The aftermath of a home explosion above Oak Grove Mine that killed W.M. Griffice in the Oak Grove area of Alabama. Federal regulators waited over seven months to begin a formal investigation into the explosion. (Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News)
OAK GROVE —Mining for coal under homes can make land sink and settle, exactly what residents of this small community say has been happening all year. Homes are cracking apart, they warn. One blew up in March, killing its owner after methane gas seeped up through newly created rock fissures, a lawsuit claims.
Through it all, worried residents keep asking a fundamental question: How can an activity undercutting the land on which their homes sit be allowed?
The answer: It’s written into federal law.
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That’s part of a long history of rules that benefit mining companies rather than the Americans whose lives they disrupt. But the law does instruct regulators to act when there is imminent danger—and they’re falling down on the job, an Inside Climate News investigation found.