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A bona-fide member of the Fifth Estate, practicing Mobile Journalism (MoJo) every chance we get...
Birmingham CBS Affiliate Reports on Coal Ash Waste
Cynthia Gould, one of the few broadcast reporters in Alabama willing to take on controversial environmental issues, reports on the coal ash waste crisis facing Perry County in Alabama’s Black Belt.
Check out our coverage, clearly the most comprehensive in the country, and watch for Glynn Wilson’s story in the March issue of Business Alabama Monthly magazine…
Hurricane Creekkeeper Says Stop the Emory River Cleanup…
Or Bring the Arrowhead Landfill into Compliance
by Glynn Wilson
The Waterkeeper Alliance is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to immediately halt the dredging of the Emory River in Kingston, Tennessee — and hauling wet TVA coal ash to the Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County, Alabama — until the landfill comes into full compliance with state and federal laws.
In a formal complaint lodged today with the EPA, Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen says the formal agreement with EPA and TVA says no ash can be shipped to any landfill that does not meet compliance standards.
“We therefore respectfully request that EPA order a complete stopping of disaster ash to Perry County until this landfill is in complete compliance as certified by EPA national headquarters,” Mr. Wathen writes in the letter.
“EPA Region 4 and ADEM have failed us,” he says. “The situation here grows more dire with every rain event. Excessive water in the landfill is causing off-site violations, some intentional it seems.”
Wathen has photographs showing pumps diverting liquid waste off the landfill property into adjoining ditches near residential homes. (One is included below).
TVA Coal Ash Controversy Continues
A panorama view of the Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County, Alabama, along with the surrounding area. Toxic TVA coal ash by the train load is filling up the landfill in Alabama’s Black Belt, causing air and water pollution in one of the poorest counties in the country…
by Glynn Wilson
The controversy over the toxic coal ash pouring into Alabama’s Black Belt from the TVA spill site in Kingston, Tennessee, continues today with the filing of another set of letters declaring an intent to sue the operators of the Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County on behalf of 155 local residents.
David Ludder, a Florida attorney who specializes in environmental law, filed the letters of intent to sue today, giving the landfill management 60 days notice.
The letters, signed by 155 residents of Perry County, accuse the landfill operators of violating the Solid Waste Disposal Act for air pollution that could impact the health of people who live nearby, and for operating what is basically an “open dump,” which is prohibited by law.
If found guilty, the company could be liable for up to $37,500 for each violation.
An aerial view of the Arrowhead Landfill in Marion, Alabama…
by Glynn Wilson
An environmental lawyer in Alabama is demanding that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issue an order halting the shipment of toxic coal ash from Tennessee to a landfill in the Black Belt’s Perry County.
David Ludder, formerly with the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, filed documents in advance of an intent to sue in the case this week on behalf of Marion resident Jackie Fike, who lives near the treatment plant where wastewater from the landfill is dumped.
In an interview Saturday, Mr. Fike said the liquid waste from the landfill is being dumped into the lagoon near his house and Rice Creek, which leads to the Cahaba River, and not even properly run through the treatment plant.
“That scent is just something else,” Mr. Fike said. “It is just unreal.”
His wife is on oxygen 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said, “and it is rough for her to breath anyway. When she goes out, well, it just does something to her.”
His neighbor is also experiencing serious problems since the volume of waste has increased due to the TVA coal ash contract. He said it wasn’t so bad at first, but since the toxic coal ash is rotting, he thinks, “It’s getting worse and worse as time goes on,” he said. “I would rather be around the coal ash as to be around this garbage dump.”
Perry County Associates LLC, the company that owns the Arrowhead landfill, does not have a permit from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to discharge pollutants contained in leachate generated at the site through the Marion wastewater plant and into a tributary of the Cahaba River, Rice Creek, Ludder claims.
In letters to the landfill company, the town, EPA and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, Ludder charges that the discharges are illegal.
The EPA and ADEM granted permits earlier this year for the Tennessee Valley Authority to dump its coal ash in the Marion landfill after one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history over the Christmas Holidays last year, when a retaining wall failed and millions of tons of coal ash from the burning of fossil fuels filled up the Emory River in Kingston, Tennessee.
The EPA permit was granted based on the word of ADEM that the landfill was not in violation of other permits or laws, but in fact, a lawsuit was already pending against the city of Marion for permit violations at the wastewater treatment plant, including pending civil penalties of up to $37,500 per violation per day.
“EPA was required to make a decision as to whether or not that landfill was appropriate for ash disposal,” Ludder said, and did so based on information that was inaccurate. “EPA should revisit that decision. Whether they will or not, I don’t know.”
The People Who Don’t Want It Are Afraid of the Effects
by Glynn Wilson [Videos below]
UNIONTOWN, Ala. — The Rev. James R. Murdock sits on his porch with a view of the Arrowhead Landfill and wonders, watching the TVA coal ash train roll in.
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| Glynn Wilson |
| The Rev. James R. Murdock |
Murdock is one of the original members of Concerned Citizens of Perry County, a group that lost a court fight to keep the landfill from opening — before they knew the coal ash would be shipped to their town dump. It was permitted to take garbage from 16 states, including New Jersey, and for that the chairman of the county commission of 18 years lost his seat.
Not in time for the people here who have to live with the landfill now, though, along with the effluent from the Southeastern Cheese factory, overflowing their lagoon sewer.
Murdock, a cancer survivor, is anxious about the toxic and radioactive coal ash rolling into town. It contains at least 14 different chemicals and heavy metals, including arsenic and lead. There are ways to recycle some coal ash, like putting it in concrete. But experts say this particular coal ash is some of the most toxic ever generated as a byproduct of burning some of the dirtiest coal to ever be mined for electric power. It has been piling up in East Tennessee since the 1960s. A member of Congress from Huntsville, a doctor, recently testified it was as deadly as nuclear waste.
Murdock and his group are concerned, but they don’t know what they can do since the people elected to represent them have written them off. He worries the toxic ash will get airborne and pollute the very air he breaths every day, as well as the local drinking water supply.
Yet he wonders, aloud, if “there’s even a point to fighting it anymore.”
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