Defensive. A little piece of gods greenacre. That is in the valley of western pennsylvania. In the late 1950s, the local steel mill was taken over by a company contracted to build nuclear bombs. Its a nice town until the industry came in. Thanks for joining us im joie chen if theres one thing you ought to be able to count on, its a place called home. Tonight we remind you that trust can be betrayed. Hurricanes and the building market was hit hard. A law intended to protect investors became a vehicle for buyers to steal homes, forcing out condo openers who did nothing wrong. Our investigation from america tonights sheila macvicar. I thought that we lived in a country where your property couldnt be ceased for private gain. And this blows me away. That this is possible. In the united states. It blows me away. In 2006, this woman bought what she thought was an american dream. A 2bedroom condo minimum. I never missed a payment. Never intended to. Her mortgage reasoning condo fees taxes, paid on time up to date. This is surreal. Reporter she was shocked when she received word that the complex was being terminated converted. Forcing her to sell far less than she paid for it. To buyers in miami, the people who sold it to her. I paid them and they are pieing it for pennies on the dollar. I would love a deal like that. Reporter two miami lawyers bought it to you, and now they tell you you no longer own it. And that theyll buy it. Reporter and a price they set. That they set. Reporter could you have held out. Could you have refused to sell. No reporter why not . They told me that the determination was recorded as of may 2014. They told me they had owned it since then. Reporter even though you didnt sign a piece of paper. I signed nothing. Forced sales, worthless deeds. Welcome to florida 2015. This allstar law designed to make it easier for developers to redevelop condos in building in disrepair. It is nout used by property now being used by Property Companies to force owners to sell the owns. The companies snap up the unit. No matter how much home owners pay for them. Its a disaster for home owners. In floridas boom and bust Real Estate Market gonzalez figured the value of her condo would bounce. Never thought this was possible. Reporter she had to walk away from the mortgage the credit is ruined. It feels like a violation. A few of the owners remain. These holdouts hired lawyers and are trying to fight the condo determination. At the least, some of their money back. Hi shirley. 85yearold shirley is one of them. She bought her condo. What a great view you have. Yes. Reporter she paid almost all in cash. Now she case if she sold the unit she gets 46, 500. The equity she built up over a lifetime nearly 200,000 gone. Where would you go . No place. I would have to go in a tent or something, i dont know. Reporter did it ever occur to you that this could happen to you . No never. I thought when you opened something, you owned it. Reporter since the law passed state records show 217 complexes affecting close to 20,000 units. Jo is a retired cop, a decorated war veteran, his wife a retired school teacher. Living in florida was a retirement dream in this village near tampa. Ewe loved the idea of having a condo. We didnt have to worry about taking care of things. We thought wed spent fart of the year west. And in the cole months this is an our florida home. Investors joined forces and own most of the unit. I call this my condo research file. Reporter the cunninghams and neighbours are told that a condo termination is coming. Trying to inform us about the war and what they do if they start a termination process, if theres a bill for termination. To proceed, that we will offer them market value for the unit. Have to accept it. Basically we would be forced out. According to the law, we would espell and have to leave the unit. Reporter even though you dont want to sell. We dont want to sell. Reporter you are fine with the mortgage. We are fine not behind. Paid up. Reporter under the state law, if a buyer owns 80 of the unit they can, unless 10 of owners reject. Theres nothing, absolutely nothing an individual owner can do. This law gives an investor the possibility and the right for certain conditions to force you out of your home. Thats correct. And not make you part of what you invested. No. The original developer went into foreclosure. A huge block of units wound up in the hands of a Consortium Including the carol group in attanta. Thank you for calling carol organization. Reporter we reached out to them to see if theyd comment on the story. They declined. They boasted on the website of conditioning its buying in florida. The amendment to change the declaration of condominium. Reporter plan of termination. Stephanie has been trying to rally condo owners to fight the states termination law. She is fighting a legal battle of her own to stay in her condo in maddison oaks. Theres no agencies in the state of florida regulating what the buyers and investors are doing. They are coming in doing whatever they can do and getting away with it. Theres nobody helping us. In a statement the men say . We are 100 occupied. What will happen to you, what will you do if they force you to take what they have offered. Ill have to file bankruptcy. Unfortunately. Something i never imagined. A force sale will leave her in debt. What do they say when you challenge them . Sorry, the how allows us to do so. Then we have the issue of nobody is stopping them. Reporter we wanted to meet with presswick partners miami lawyers turning the lives of these two women upside down. We have been emailing them calling them. They havent responded. Well see if they talk to us. Initially they declined to speak with me. Mikes partner called me. And told me everything they have done is 100 legal. All the risks spelt out in the closing document. It may be legal. His response theres no morality in business. They have terminated the complex because they have the legal right to do so. What do you say to those who sold you the condominium. I wonder how they sleep at night, knowing that they have done this to as many people. So are you going to go down to the Fitness Center . We have been very responsible financially, yet someone can come in and take our home away. I fought in vietnam to someone couldnt take my property away. Could you stay in florida . No wed be out. Walk away with nothing next fastforward to one mans dream. Did you think you would be a middle school coach . Not at all. It happened. God made the situation. America tonights sara hoy with an n. B. A. Star and a dying wish that put him back on the court hop on the web site dying on the track. More than 900 greyhounds died on dog tracks since 2008. Talk to al jazeera part of our special black History Month coverage on Al Jazeera America mans dream. On the track. On the track. Pp pp americas first climate refugees this is probably a hurricane away from it being gone. Whos to blame . 36 of land lost was caused by oil and gas industry. And a fight to save americas coastline. We have kinda made a deal with the devil fault lines Al Jazeera Americas hard hitting. Today they will be arrested. Ground breaking. Theyre firing canisters of gas at us. Award winning investigative documentary series. The disappearing delta only on Al Jazeera America fastforward to a story about a mans hoop dream, and a friend that took to the court highs dying wish. Its no small deed. The friend is an n. B. A. Super star. Anthony penny hard away. He went home to memphis and explained why to america tonights sara hoy. Former point reporter former point guard returned to a middle school to help a friend battling colon cancer. Desmond was given 24 hours to live. An infection ravaged his body. He awoke from a medically induced coma. His one request help the lions. I said you have it wrong, we are not worried about the team we are worried about you. He didnt want to hear it. He said well be okay go to the state championship. It was that years team. I thought you are not worried about your health you are worried about the kids. Reporter in the end he honoured his friends request. Did you think you would be a middle school coach . Never. But im enjoying it i thank god. I saw him jump back into the zone of being a coach. No more tv part. I can leave it alone. Reporter why do you do this you dont have to . You could get a pass to do nothing. Because it helps the kids. Its in my heart. If you dont invest in the community, these will be the kids that are the robbers. Theyll do something negative in the community that we hate seeing, we can do something about it. All they want is love. His heart is so big. Its how great he is as a person. It brings tearing to my eyes. I knew the job was hard but hes made it that much more easier. We are heart broken to hear that the coach lost his battle to cancer last week keeping up their fight, they won the state championships inspired by their coach next a threat in time. Western Pennsylvania Nuclear weapons, and how they got there. They didnt know. They were clueless. Theres a toxic legacy of the cold war buried beneath 200,000 communities. Several hundred sites tied. One of them where an unlikely champion stands determined to dig to the bottom of the issue, no matter how long it takes. The truth is a broken record. It may sometimes stand alone, but it always stand. Here i am still. How do you describe yourself in. A mad yard dog. Mad junkyard job defending our little piece of gods greenacre here. That greenacre is here in the valley of western pened pennsylvania and patty has been defending it. In the late 1920s. A steel mill was taken over by a company contracted to build nuclear bombs. Patty grew up across the street. I grew up in apollo. There was one store, two movie theatres. And it was a nice town. Then this industry came in. And we didnt know. People dont. People didnt know. They were clueless. Back in the day, the work of the valley was to support america. Patriotic. And unquestioning. She left to serve her country, join the navy trust her government. By the time she came back to apollo, some here worry about the risks of having a Nuclear Plant and its waste so close by. Her father asked her to check it out. Im a die hard for our country. And i equated our government as our country. You couldnt tell me anything about it that there couldnt be improp prities in the steps. Reporter you thought the government would do the right thing. I thought the government could do the right thing. All they had to do was show there was something here if it existed. So i said opening, ill look into it. She did. Digging up three million documents, mostly on her own. Documents that chronicle illnesses, cancer. Deaths. She had two brain tumours and uterine cancel and fuelled the anxiety and anger that the Community Brings down to the twisted thistle. Weve had our share, and then some. We can only try to make it right. We cant undo whats been wrong. Thats true. Reporter trying to make it right. She has led a search for answers. Neither the government nor knew mack the company that ran the site until 1967 acknowledged any of this was caused by bomb making or by the Nuclear Waste dumped in pits across the neighbouring 44 acre property. Even though they contain ukrainium 235 and plu tonium the same used in the bomb drops. For better off or worse, a new age is born. People were in spitting distance from living there. There was restaurants that abutted it. There is a a dairy farm that abutted it that everyone got their milk from. This has been very scary. Who cares. I do. I love this area i love these people. This is this is our country. This is home. Talks about it. In another 14 years they are forcing the current owners to pay settlement money, we asked but wouldnt talk to america tonight about why. Patty says the answer is obvious. Oh, my goodness yes. A reasonable prudent person could stand in the town of apollo and see with a plan not designed to be a plant. Its not rocket science. The money is not solving the underlying problem. Amino kept pushing. First for a fence so neighbours would quit playing and walking dogs on land that may have concealed hundreds of Nuclear Waste. Theres a mine blow. You dont need the dirty bomb its a mine. It has methane in it. If it explodes . Youd have a coal mine fire. And nuclear material. They have to get out. Make it whole again. The ultimate goal is to get all of it dug up and removed. Although determining how much there is remains a challenge. Its associated with the placement of the materials into the trenches was very poor and not well documented. Reporter mike is the project manager for the army corp of engineers, the latest federal agency to manage the sites. The bombmaking started under the Atomic Energy commission. In the decade since, what to do with the waste is a hot potato. We tried to get answers from the Nuclear Regulatory commission nrc, e. P. A. And doe and n n. S. A. And the whole alphabet of federal and state agencies that began since the bumping began 50 years ago. Not one would go on camera to find out why dumping was allowed close to unities, and why after decades, its still there. I frankly dont believe that anybody did anything wrong. It was as it was. Material was placed there. Was it a good idea . I cant say. It happened in the fall of 2011, halting after a few weeks. Workers discovered unexpected complex materials at the site. Thank you for coming we have a good crowd. It is ready to try again. But the cleanup will cost over 400 million. Nearly 10 times the previous estimate. This is once again. Its like ground hog day. We have had these meetings for 20 years. At the latest public hearing, the former mayor of the town next to the dump joined other neighbours determined to get the cleanup finished. Even if they dont live to see it themselves. Right now i am going through chemotherapy. And i dont want to do that all over again. Chemotherapy sucks. The fear is that the government would let this become a coast town rather than deal with it. Lock the gaits and leave the waste buried frozen in time. At this point the core of engineers exited the clean up starting in 2017 and take another 10 years to complete. We can sure as hl move forward with hell move forward with something good. Do you believe theyll get it done. I believe they have to have incentive. Reporter what is incentive . A mat junkyard dog at their heels. Thats patty, still fighting. The e. P. A. Spokeswoman told us tests showed no significant contamination. As to why its taken so long to clean up the site. She couldnt answer. Thats america tonight. A former c. I. A. Agent. Lend a use of torture. That is this week on america tonight. Tell us what you think at aljazeera. Com americatonight. Talk to us on twitter or facebook and come back again for more america tonight. Crops, but not far away sits this. The vast pacific ocean. And so here in carlsbad, north of san diego, the largest Desalination Plant in the western hemisphere is under construction at a cost of a billion dollars. And farther up the coast. We are in the lovely city of Santa Barbara at our desalination facility that was built during the last drought and we are looking at reactivating the facility to help meet the demands of this current drought. Twenty plus years ago this facility was state of the art, but time and technology has changed, recommissioning this plant is a huge undertaking, but without it, the region could likely run out of water. Is techknow. A a show about intersection of hardware and heuvment and were doing it in a unique way. This is a show about science, by scientists. Tonight, techknow investigates mining the deep. Dr. Shini somara is a mechanical engineer. Tonight, one companys ambitious plan that could