now Sheila Crowley is running as delegate of the 98th District—yeah, ours—and she will be an outspoken advocate in the Virginia legislature for fairness, both to the bay and to the coal miners. The woman gets things done! Her background includes positions both at the state and national levels. Check it out. We can do better than the status quo of lip service and little action to meet the real needs.

Let’s elect Sheila Crowley as our delegate for the 98th in the state House. To quote Abraham Lincoln, let’s make “America once again be seen as the last, best hope of Earth.”

Nancy S. James

Dutton, Va.