Rhodell, West Virginia — For as long as Roman Patsey of Raleigh County, West Virginia, remembers, the Appalachian Mountains have provided virtually everything he's needed to survive, from his income as a coal miner, to his tap water.

"I don't know if it's safe or not to tell you the truth," Patsey told CBS News of his tap water source. "But, you know, what are you going to do? You've got to drink water."

He took CBS News to his only source of drinking water for nearly 50 years: an abandoned coal mine near his home. Like so many here, he dug his own trenches and laid his own water lines hundreds of feet up a mountainside.

He says no part of him wondered why access to water should be this difficult.

"No, I just accepted it," Patsey said. "It was something you had to do. I worried about

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