abc's diana alvear has one example. >> what you're seeing on the horizon is the mountain of coal. >> reporter: these mountain of coal represent environmental injustice to kim wasserman. the coal plant is located near chicago's little village. visible from a school where many of the children have asthma including kim's son but not all of the parents feel free to speak out. >> a lot of times is communities that don't know their rights, don't know they have a right to speak up or immigration issues are keeping them from speaking up and so put them in communities where people aren't going to ask questions. >> reporter: statistics show coal plants, landfills and other sources of pollution are disproportionately located in low income or minority neighborhoods. in communities with hazardous waste facilities, minorities make up more than half the population, making environment issues social issues. >> the environment isn't just something that's out there. it's not just the oceans, it's not just the forest. it's also something that's around us every day. it's where we live. that's where we wo

diana alvear is in montcoal, west virginia. good morning, diana. >> reporter: vinita and todd, good morning. rescue teams and ambulances are standing by. all they're waiting for is an all-clear when it comes to air quality. the latest air samples taken from the mine are promising. >> we're out of the explosive range. >> reporter: if samples taken from the bottom of the bore hole are a match, rescue teams will deploy, descending five miles down into the mine. >> six teams going underground. two teams advancing, two at the fresh air base, and two teams as backup. >> reporter: the survival of the missing miners depends on one thing -- whether they made to it a refuge chamber. it sits 300 feet to the right of the first bore hole. but the trapped miners can only survive a maximum of 96 hours. massey energy, the owner of the mine, has a long and varied history of safety violations. two were issued the very day of the explosions. >> i'm very confident that the violations that he found in this area do not have anything to do with the ex

. >> as diana alvear reports the fine is a big setback for the automaker. >> reporter: toyota's safety crisis has already cost the carmaker millions in lost revenue. now it will pay millions more in a civil fine levied by the national highway traffic safety administration. toyota has agreed to pay $16.4 million, the maximum penalty allowed under u.s. law. on its website the company said, we have acknowledged that we could have done a better job of sharing relevant information. we did not try to hide a defect to avoid dealing with a safety problem. documents show the company knew of concerns involving unintended acceleration and sticky gas pedals last september. but waited until january to notify ntsa. monday, transportation secretary ray lahood issued a statement saying, by failing to report known safety problems as it is required to do under the law, toyota put consumers at risk. i am pleased that toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly. the company has recalled 6 million vehicles in all, related to sticky gas pedals and fo