"If this had been a rich, white neighborhood, the landfill would never have gotten here," Uniontown resident Esther Calhoun, president of Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice, told NBCnews. “They put it here because we're a poor, black community. They knew we couldn't fight back."
Earth Justice has been working hard on the issue of environmental justice for the victims of coal ash (must read at link). Consider donating to them so that they can continue to support communities in eco-crisis such as Uniontown.
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At 1AM on December 22, 2008, a tsunami of over a billion gallons of toxic waste swept though the sleeping Appalachian town of Harriman, Tennessee, after a coal ash holding pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston power plant exploded through a poorly constructed levee. The resulting destruction continued downstream for six miles and “flooded into tributaries of the Tennessee River – the water supply for Chattanooga and millions of people living downstream in Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky”. The United Mountain Defense reported: “This spill is over 40 times bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska. This is a huge environmental disaster of epic proportions.”
Donna Lisenby, of Waterkeeper Alliance, canoed down the rivers among giant “ashbergs,” 12-foot tall mounds of wet coal ash, as she tested waters shortly after the disaster.After the EPA’s timeline of cleanup in this area was complete, some of the coal ash was scooped up and sent to out of state landfills. If you are wondering who the lucky recipients were, wonder no more.
Sourcewatch reported on environmental justice concerns of these shipments:
Both the Georgia and Alabama landfills are located in areas with higher rates of poverty and higher percentages of African-American residents than state averages, a situation that has raised concerns about environmental justice. In Taylor County, more than 24 percent of the population lives in poverty, and over 40 percent of the population is African-American; by contrast, the state as a whole has a 14 percent poverty rate and is 30 percent African-American. Perry County in Alabama has more than 32 percent of its residents living in poverty and a 69 percent African-American population, compared with the state as a whole, which has a poverty rate of over 16 percent and a 26 percent African-American population.[19] Perry County District Attorney Michael Jackson criticized the EPA for allowing TVA to dispose of ash at a landfill in a poor community in Alabama, calling the decision "tragic and shortsighted." He vowed to monitor the disposal site to ensure the process complies with environmental regulations.[21]
Reports show that TVA also considered moving the coal ash to two communities in eastern Tennessee, both of which have populations of well over 90 percent white residents and poverty rates of under 21 percent. The two Tennessee sites considered were Athens in McMinn County and Oneida in Scott County. However, the company sought approval from state regulators solely for the sites in Georgia and Alabama. The communities that are receiving the coal waste from TVA were not provided an opportunity for public comment on the decision.[19]
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