environmental news and a battle between a small, mostly poor, majority-black community in Alabama and the operators of a toxic landfill. For more than a decade, the residents of Uniontown, Alabama, which has a population of about 2,400 people, have lived with the Arrowhead landfill, which is twice the size of New York’s Central Park. Arrowhead opened in 2007, began accepting waste from 33 different states, despite outcry from the community. Then, in 2009, the landfill began accepting shipments of toxic coal ash—the residual byproduct of burning coal—from a massive spill in Kingston, Tennessee, believed to be the largest coal ash disaster in U.S. history. For two years, nearly 4 million tons of coal ash was shipped by rail from a mostly white Tennessee county to Uniontown.
Coal ash contains toxins, including arsenic, mercury, boron, that can affect the nervous and reproductive systems and cause other health problems. According to the EPA, people living within a mile of unlined coal ash storage ponds have a one-in-50 risk of developing cancer. In 2013, several dozen Uniontown residents filed a complaint under the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Well, this week, the EPA dismissed the claim, saying there’s “insufficient evidence” that authorities in Alabama had breached the Civil Rights Act.
This comes as new government data reveals coal ash has contaminated water with arsenic and radium and other toxic chemicals near coal-fired plants around the country. The data was released just one day after EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said the agency would further weaken federal regulations on coal ash disposal. Meanwhile, President Trump has nominated Dow Chemical lawyer Peter Wright to head up an Environmental Protection Agency unit tasked with overseeing the disposal of hazardous waste and chemical spills at toxic Superfund sites.
Ben Eaton talking:
the things that are happening in my community, in Uniontown, is—it’s ridiculous, when it comes to coal ash or when it comes to our rights to live in a well-protected or a protected equally place like everyone else. We have a number of problems, from landfill, coal ash, sanitation, bad odors. It never stops. But this is some of the things—these are some of the things that are happening in Uniontown.
this rollback, it is deep. We, as a group, will not stop fighting the issues, because we know we are right when it comes to our civil rights. The problems that are happening in Uniontown are ridiculous. And to get no help and support from the agencies that actually are supposed to protect the community—they are not giving us that. If anything, they are only supporting themselves or doing things that makes them look good. It doesn’t help the community at all.
For an agency that is supposed to protect the citizens and the environment, opt out to say we didn’t have a claim, from insufficient of evidence. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management, they have an non-discrimination obligation, and the EPA has the ability to force those obligations. And as we see it, and the way things have turned out, that didn’t happen. And it’s hurtful to be on the bottom, constantly trying to work our way up for just a fair, equal treatment. When you talk about environmental injustice, Uniontown—Uniontown is number one.
Mustafa Ali talking:
Uniontown is one of those examples of sacrifice zones, unfortunately, that have been created. You know, when you look at that most recent study, you see that, even when, you know, the folks were doing the analysis, that you have these elevated levels of a number of toxic chemicals that are in the water. And, you know, everyone has a right to clean air and to clean water. So, when you have these types of egregious situations that are going on, and, as Ben shared, when you come to the federal government—and, in many instances, as a last resort—hoping that they will help and stand up and do the right thing, unfortunately, we find that far too many of our communities of color and lower-income communities are continuing to be disproportionately impacted and cannot find relief from this pollution that is happening inside of their communities. In many, many instances, folks are living in a survival type of a situation. And the federal family, especially Environmental Protection Agency, has a distinct responsibility for protecting public health and the environment. And when they do not do that, where do people turn?
there’s an interesting dynamic that’s going on in this space. One, when the utility companies did their own sets of analysis, of course, they found that the water, you know, is being impacted, a number of different chemicals that are in that space.
The other dynamic that’s going on, that folks should be very aware of, is that the Obama administration tried to put in place, you know, some additional protections. And now we have the current administration who’s trying to roll those back, who is trying to take $100 million away from the analysis that could be in place of checking the water quality, to checking to see if there’s any leaching that’s going on, and then giving the responsibility back to the states and also to the utilities themselves to make some decisions, if they feel that it’s necessary to monitor and to do these analyses. And we know that, you know, we need to have a uniform process across the country, because, unfortunately, what’s happening in Alabama, what’s happening in Uniontown, is also happening across the country.
Ben Eaton talking:
we are demanding the landfill to put in more and better preventions of this coal ash being dumped on us, better protection to keep it from leaking or seeping into our waterway or into the soil to kill off all the crops in that area. We are just constantly fighting, from one thing to the next. Our last attempt was in order to have any kind of justice, just to have someone in the office to actually protect the people, and not for a personal issue. And that’s why I have decided to run for county commissioner in District 5 in Uniontown. And in this district, guess who’s in it. The landfill. So, this is one of the ways that we are planning on taking the fight in another—not another direction, but, hopefully, in a more positive way.
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Ben Eaton
vice president of Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice and a resident of Uniontown, Alabama.
Mustafa Ali
former head of the environmental justice program at the Environmental Protection Agency.
— source democracynow.org