A Kentucky mining disaster killed dozens and destroyed homes. Will a lawsuit bring change?

Excerpt: Chase Hays and more than 50 neighbors are suing Blackhawk Mining after a silt retention pond burst and killed 43 people. In recent years, Appalachia has experienced additional extreme weather and climate-related floods: heavy rainfall prompted a state of emergency in Kentucky in 2020 and the activation of West Virginia’s national guard last August. The communities most affected are often those downstream from mountaintop mining operations, where the land has been stripped of water-absorbing trees, vegetation and even topsoil. What’s typically left behind is compacted ground that does a poor job of managing run-off and sparsely maintained mitigation measures, like the pond that failed in Lost Creek.Article by Kate Morgan for The Guardian.