The environmental justice disaster you’ve never heard of.
The aftermath of the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant spill in Tennessee—the worst coal ash spill in US history Dot Griffith/Appalachian Voices
Earlier this month, Esther Calhoun stood before the US Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, DC, describing some of the unlikely ailments that have been plaguing her and her neighbors these past few years. “I am only 51 years old and I have neuropathy,” she said. “The neurologist said that it may be caused by lead, and it is not going to get better.”
This is not a story about contaminated water in Flint, Michigan. Calhoun, who lives in Uniontown, Alabama, was talking about coal ash—a toxic byproduct of burning coal that has quietly become one of America’s worst environmental justice problems. The ashes are often laden with arsenic, lead, mercury, and other toxins, and multiple studies have found that the waste tends to be stored in low-income, minority communities. In Uniontown, where 90 percent of residents are black and about half live below the poverty line, a coal ash landfill sits “directly across the street from peoples’ homes, and from yards in which their kids play,” says Marianne Engelman-Lado, an attorney with the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice.
Coal is slowly on the way out in the United States, but our existing coal-fired power plants still generate roughly 130 million tons of coal ash each year. That’s more than 800 pounds for every man, woman, and child in America. The regulations on disposal of coal ash are weak, to say the least, making the experiences of Calhoun and her neighbors far from unique. Here’s a quick primer to get you up to date on an environmental nightmare that shows no signs of going away.
Read the rest at Mother Jones.
from Climate Desk http://ift.tt/1UT8Exc
The environmental justice disaster you’ve never heard of.
The aftermath of the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant spill in Tennessee—the worst coal ash spill in US history Dot Griffith/Appalachian Voices
Earlier this month, Esther Calhoun stood before the US Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, DC, describing some of the unlikely ailments that have been plaguing her and her neighbors these past few years. “I am only 51 years old and I have neuropathy,” she said. “The neurologist said that it may be caused by lead, and it is not going to get better.”
This is not a story about contaminated water in Flint, Michigan. Calhoun, who lives in Uniontown, Alabama, was talking about coal ash—a toxic byproduct of burning coal that has quietly become one of America’s worst environmental justice problems. The ashes are often laden with arsenic, lead, mercury, and other toxins, and multiple studies have found that the waste tends to be stored in low-income, minority communities. In Uniontown, where 90 percent of residents are black and about half live below the poverty line, a coal ash landfill sits “directly across the street from peoples’ homes, and from yards in which their kids play,” says Marianne Engelman-Lado, an attorney with the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice.
Coal is slowly on the way out in the United States, but our existing coal-fired power plants still generate roughly 130 million tons of coal ash each year. That’s more than 800 pounds for every man, woman, and child in America. The regulations on disposal of coal ash are weak, to say the least, making the experiences of Calhoun and her neighbors far from unique. Here’s a quick primer to get you up to date on an environmental nightmare that shows no signs of going away.
Read the rest at Mother Jones.
from Climate Desk http://ift.tt/1UT8Exc
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