A Valley to Die For Read Online Free PDF

couple of ponds supposed to hold rain water until the dust settles out, but they looked pretty full of muck themselves, and, if they work, why was that crick milky?”
    Roger’s smile had disappeared. “Let me tell you now, Herb says that valley was a beauty before the quarry came. Clear water where folks fished and went swimmin’, and high bluffs with different layers of rock. Once he went to a church picnic on the farm there, and kids picked bunches of wildflowers. Some kid even climbed part way up a bluff and got some kinda flower there.”
    He looked at Shirley, and she said, “Wild columbine.”
    “Yea, those. They had it all, huckleberries, blackberries, walnuts; birds and other creatures everywhere, just like we got in our valley now.
    “Well, maybe since that quarry has been there more than fifteen year, they could do things rougher than they kin now, what do you think? Maybe there’s new rules?” He looked around at the group again, still not smiling.
    Jason spoke up. “Let’s not forget our objective—that is, what we want to do—is stop the thing altogether. Get everyone told how destructive it’ll be and get it stopped.”
    Carrie winced, wondering if Roger had noticed Jason’s pompous assumption that he wouldn’t understand the term “objective,” but Roger simply shrugged.
    “May not work that way, Jason. The quarry owner may have friends we can’t fight, and that land didn’t come cheap, even if it had been abandoned fer years. It’s good farm land fer around here, so the quarry folks got real money tied up. It may be all we kin do is figure out a way to keep ‘em from lettin’ that dust fly everywhere or run into the crick. Most of the regular folk, those of us been here, think if the county government is behind it and the place holds a few jobs out like a carrot in front of a mule, ain’t no way any of us is gonna stop it. County’s gonna think more about money than care fer one more little ol’ valley bein’ smashed up.”
    Everyone was quiet, and Carrie felt her own hopes sag. Were they losing the will to fight? Maybe JoAnne’s report—whatever it was—would make the difference.
    Jason turned to her. “You’re next,” he said. “What did all the officials say?”
    Carrie’s assignment had been to talk with people on the town council in Guilford, seven miles downstream on Walden Creek, as well as the state congressman, members of the Quorum Court, and the County Judge.
    She reported first on what the judge, who was the chief executive officer of the county, had said about needing rock for road work, then added, “The others acted sympathetic, but no one knew of any state or county laws that could stop a quarry as long as owners got approval of their plans for maintaining air and water quality. Roger’s right, there are new laws about that. The best anyone could suggest is that national environmental regulations be looked into. Also, they said we might contact the State Game and Fish Commission and ask about endangered species in the area, maybe in the caves. Perhaps there would be something there. I wonder if the Environmental Commission told JoAnne the same thing?
    “Anyway,” Carrie finished, “though a few of them seemed to understand how we felt, and the people in town are concerned about the creek, not one of them was ready to oppose the quarry. I think it’s all going to be up to us.”
    Silence held the room until Henry said, agitation evident in his voice, “Well, the next step seems to be what JoAnne found out in Little Rock, so where is she? Why isn’t she here?”
    Carrie got up. “I’ll call her house and then bring back something to eat. Everyone want sausages with their rolls and coffee?”
    Shirley followed Carrie into the kitchen, bringing the tray of used coffee cups with her. Without asking for instructions, she turned on the kettle and began spooning instant coffee into cups. Carrie punched in JoAnne’s number and pictured FatCat pacing around