Glynn Wilson / Southwings

A close view of the growing coal ash mountain in Perry County, Alabama (click on image for more photos)

by Glynn Wilson

Attorney David Ludder has filed an administrative complaint against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management that could result in a federal takeover of the state’s enforcement of national environmental laws by the Environmental Protection Agency and result in a loss of federal funding for the state.

The formal complaint was filed with EPA’s Office of Civil Rights on behalf of the people of Perry County in Alabama’s Black Belt. According to Ludder, they have been the subject of an environmental injustice due to their racial and economic disadvantage by the permitting and placement of a landfill near them that is now full of toxic coal ash from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s major environmental disaster in the Cinch River in 2008.

Ludder’s complaint alleges that the landfill and its contents pollute the environment in a poor, minority area without the means to fight it politically. In addition to potential health problems from the air and water pollution, the landfill exposes local residents to a constant bad odor, lowers property values and causes dangerous traffic problems in the area.

“If EPA determines that ADEM did violate EPA’s regulations without ‘justification,’ EPA must initiate proceedings to deny, annul, suspend or terminate EPA funding to ADEM,” Ludder said in an e-mail interview. “This could cripple ADEM, and no doubt would require ADEM to surrender EPA-authorized programs.”

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Glynn Wilson / Southwings

A close view of the growing coal ash mountain in Perry County, Alabama

A new study finds that state regulations for coal ash disposal are inadequate to protect public health and drinking water supplies for nearby communities.

The information comes as federal regulations — the first of their kind — are under attack by a hostile Republican Congress bent on derailing any effort to ensure strong, federally enforceable safeguards for coal ash, America’s second largest industrial waste stream.

Earthjustice and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment released State of Failure: How states fail to protect our health and drinking water from toxic coal ash, an exhaustive review of state regulations in 37 states, which together comprise over 98 percent of all coal ash generated nationally.

Twelve Worst States Highlighted

The study highlights the lack of state-based regulations for coal ash disposal and points to the 12 worst states when it comes to coal ash management and disposal: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, South Carolina and Virginia.

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Glynn Wilson / Southwings

A close view of the growing coal ash mountain in Perry County, Alabama

There will be a community listening session about the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown, Alabama hosted by Environmental Protection Agency Region 4 administrator Gwen Keyes Fleming on Wednesday, June 15 from 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at the Uniontown Elementary School, 425 West Ave, Uniontown, Ala. 36786 (near Old Thomaston Road).

During the past year, EPA has received several community letters from Uniontown, Alabama concerning the Arrowhead Landfill and the shipments of Coal Ash into the community after the TVA spill, according to an EPA press release. On March 6-7, 2011, Region 4 EPA’s Chief of Staff, Javoyne Hicks White alongside her staff conducted a pre-planning meeting with community leaders from Uniontown to utilize their feedback on the best ways to implement a successful Listening Session reaching the different populations that live close to the Arrowhead Landfill.

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Letter to the Editor
Eva Dillard, staff attorney
Black Warrior Riverkeeper

The stated position of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the Alabama Department of Transportation and the Alabama Public Service Commission that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should not classify coal ash as hazardous waste has more to do with the cozy relationship between those regulators and Alabama Power Co. than it does with facts, science or economics.

Alabama Power’s coal-fired steam plants in the Black Warrior watershed are recognized as among the dirtiest in the nation. Of the top 50 U.S. power plant mercury emitters by pounds in 2009, Alabama Power’s Miller Steam Plant ranked fourth and Greene County Steam Plant ranked 49th.

In January 2009, the Institute of Southern Studies compiled a list of the 100 most polluting coal plants in the United States in terms of coal ash stored in surface impoundments. Gorgas Steam Plant ranked seventh, with 2,888,290 pounds, Miller ranked 15th, and Greene County ranked 30th. The very size of these three impoundments suggests any breach or spill could dwarf the size of the catastrophic TVA’s Kingston release into the Emory River.

According to the National Inventory of Dams database, the Gorgas ash pond is rated a “significant hazard;” its failure would lead to a low probability of loss of life but to likely significant environmental and economic damage. The Miller ash pond is rated a “low hazard,” which means its failure would most probably result in damage to affected area property owners.

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Glynn Wilson / Southwings

A closer view of the growing coal ash mountain in Perry County, Alabama

For three months now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been taking comments on its plan to clean up some of the most dangerous coal ash sites in America. With only one week left, the public can still send a message to the Obama administration’s EPA that America needs strong, federally enforceable safeguards that protect communities and their drinking water from coal ash contamination.

Coal ash is the leftover toxic remains from coal-fired power plants. Enough coal ash is generated each year to fill more than 340,000 jumbo 747 airplanes. Coal ash contaminates drinking water and causes cancer, organ damage, neurological damage and much more. Power companies just dump their coal ash into unlined landfills. Household garbage is better regulated than this toxic waste.

Two and a half years ago, a billion gallons of coal ash in Tennessee burst through a dam and spread across 300 acres of pristine woodlands, poisoning two rivers and destroying and damaging dozens of homes. The EPA estimates that if a spill occurred at one of 49 other coal ash sites across the country, loss of human life is very likely to occur.

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Glynn Wilson / Southwings

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

For decades, the power industry has been dumping toxic ash from coal-fired power plants at unregulated, unmonitored disposal sites throughout the United States. Now, studies show that toxins in coal ash are poisoning water supplies and threatening public health across the country.

Predictably, power companies want to continue dumping the toxic sludge with no federal oversight, like TVA did in Alabama’s Black Belt community in Perry County.

Coal ash disposal was a dirty secret of the power industry as recently as 2008, when an unregulated coal ash containment pond in Tennessee burst and flooded a community with more than one billon gallons of toxic sludge.

In the aftermath of that tragedy, the Environmental Protection Agency agreed to propose options for regulating coal ash disposal. But, lobbyists for the power industry have mounted a misinformation campaign in order to preserve the toxic status quo.

The non-profit group Earthjustice is working through the courts and on Capitol Hill to counter the unfair influence of industry lobbyists.

“The closer we look, the bigger the problem becomes,” group president Trip Van Noppen said in a press release on Monday. “Already, at least 137 sites in 34 states have been contaminated by toxic coal ash disposal.”

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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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Growing concern over the threat of coal ash to public health and the environment is making it’s way into the board rooms of some of the nation’s biggest power companies. Shareholders for some power companies are pushing for resolutions on coal ash that would require more transparency about the size, scope and threat of coal ash dumps and waste ponds located near power plants, according to Earth Justice.

Southern Company shareholders will vote on a resolution Wednesday that seeks more accountability from the power provider on coal ash waste ponds and landfills. The vote comes on the heels of similar votes at CMS Energy and Montana-Dakotas Utilities, where a resolution received 25.6 percent support, a huge step on an environmental resolution, which commonly only receive between 5-6 percent support.

“There is growing momentum to push power companies to deal with these coal ash problems,” Lisa Evans, Senior Administrative Counsel at Earthjustice, said in a statement issued today. “Communities are concerned about the exposure they face. Scientists have noted that more needs to be done.”

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Glynn Wilson/Southwings

The toxic TVA coal ash mountain grows higher every day at the Arrowhead Landfill in Alabama’s Black Belt as millions of tons of the deadly stew makes its way down in train after train from one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history at Kingston, Tennessee. Click here or on the image for a photo essay…