Resident Elisa Young said in an interview by the Huffington Post, “I’ve lost neighbors to lung cancer who have never smoked,” she said. “I’ve lost them to brain cancer, breast, throat, colon, multiple myeloma, pre-leukemia, arsenic poisoning. When my son, who’s in his 20s, came home to visit, he said, ‘Mom, is it normal for your mouth to taste like metal?’ We pulled over and he coughed until he got sick.”

The coal mines and coal plants nearby have been legally dumping coal ash – which was classed as non hazardous in 1988. It is only now that the Environmental Protection Agency is re-evaluating the actual dangers that coal ash might present.