The death and life of Yellow Creek: in the mountains and hollows of Kentucky coal country, one group of citizens learns what it takes to protect their lives and their land. (Bell County, Kentucky battle for clean water)

On a mild winter morning, Yellow Creek runs caramel brown behind Larry and Sheila Wilson's house, smelling of the earth, pungent and natural. The surface ripples over hidden rocks and breaks into tiny white caps. From the porch it looks like a gentle wading creek, but as you cross the lawn you find that it is a powerful little river, full of muscle, racing ahead through this flat hollow to the next bend in the wooded mountains that have shaped five decades of Larry's life. This is the heart of coal country. One small hill has already been cut down from the nearby horizon, and…