Under mined: when a flood of toxic mining sludge wreaked havoc in Appalachia, how did the White House respond? By letting the coal company off the hook and firing the whistleblower

Washington Monthly, Jan-Feb, 2005 by Clara Bingham

Rather than move to Pittsburgh, Spadaro decided to give up the fight. On Oct. 1--just two months shy of his 28th anniversary as a federal government employee--he resigned. A serious case of high blood pressure, lawyer's fees of over $20,000, and frustration with how long it was taking for his appeal to be decided by the Merit Systems Protection Board contributed to Spadaro's decision to throw in the towel. "I'm just very tired of fighting," he said. "I've been fighting this administration since early 2001. I want a little peace for a while."

His three-year-fight against the Bush administration may have cost him his job, but it also made him a folk hero in Kentucky coal country. "Normally, I don't like federal mining investigators," Linc Chapman told me. "But it's a shame that some one who stood up for what was right has to pay for it. Everyone here [in Inez] is like me. They think Jack got a raw deal. He rocked the boat so they threw him overboard."

Clara Bingham is the author of Women on the Hill and co-author of Class Action.