Profile - Jan Niehaus
by Cheryl Hammond
The Appalachian Treasure multimedia presentation came to St. Louis last September with hideous and outrageous pictures of the everday tragedy of mountains destroyed and streams filled for the sake of coal. Jan Niehaus was one of that audience riveted to the photos and she took the message to heart. Having already planned a vacation to the South, Jan and her vacation partner changed plans to include a tour of mountaintop removal mining sites in West Virginia. Returning from vacation, Jan volunteered a story for the Sierrascape, the Eastern Missouri Group (EMG) newsletter, that has inspired readers to become engaged in this struggle distant from their experiences in St. Louis.
Jan had a head start writing this story because it is her job every day to write material that is clear, understandable, and interesting. She writes corporate instructional materials, press releases, marketing materials, annual reports, and other materials as a free lance writer. Arriving in St. Louis from Indianapolis to get a Masters in Social Work from Washington University, Jan stayed on to continue her career here, never entering the world of social work, but instead moving into corporate communications. A job covering a national American Institute of Architecture conference started Jan on the road to an interest in energy issues and led to a role on the communications committee of the St. Louis Green Building Council.
Jan has always had an environmental bent. Her 100 year old house is on the Richmond Heights Historical Register and was built with brick and stone from buildings demolished after the 1904 World’s Fair. Jan has maintained this legacy in her current remodeling with a firm commitment to reuse and recycle. Jan has also supported the fundraising efforts of EMG by being the leader on the ads appearing in the Sierrascape for various EMG merchandise.
Motivated by Jan’s mountaintop removal newsletter article, EMG continued the mountaintop removal fight at Earth Day in Forest Park and at the Missouri Botanical Garden with displays and collecting letters urging Congressmen to re-introduce a bill that had died in the last Congress that would outlaw dumping waste from mountaintop removal mining in the streams below the mining sites. Since that time, a new bill has been introduced in the 110th Congress, H. R. 2169, to prohibit this practice. With 77 co-sponsors as of this writing, the bill has a chance this year to finally stop this heinous practice. So far, the only Congressman from Missouri to co-sponsor this bill is Congressman W. Lacy Clay from St. Louis. Ask your congressman to also support this bill.