"SULLIVAN COUNTY, Ind. -- A fine layer of gray dust coats nearly every surface in the parts of this Southwest Indiana town nearest the Bear Run Mine, the largest surface coal mine east of the Mississippi.

Porches need frequent power-washing to clean away footprints in the powder. A day or two after washing a car, there's enough dust on its paint job to write "wash me." On particularly dusty nights, the beam from a flashlight looks as if it's penetrating fog.

Inside is not much better. Across the road from Peabody Energy's Bear Run Mine, Blakely and Joshua Pugh can't postpone dusting for more than a week or a thick layer of dust builds up on window sills, the blades of the living-room ceiling fan and the metal grate over their furnace's air filter."

Ryan Sabalow reports for the Indianapolis Star November 29, 2014. [2]