The benefit payments miners sick with black lung disease receive are not keeping pace with the cost of living, a new analysis showed.

Current monthly benefits for a miner and one dependent in 2024 are around $1,100, more than $3,000 lower than the average cost of living for a two-person household.

Quenton King, federal legislative specialist for Appalachian Voices, said lagging benefits are especially troubling when miners are increasingly developing black lung at younger ages, largely due to exposure to toxic silica dust.

"Younger miners are getting diagnosed with stage-three black lung, and they're having to quit mining in their 30s or 40s," King observed. "They're losing possibly 20 years, 30 years of work history, and they're unable to draw down that retirement fund."

Around 16% of the nation's coal workers are living with black lung, and after decades of improvement, the number of cases is on the rise again, according to the American Lung Association.

One National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study found modern coal miners, particularly those in Central Appalachia, are more likely than their predecessors to die from coal worker's pneumoconiosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.

King pointed out although the coal industry in on the decline, thousands of coal miners and their families living in Appalachian communities are affected daily by the disease.

"Something I hear from people in the Black Lung Association, one of the heartbreaking things for me is that they're not able to play with their grandchildren, because they are on oxygen tanks," King noted.

Appalachian advocacy groups sent a letter to Congress asking for budget legislation prioritizing investments in curbing black lung and supporting miners already living with the disease. Proposed federal legislation, known as the Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act, would tie benefit levels to cost-of-living adjustments, rather than the federal pay scale.


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Chesapeake Bay has added more than six billion oysters since 2017 through the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance.

And last year, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation grew more than 100,000 oysters to be placed in the bay.

But oyster populations were not always on the upward trend. Overharvesting, pollution, and disease caused massive declines in oyster populations.

Today, only 3% of historic native oyster populations in the bay remain.

Jessica Lutzow, Virginia oyster restoration specialist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, says the mollusks are considered the "popular kid."

Oysters in Chesapeake Bay are a keystone species, providing many benefits to the bay environment.

"They filter up to 50 gallons of water a day," said Lutzow. "We're talking about a three- to four-inch oyster filtering that much water a day. You have this little, resilient creature that's doing so much for it all at once."

Oysters are also consequential in preserving coastlines. When oyster reefs form, they serve as natural buffers against coastal erosion and storm surges.

Oyster reefs disperse wave energy to protect coasts from the full force of severe storms. To grow oysters, a volunteer suspends a wire cage full of baby oysters - also called spats - from a dock or marina.

The only upkeep required is keeping the cage clean to provide enough waterflow to the oysters. Lutzow said she's encouraged by these oyster milestones.

"It's such a positive outcome," said Lutzow, "and I see it progressing in the future as people really start to fully understand how important these creatures are, and how important the other animals and plants that are on the reefs are as well. The oysters can help create that habitat to keep those animals thriving as well. "

Conservationists are currently working to reach their goal of adding 10 billion oysters to the bay by the end of the year.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation expects they will grow nearly 200,000 oysters this year.




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Environmental groups are suing South Fork Coal Company, alleging the company has repeatedly violated federal law in Greenbrier County.

The lawsuit said the company has continued to discharge pollutants into nearby waterways at levels exceeding legal limits. Environmental advocates said despite years of dumping pollutants, the state's environmental protection department has not taken action to stop South Fork Coal.

Andrew Young, chair of the extractive industries committee for the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, said the lawsuit is asking for an injunction to immediately stop the dumping and ensure the company properly reclaims the land.

"We noticed that South Forks' own monitoring data showed that they were often discharging pollutants like iron, manganese, in excess of their legal limits," Young pointed out. "The allegations are based largely on what the company itself is reporting."

Advocates said the five mines in the lawsuit all discharge pollutants into the Laurel Creek Watershed and/or the South Fork of the Cherry River Watershed. Both streams feed into the Gauley River, an internationally renowned destination for whitewater rafting and kayaking, and home to the endangered candy darter.

The lawsuit also highlighted the company's failure to submit required water quality assessments and reclaim unused sites. Young argued the company's neglect of water and land standards puts local communities and the outdoor recreation economy at risk.

"The mines at issue here lie adjacent to the Monongahela National Forest, and it's less than six miles from the world-renowned Cranberry glades and Cranberry Glades Wilderness Area," Young explained.

The state's tourism industry brought in nearly $9 billion last year. According to the governor's office, more than 75 million visitors traveled to the Mountain State last year, and spent more than $6 billion.

By Nina B. Elkadi for Sentient.
Broadcast version by Mark Moran for Iowa News Service reporting for the Sentient-Public News Service Collaboration

A new report from environmental watchdog group Food & Water Watch suggests that almost 2 million fish were killed from manure spills in Iowa between 2013 and 2023. The 179 spills occurred throughout the state, with a major hotspot for spills in the northwest corner of the state. Earlier this year, the group reported that Iowa factory farms produce more waste than any other state, at 109 billion pounds of manure annually, based on U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

The report and accompanying map, released on Dec. 9, designated over 700 segments of Iowa water as “impaired” — not meeting the standards necessary to support aquatic life, public water supplies or recreation. Details include where in the state spills occur, who owns the operation and if they are repeat offenders.

Manure spills in the state of Iowa have contributed to what environmental advocacy groups call a water quality crisis. In the capital city of Des Moines, the local water supply has one of the world’s largest nitrate removal facilities. Nitrate is the resulting chemical of manure that is not absorbed by the soil or crops. Due to high levels of nitrate in water, which can cause blue baby syndrome in children and colon cancer in adults, the Des Moines Water Works has to run its nitrate removal system more frequently as the situation worsens — at a cost of anywhere from $10,000 to $16,000 per day, which falls entirely on utility customers.

“When you think about the nature of what they’re spilling and the quantities of what they’re spilling, it’s the difference between life and death, and people are being strapped down with medical debt and suffering in a prolonged way,” Food & Water Watch Iowa Organizer Michaelyn Mankel tells Sentient.

According to the report, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources fined 171 of the 179 offenders at $635,808 over the ten-year period it studied. That’s less than half of what Des Moines Water Works spent on its nitrate removal system in 2015, at $1.4 million. There are gaps in the state reporting as well. The total volume of the spills is difficult to determine because most reports do not contain information on how much manure is spilled. And in those that do note volume, the range is anywhere from 500 to 1 million gallons.

“The fines that the DNR has leveled against these companies do not represent restitution for the damage that they’re causing to Iowa,” Mankel says. “They also don’t represent a real demand that these corporations change the way that they’re doing business.”

In 2024 alone, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources documented 13 fish kill events, one of which regulators directly tied to animal waste. This one “anthropogenic” spill in northwest Iowa — caused by dairy manure land-applied runoff —killed anywhere from 100,001-500,000 fish.

Many concentrated animal feeding operations operate without the proper discharge permits, rendering their spills more difficult to track. In October, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a petition from 13 groups — including Food & Water Watch — calling for stricter regulation and enforcement of the Clean Water Act. Today, Food & Water Watch is calling for a “Clean Water for Iowa Act” to be passed in the state legislature. The act would require all medium and large-scale concentrated animal feeding operations to get National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.

This report and map are released in the midst of a health crisis in the Midwest, which some observers and critics argue is tied to, or exacerbated by, large-scale industrialized agriculture. Mankel points to cancer incidence in the state of Iowa; it’s the only state in the country with rising cancer rates (though other factors, like obesity and alcoholism rates may play a role).

“We’re paying for it,” Mankel says. “I really want Iowans to understand that these problems are a policy choice, and that we are being burdened with paying the true cost of massive profits that these corporations are reaping from our state, and that’s a very intentional choice on behalf of lawmakers.”


Nina B. Elkadi wrote this article for Sentient.


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