The World

Learning In the Shadow of Coal

Thirty-five years after a coal mine’s waste dam failed and wiped out a community, an Appalachian elementary school sits at the very foot of another massive lagoon.

For our series “Generating Controversy: the Changing Climate of Coal,” Living on Earth’s Jeff Young visits a West Virginia community where schoolchildren get their lessons in the shadow of a coal mine – literally. Some residents say the massive mountaintop removal coal mine and its lagoon of liquid waste threaten the school’s safety and they’re determined to get either the school or the mine moved.