"We have a lot of sickness here" is what many residents living in the Prenter/Seth area are saying and they say they think the water has a lot to do with it.

People here recently filed a lawsuit against some of the state's major coal companies. The lawsuit alleges numerous Massey subsidiaries, Peabody Energy Corporation, and the Federal Coal Company Incorporated are responsible for the contamination of local wells.

The lawsuit states certain activities done by the coal mining industries in the surrounding areas have lead to the contamination of the well water.

Ashby Tucker Environmental conducted testing of the water on October 29 of last year.

Residents say they results showed the presence of toxic substances including arsenic, manganese, iron, lead, sulfides and the list goes on.

The residents say they realized something needed to be done when numerous people started having the same illnesses.

Through a community effort, residents here were able to get barrels of water for drinking.

The lawsuit states people here want more water and fast and also compensation for the anticipated monitory costs and property and personal injuries caused by exposure to toxic substances as a result of the mining companies conduct.

If you'd like to learn more about the people living in these areas, they have a support website, which shows pictures of people's homes and what they say are the negative effects from this water.

To see it for yourself, you can log on to: www.prenterwaterfund.org.