Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee was established in 2006 by a group of young people directly affected by 100 years of pollution to Cocke County, Tennessee’s greatest natural and economic resource, the Pigeon River. We believe that by encouraging positive social and individual growth, that our Appalachian community, and eventually society as a whole, can achieve that aspiration. We know that
our goals cannot be accomplished immediately, but rather, we are devoted to working towards peace and environmental sustainability one small step at a time. We focus on the idea of clean water because we know that water is life. Water is a precious natural resource and without it we cannot survive. We strive to promote sustainable living practices that do not degrade, pollute, or harm the water, the soil, and the air. We are already working towards these goals in many ways. Our organization was founded on the premise that Cocke County, Tennessee should no longer have to endure 100 years of toxic pollution to the Pigeon River and its watershed. We promote outdoor recreation as a way to bring people closer to nature and to observe and understand the causes and effects of environmental degradation. We continue to work with the government, non-profit organizations, and the public to stop the continuation of this preventable point source pollution and we hope to see a clean, clear, toxic free Pigeon River within the next decade. We are beginning to extend our work beyond the Pigeon River by acknowledging that the degradation of water resources by coal mining and industry has caused serious harm to the entire Appalachian watershed. We are currently educating youth and adults about these problems, increasing public awareness, lobbying for effective environmental regulation that will prevent watershed devastation, and ultimately, linking multiple generations of people of all ages to work together for social and environmental justice. We know that the consumer culture of our nation has been the cause of much environmental devastation and social injustice across the globe. The consumption of unnecessary products creates great waste, and does not increase the livelihoods of individuals. Material goods do not create happiness. It is our relationships to our families, our friends, and our communities that provide us with a true sense of belonging. We see a world in which local economies are thriving. We believe that our greatest assets are the abundant natural resources and mountain people that inhabit our region. We envision an economic system that promotes and supports local businesses that buy and sale locally made products based on the natural abundance of our region. We are tired of corporations using our natural resources and people for profit. We are rightfully upset that fast food chains, big box stores and industry provide low paying jobs and homogenous products that are made of bad quality and are often harmful to our health. We will no longer accept their methods of convincing us that we cannot live without their jobs or products. We will work to prevent corporations from taking the profits derived from the resources of our people and our land and then funneling those profits straight out of our communities and into their bank accounts. We believe in localized alternative economies that can provide our people with richer, more sustainable, and more unique products and services that are tailored specifically to our region. We seek political accountability. CWEET will continue to strive to provide our leaders and public officials with the information necessary to make informed and effective decisions based on public participation in local and national politics. Though we are already implementing this type of work in several respects, within 5 years CWEET aims to create formal programs that function in order to empower individuals and groups of people to take action in contributing to the democratic process. We seek to return to the ideas of a true democracy in which all people have equal access to power and decision- making. We will hold our leaders accountable for to the real needs of the public and we will create leaders who strive to carry out our vision of a just and equitable world. Our most fundamental value is the ecological concept of interdependence. All life is interconnected. The life of every animal and plant depends upon other living things. When one species is harmed because of human use, other life, not directly touched and perhaps even unnoticed by humans, can suffer because each species depends upon one another. Ecosystems provide invaluable services (for example soil retaining ground moisture). When that service is lost or weakened it harms many species, including humans. We must take ecological interdependence into account with each decision we make. It is our responsibility as intelligent, capable, and caring human beings to protect life and to nurture the earth that sustains us. In doing this we must practice care, respect, and love for each human life as well. We will use our awareness, compassion, determination, fierceness, and above all, our heart and spirit, in working towards an ethical, just, and healthy planet.
