With their well water contaminated, a West Virginia family is desperate to get connected to a clean water supply. They blame pollution from years of coal and gas extraction.
One reason: less coal mining means less money to clean up the 300,000 acres of abandoned mine lands and the 5,000 miles of waterways polluted from coal mining in the state.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will spend the money on projects around the state that treat polluted mine water, stabilize unsafe mine lands, and put out underground mine fires.
The Interior Secretary was in Bethlehem Township, home to Black Dog Hollow, a 100-foot tall pile of coal waste left by a mine that closed 30 years ago.
