Some 30 people who cleaned up the ash have died with ailments that can be linked to exposure to toxic elements of coal ash, and more than 250 are sick or dying.
When it became clear that coal ash waste from a nearby power plant was making them sick, residents of one West Virginia town mobilized. But activists fear weakened regulations will make it harder for others to do the same.
A Greene County coal ash landfill won’t be receiving any more coal waste until December, at the earliest. An environmental group hopes that the landfill may have seen its last shipment of the waste.