The Cumberland Chapter emerged from a local group that worked for ten years to get their county commissioners to establish a Recycling Center. In 1998 the group applied to SOCM to become a chapter.

The chapter worked to stop expansion of the Cumberland Coal Company’s mine on Smith Mountain, packing the Cumberland County Court House for three public hearings.  Chapter members led Office of Surface Mining officials on a tour of the mine site and convinced them to make several significant changes in the mining permit.  These included Cumberland Coal changing the way it would handle toxic materials on the site and inventorying wells in the area around the mine. Subsequently the mine was sold, and chapter members convinced the new company’s management to work with local residents and to operate in an environmentally responsive manner. The chapter continues to monitor Smith Mountain now that the new company has gone out of business and reclamation is proceeding.

In 2008 the Chapter won a major victory, culminating four years of organizing around the routing and widening of Highway 127 North.  The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) originally suggested a route away from the current highway and going through miles of farmland, forestland, and diverting traffic away from existing businesses.  The Cumberland chapter and many residents along the proposed new route advocated widening the existing highway, thus avoiding so much new land disruption.  SOCM members organized affected residents, became active on the Citizens Resource team working with TDOT.  All the effort paid off as TDOT announced that the approved route would be to widen the existing Highway 127 North.

The chapter is also working with residents of Crab Orchard, many of whom have suffered blasting damage from quarries very near that community.  Most recently chapter members and other Crab Orchard residents successful organized to keep an abandoned quarry in a highly concentrated residential area from being used as a private construction and demolition landfill.   Chapter members helped local residents pack the city council for a public meeting, convincing elected Crab Orchard officials, using their right under the Jackson law to have a say on permitting commercial solid waste developments, to vote against the proposal.

Chapter members have been extremely successful at hosting fundraisers for SOCM. In 2008 they hosted a “SOCM Night” at the Cumberland County Playhouse for a production of “South Pacific”, with a share of ticket sales going to SOCM.  The chapter worked with the Cumberland Playhouse on two previous occasions to similarly host fundraisers at wonderful Playhouse productions.