Dig, drill, saw or blast, then take the money and run back to Wall Street: That’s been Appalachian Ohio’s story. Result: Moonscapes where forests once towered; crystalline brooks and streams now muddy and stinking. These are the consequences of the dig, slash or burn economy that long pillaged Southeast and Southern Ohio.
Appalachia, particularly – a region legally defined as the crescent of eastern and southern counties reaching from Ashtabula (Jefferson) to Clermont (Batavia), in suburban Cincinnati – has been a story of grab-and-run by outsiders.
Then, in 1972, led by Democratic Gov. John J. Gilligan, the General Assembly created the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which was Gilligan’s No. 1 legislative priority that year…