Thesiss

Minden is a small former coal mining town located in mountains of West Virginia. At its peak in the mid-20th Century, it was a thriving community of about 1,200. By 2010, the town’s population had shriveled to 250, about 100 of whom having been diagnosed with some form of cancer…

Residents in mining towns of the U.S. West face a troubling quandary in their attempts to preserve historical evidence of their town’s industrial past, because that evidence threatens their health. The 1980 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CE…