Glynn Wilson / Southwings

A close view of the growing coal ash mountain in Perry County in Alabama’s Black Belt

Air and water and in 34 states are being poisoned by the waste from coal-fired power plants — creating major health risks for children and adults, according to a report released this week by Earthjustice and Physicians for Social Responsibility.

The ground-breaking study connects the contamination occurring at hundreds of coal ash dumps and waste ponds across the country to health threats such as cancer, nerve damage and impairment of a child’s ability to write, read and learn. Contaminants leaking or being emitted from these sites include arsenic, which causes skin, bladder and lung cancer; lead, which damages the nervous system; boron, which attacks the testes, kidney and brain; and mercury, a neurotoxicant particularly harmful to a child’s development.

The report, Coal Ash: The Toxic Threat to Our Health and Environment follows a report issued last month, by Earthjustice and other environmental groups, that revealed 39 contaminated coal ash sites in 21 states. Together, the two studies confirm that at least 137 sites in 34 states are leaking a variety of toxic contaminants into nearby air and drinking water supplies, posing significant health threats to those who drink the water or breath in fugitive coal dust.

“These examples of coal ash leaks coupled with the report on the impacts to our health from ash’s toxic pollutants paint a clear picture of the coal ash threat,” the groups say in a press release announcing the study.

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On Thursday, August 19, the Alabama Surface Mining Commission hosted a public hearing on an application for a coal mine called the Shepherd Bend Mine along the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River northwest of Birmingham and southwest of Dora and Sumiton. The commission has 60 days from August 19 to rule on the permit.

If issued, this permit will authorize strip mining for coal on Shepherd Bend, right across the river from the Birmingham Water Works Board’s Mulberry Fork drinking water intake, would likely result in mining-related pollutants traveling directly to the intake and to Birmingham’s water treatment facilities, according the Black Warrior Riverkeeper non-profit, public advocacy group.

“Not only will this mine pose a threat to Birmingham’s drinking water supply, but it will also threaten water quality, wildlife habitat recreation, aesthetics, and the peaceful way of life residents aim to have along the river,” Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke said in a statement today.

The Black Warrior Riverkeeper and the Southern Environmental Law Center are challenging ADEM’s permit in court, according to the statement.

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Guest Column
by Wesley Vaughn

On its website, in large, bold typeface, the University of Alabama asserts itself as “an academic community united in its commitment to enhancing the quality of life for all Alabamians.”

If that is truly the case, then I trust the University will decide not to lease the land it owns near Cordova in Walker County for the purpose of a 1,773-acre coal strip mine.

The land, called Shepherd Bend for its river-crafted crook shape, is situated on the Mulberry Fork of the Warrior River. All of 800 feet away sits a Birmingham Water Works drinking water intake that already copes with the discharge of one mine further upriver.

The peculiar story all started in 2007.

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Murders Alleged by Paramilitary Forces on Drummond’s Payroll

by Stephen Flanagan Jackson

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A Colombia coal miners’ union — already two-time losers in US Courts — filed another civil lawsuit March 20 in federal court charging Drummond Coal Company and its top Colombia employees with hiring AUC paramilitary forces to assassinate three union leaders, all Drummond employees, near the Drummond-owned coal mines in northeast Colombia.

AUC is the Spanish acronym for United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing armed group in Colombia’s long-running civil war. The U.S. has declared the AUC “terrorists.”

The “deja vu” lawsuit is assigned to Judge David Proctor in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, the corporate home of the multinational coal giant Drummond Coal. The company recently announced the opening of an additional coal mine in Colombia as well as declaring an anticipated 23 percent production increase for 2009, bringing Drummond’s annual Colombia coal output to 27 million tons.

Drummond strip mines, ships and sells Colombia coal internationally, and one of its main customers is Southern Company along with subsidiary Alabama Power, which burns the high-quality coal to generate electricity for its customers in the Southeast.

Garry Neil Drummond, a former University of Alabama trustee, runs the day-to-day operations of Drummond, a closely-held corporation owned by the Drummond family. The company owns and operates the massive open pit coal mines, rail lines, and a port in northeast Colombia.

The current lawsuit charges that Drummond created a sham corporation — Drummond Limited — to shield the company from liability for anti-union violence. The new lawsuit is similar to the case which the Colombia labor union lost in front of a federal jury in July, 2007. That case was appealed by the union, SINTRAMIENERGETICA, to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed in late December, 2008, the verdict from Judge Karon Bowdre’s court that Drummond and its officials were not guilty of any involvement in the murders of the three union leaders in Colombia in 2001.

The labor union lawyers maintain that Judge Bowdre prevented key witnesses from testifying — either in person or by video — in the 2007 case. The union lawyers claim once again that one witness, Rafael Garcia — the “Colombia Canary” — saw murder payment funds passed from a top Drummond official, Augusto Jiminez, to a Colombian senator, Jorge Castro Pacheco, in cahoots with Jorge Cuarenta, a notorious leader of the AUC Northern Bloc in Colombia.

Union lawyers say that Garcia’s testimony, as well as that of other new Colombian witnesses, is now available in the new suit brought under the names of the three Colombian murder victims’ eight children.

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