Imagine buying your dream home and settling in to raise your family. Everything seems perfect until your family starts having chronic, life-threatening breathing problems. That is what happened to me.
For eight years, my family and I lived near the Oak Creek and Elm Road coal plants in a town called Caledonia, Wisconsin. Those plants sit right next to one another and use the same huge, uncovered pile of coal. That pile of coal and the uncovered coal trains that bring it in create lots and lots of toxic dust. For years, it quietly blew around into our neighborhood and home, coating our doors, windows, furniture, and our lungs, too.1
Those years were some of the worst of our lives. I don't know how many ER visits there were for us all combined, ambulance rides, the whole nine yards. My wife was on 17 medicines, and my sons were prescribed inhalers, nebulizers, and breathing treatments every day. We Energies, the utility that runs the plant, were no help, despite test results showing coal dust in nearly every room of our house.
Eventually the only solution was to move away and leave behind our home. Sadly, many of our neighbors didn't have that option. They still breathe this toxic pollution every day, worrying about the long term effects on their families.2
The Elm Road coal plant provides power several utilities, including WE Energies, WPPI and MGE, use for our electricity. I've been fighting to hold utilities accountable for their pollution and to make life better for the people who live near this plant, but I can't do it alone.
Help me by taking action: Sign this petition to tell Wisconsin utilities that you don't want your electricity to foul our air. Let's put an end to this toxic legacy and create a new future for folks in Oak Creek and across Wisconsin.
By Bill Pringle, Former Caledonia resident
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