Nick Hood
Nick Hood is CCJ's Senior Organizer. Nick and his family have lived, worked, and recreated in Washington County for their entire lives. He attended the University of Pittsburgh and earned his degree in Environmental Studies. Nick is passionate about the environment and his community, and hopes to see an increase in environmental protection to help ensure the health and well-being of his family, including his 4 nephews and 1 niece. As a part of his goals, he aims to educate and provide the community with the necessary knowledge and tools to combat pollution and corruption perpetuated by the large energy companies. When he is not working, he likes to play music, watch baseball and spend time with his family and friends.
He can be reached at nick@centerforcoalfieldjustice.org
Posts by Nick Hood
What is happening? Just this past December (2025) the horrific story of Elizabeth Pollard was reported; She was the grandmother who tragically died falling into an abandoned mine sinkhole while looking for her lost cat in Unity Township, PA. Also making prior local news headlines, in May of 2023 a large sinkhole formed in Daisytown, […]
Again!? There are more lane restrictions and slow downs because of the Tunnel Ridge (Alliance Coal) longwall coal mining operation under I-70. In 2022 I made a daily commute to work using the I-70 stretch between Wheeling and Washington and even to this day I sometimes think about that commute in frustration. Neon orange lane […]
Four mining companies are currently extracting coal from Washington and Greene Counties using the underground Longwall Mining process. Consol (Bailey, Enlow, Harvey) operates three separate mines that span from Southern Greene County to Southern Washington County; Alliance (Tunnel Ridge) operates a mine in Western Washington County; Iron Senergy (Cumberland) operates a mine in Greene County; […]
Living in coal country, most of us know someone who has – or, more unfortunately, had – black lung, silicosis, and other respiratory diseases associated with coal mining. Sure, on paper the companies may show compliance with state regulations, but the fact is, more and more miners receive diagnoses of irreversible and progressive lung […]
Three virtual Informal Public Conferences (IPCs) were held by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) in the past month for Consol Mining’s latest three expansions. The Bailey, Enlow, and Harvey Mines all applied for development mining permits to set up for future longwall panels. In total, roughly 7,000 acres of land within Greene […]
Cryptocurrency is just about everywhere these days. The two most well known and currently used are Bitcoin and Ethereum, but there are numerous others out there as well.
The Dutch Fork Lake Free Kids’ Fishing day, offered by CCJ and the BCWA (Buffalo Creek Watershed Association), was a good time for all that came out. All but one of the young ones got to reel in a fish at some point during the day. Not only did participants get to do some fishing, […]
In February, Contura Energy, the owners of the Cumberland Mining Complex near Waynesburg, contemplated its need for a $60-million coal-refuse impoundment in order to continue production, and the owners cited current finances and market conditions as being a major issue of concern. In June of 2020 Contura announced that it is actively marketing the mine […]
As part of our What’s on your mind? blog series, we’re posting mid-month entries by CCJ staff as a way for you to get to know us better. This fourth mid-month staff post is by Community Organizer Nick Hood. As I continue to grow older, new information still perplexes me as I try to wrap […]
This is the 9th installment in our What’s on your mind? series and was written by CCJ Community Organizer Nick Hood. In the 4th assessment (2008-2013), the researchers suggested that the PADEP update their extremely inefficient and outdated data collection systems. Not only did PADEP fail to improve their data collection systems from the last […]