"For about three years, 1979-1982, the Ohio Valley Environment, or OVE, was an award-winning newspaper that focused on environmental issues in the Ohio River valley. Published monthly, it had a peak circulation of 17,000 copies and was distributed in public locations in Evansville, Bloomington and Madison, Indiana as well as a variety of locations in the Louisville metropolitan area. OVE's slogan was "Free for Now." Advertising provided financial support for production and distribution while staffing was entirely a volunteer effort.

Some of the local issues during OVE's tenure included Evansville's exceedance of the standard for ambient concentrations of ozone, threatening a ban on new industrial permits in the area. In Bloomington, the massive dumping of PCB's by Westinghouse closed a wastewater treatment plant permanently and resulted in six superfund sites in Monroe County. The aluminum re-smelter Barco operated three facilities in Indiana and Kentucky, including one of the largest emitters of sulfur dioxide in North America. An illegal waste hauler was sentenced to prison for dumping two toxic chemicals into storm sewers in Louisville which resulted in the shut-down of that city's new wastewater treatment plant for over a year. Three giant synthetic fuel plants in Kentucky were planned, partially financed, and abandoned. A controversial proposal pitted emissions from an existing large paper mill against the desired construction of a new coal-fired power plant. And, importantly, OVE broke two major stories that contributed to the demise of the ultimately abandoned Marble Hill Nuclear project near Madison, Indiana.

OVE featured original interviews with notable people like Ralph Nader, Kentucky Governor, John Y. Brown, Dr. Ernest Sternglass (faculty at the University of Pittsburg Medical School and IU Lecturer) and Indiana Congressman Joel Deckard. OVE provided detailed primers on issues such as nuclear energy safety (leading up to and in the immediate aftermath of the nefarious accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility), on the U.S. EPA's 1979 Ohio River Basin Energy Study in 1979 (which predicted 218,000 early deaths due to sulfur dioxide pollution from the region's coal power plants), and on the geologic issues surrounding the still-controversial Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste disposal site in Nevada.

The OVE also ran monthly columns on bicycling for transportation called Off the Beaten Path and natural foods titled Around the Horn (Cornucopia). Renewable energy was covered in depth including solar and wind both of which were in their infancy at the time.

Vision for the project came from Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer and editor John Blair, whose dramatic cover photography added immensely to the visual appeal of the paper. A native Hoosier and IU graduate, Blair later served as the president of the Hoosier Environmental Council. He has continued as the long-serving president of Evansville-based Valley Watch which works to stifle polluting development in the lower reaches of the Ohio River.

As National Editor, Tom Zeller contributed with stories about national issues and by doing research on the science behind environmental concerns. Zeller is also a Hoosier and IU graduate, a co-founder of the Hoosier Environmental Council and in Bloomington, a co-founder of the Sycamore Land Trust.

In its first year, graphic design and layout for OVE were provided by Doug Keil, now residing in Cincinnati."

Source: Tom Zeller