We'll Never Quit (1983)

"My mother was born on this creek — and I mean on it. She's told me how her father used to pull his team down in the creek and let the horses drink out of it. Pretty, clear water.

But all of my life that creek's been black. Not every day. I've seen days when you could swim in it, way back when they only turned that stuff loose at certain times, like Friday afternoons, and that creek would run black until Monday. Then they'd shut it off. You'd have three or four days when the water was pretty clear. We'd fish and swim. I waded in it and played in it all my life.

It's got a hell of a lot worse since 1967. I remember when I plowed corn in them bottoms along that creek. You'd see muskrats and mink in  that creek. Now you couldn't find a trace of one. They're not there. They've either been killed or they left.

I stood on the banks and I'd see fish. You don't find them now. We had a fish kill here a few years back and it just cleaned that creek out. I've seen this creek get worse every day in the last 15 years. I've passed it at times when you couldn't bear the smell of it. Tears in your eyes. Throat burning. I've known all my life there's been a problem over there. This I just didn't happen yesterday."