In the previous article, the authors described the 300 million gallon coal waste spill in Martin County, Kentucky and the interviews that they had with thirty-two area residents in the aftermath of the release (Scott, McSpirit, Hardesty, and Welch 2004 --this issue). Many of these interviewees charged MCCC-Massey and federal, state, and local government with incompetence, corruption, and an inability (or unwillingness) to clean up the spill, monitor the spill's impact on the local watershed and environment, and/or protect public health and safety. Yet as they acknowledged in the end, such semiprivate criticisms may indeed be important, but the political effects will remain relatively minimal unless they are also articulated publicly and directed toward some form of civic action. In this next piece, the authors focus instead on some of the more public forms of activism that occurred in Martin County after the coal waste release of October 2000. (Contains 40 notes.)