By Gary Zuckett 

On June 3rd, 1998 we all lost a good friend. Joy Allison died of cancer. Joy was a long time WVEC board member and for the past nine years a tireless opponent of the Worlds largest hazardous waste incinerator (WTI) located across the Ohio River from her Hancock County farm. She was an inspiration and friend to all of those who worked with her. Actor Martin Sheen, with whom she was once arrested at WTI was enroute to her home when she died. A few of her many friends offered these odes to Joy.

Connie Weaver wrote US EPA Director Carol Browner a letter, part of it is as follows.

"Dear Ms Browner:

Joy Allison died today. I don’t expect you to remember her. She was one of the citizen leaders from the tri-state trying to stop the injustice of the WTI hazardous waste incinerator.

In early 1993, Joy Allison and other citizens went to Federal Court seeking an injunction to prevent WTI from starting up. For days she listened to your people tell the court that Dioxin exposure from the incinerator presented only the tiniest risk of increased cancer. Smug EPA experts described their hypothetical ‘Maximally Exposed Individual’ (MEI). One expert said that a typical MEI would be a farmer living near the plant who raised and ate their own beef and vegetables. About a year ago Joy was diagnosed with breast cancer. In early May of this year the cancer spread to both lungs. Joy Allison lived close to the plant on a 5th generation farm. She and her husband raised and ate their own fruit, vegetables and beef. She was, according to the EPA’s own criteria, the MEI. She was also a wife, mother, grandmother, and an active church member. She was my friend." 

"Robert F Kennedy said, ‘Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or the lot of others, or strikes out against an injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.’ Joy was a great purveyor of knowledge. Not only have we lost a friend, we have lost a great leader in Joy- a pillar of strength, good judgement and truth. This world is an emptier place without her." – Winkie Kusic 

"To me, Joy symbolized that the environmental movement in West Virginia was too diverse to stereotype. One of our most active and greenest members, Joy was a devote Christian, active in Republican politics and the West Virginia Farm Bureau. She made me believe that our common values transcended demographics and political parties." – Norm Steenstra