Stories of TRUST - Pennsylvania

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Description

Ashley Funk is a 17-year old who will be a future engineer and policy maker. The coal industries left Ashley's community with huge mounds of toxic waste in the form of gob piles. The pollutants that run off of the black, massive piles cause the water in the streams behind her house to turn orange in color. Ashley explains, “I always just thought to myself, if this coal ash and all the pollutants are hurting our environment visibly, what are they doing to our atmosphere? We need to do something about it because even though we can't see it like we can see the orange water, it's still affecting the health of our communities and the health of our planet.”