The New York Times covered the Coal ash disposal controversy going on in Perry County, Alabama on Sunday. Here's the accompanying video:
Many residents don't want this coal ash here including Catfish Farmer Robert Bamberg who said
"We are just concerned that in order to clean up that situation in Tennessee the problem is being shifted down here for us to tend to when we didn't want it to start with"
The coal ash has already started being sent by rail car. Unemployment is 17% in this county and that is why some county officials say that the county is glad to have the revenue and jobs produced
County Commissioner Albert Turner Jr said,
Economic racism would have taken place had the contract not been awarded
That's a interesting point considering that many residents and environmental activists have claimed that the Perry County landfill was chosen because of its poverty. Contrary to Turner's argument,I cannot find any reports that any other community expressed formal interest in being the point of destination. In fact I've only found reports of coal ash being sent to poor counties with high percentages of minorities.
Michael Churchman of the Alabama Environmental Council had this to say back in June when test shipments from the spill site in Kingston, Tennessee started being shipped to Perry County.
"It's unverified, depending on which sources you go to, what the level of toxicity is . . . I don't see how they think it should be shipped to Perry County and treated like a banana peel or other items from my house. . . . "
"This is another example of how we bear the burden of people in other places benefiting from cheap power."
I'm still troubled that calls from elected officials for hearings and investigations into the EPA and TVA's decision have been ignored.