Their complaints seem to have fallen on deaf ears as train car loads of coal ash continue to be shipped into Alabama. But Wathen is speaking out. His letter to the EPA documents serious environmental health threats at the Arrowhead Landfill. Here is what Wathen contends:

• Dangerously high arsenic levels have been found in what’s described as “stinking gray/tannish waste” being pumped nightly from the landfill. Wathen tested the leachate from an on-site pump and found levels of arsenic that was 80 greater than the U.S. safe drinking water standard and far higher than what is considered safe for aquatic life.
• The arsenic-tainted waste runs in the landfill’s roadside ditches at levels that have exceeded safe drinking water limits. This water leads to private land where farm animals drink from surface water.
• An excessive amount of wet material is being dumped into the landfill, threatening the protective liner.
• Contaminated coal ash is falling from overloaded, uncovered trucks and spilling along the road. This contaminates the road in which the trucks travel. Untreated water there currently in flows into the Tayloe Creek. Some worry that when the weather dries out, the residue could become airborne.
• When the train cars hauling coal ash to the landfill are washed off, the runoff is allowed to flow into Tayloe Creek’s drainage basin, raising the same concerns.

Source: The Institute for Southern Studies, Facing South

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Activist documents coal ash dangers in letter to EPA

Coal ash recovered from the Kingston spill is being shipped by train car to Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County, Ala. That deal is generating a handful of jobs and millions in storage fees for the chronically poor and predominantly black community. Despite the benefits, residents say the coal ash is stinking up their town. And they are worried about the toxins seeping into the ground and contaminating their water. Coal ash contains arsenic and carcinogenic heavy metals. So far residents’ concerns have fallen on deaf ears.

But not in south Alabama, where the coal ash effects have been trickling down. Runoff water from the Arrowhead Landfill was originally shipped to a water treatment plant in Marion, Ala., and discharged into a creek. After a community outcry, the Environmental Protection Agency recommended that the runoff be taken elsewhere.

The new location? Liquid Environmental Solutions, a wastewater processing plant in Mobile, Ala. The plant “properly accepted, tested and treated the non-hazardous Perry County landfill wastewater” just before it was routed through the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System and discharged into Mobile Bay, according to a statement by Liquid Environmental Solutions senior vice president Dana King. Recently, the company decided to stop accepting shipments of wastewater from the landfill after community members express concerns. Where will the coal ash runoff be shipped now? TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci said it is “something that will have to be worked out” by the companies involved.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Trickle-down effect causing problems for coal ash disposal

But before the citizens of Perry County could file their lawsuit, the owners of Arrowhead Landfill filed for bankruptcy, a move that stops the residents’ planned lawsuit in its tracks. No new litigation can be brought against entities in bankruptcy proceedings.

Perry-Uniontown Ventures I LLC (PUV), also known as Perry County Associates, the company that owns the landfill, filed the documents last week in Mobile. PUV claims it owes $3.9 million to Phillips & Jordan Inc., (P&J) $779,837 to the Perry County Commission, and $11,000 to the Alabama Department of Revenue. PUV claims P&J and Phill-Con Services have withheld money paid by the TVA.

An attorney for the residents says that while the planned litigation cannot go forward until the bankruptcy matter is cleared up, other options are being examined.

Beasley Allen attorney Rhon Jones, who represents residents of east Tennessee who have lost property in the TVA coal ash spill, told the Selma Times Journal that he is uncertain whether the landfill’s bankruptcy would have any effect on his clients’ cases.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Lawsuit to halt coal ash dumping held up by landfill’s bankruptcy

“You might have seen my picture in the paper,” she smiles at the video camera. John L. Wathen, a.k.a. Hurricane Creekkeeper, is shooting the video to capture community reaction to local government’s decision to store toxic coal ash in the nearby Arrowhead Landfill. That coal ash is recovered from the Emory River where more than a billion gallons of the toxic material spilled in December 2008 from a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant in east Tennessee.

As part of a years-long, billion-dollar cleanup of the area, the TVA is hauling truckloads of the recovered coal ash from the river to the landfill in Perry County, an impoverished and historically black community in rural Alabama.

Local government calls the deal a “boon to the community.” It is expected to bring more than $3 million in “host fees” plus generate a few dozen jobs. Locals worry that they will have to shoulder the burden while city and county officials rake in the benefits.

“Sometimes at night when I’m in my bed I have my window cracked a little bit for some fresh air to keep from running the fan. I pick up this odor,” Ms. Ruby says. “I really don’ t want to say what it smell like. Some kind of gas. And it’s a bad scent … It wakes me up and it gets all through my house.

“I am concerned about my health. I’m breathing this stuff.”

Ms. Ruby and her neighbors worry their concerns are falling on deaf ears. But they aren’t the only ones who fear their health is in jeopardy. The recovered coal ash from Tennessee is being dumped into the Arrowhead Landfill and combined with household garbage. The liquid that drains from that landfill, also known as leachate, is trucked to nearby Marion, where it is then dumped into an open sewer lagoon and combined with sewage.

“The stench is horrible,” Wathen points out in his video. “Citizens nearby both locations fear for their health and safety.”

Watch Ms. Ruby’s and residents’ reactions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Perry County residents voice concerns about coal ash storage

Since the massive spill, called one of the largest environmental disasters in the country, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has been undergoing an expected three-year, $1 billion cleanup effort of the land. Part of that cleanup involves recovering the spilled ash from the Emory River and loading it on to train cars to be dumped in landfills in other states and counties. Alabama’s Perry County was the first recipient.

Perry County is predominantly black and home to some of Alabama’s poorest citizens. Many are fuming at the local government’s decision to store the coal ash there and worry that the toxic material may seep into the soil and contaminate ground water. Coal ash contains dangerous toxins that have been linked to serious health issues such as cancer, liver damage and neurological problems.

But proponents of the coal ash dumping plan say the benefits out weigh the risks. The county is reaping a $1.05 per ton fee on the storage, which amounts to more than $1 million for the area. Plus, more than 50 jobs have been generated in the community.

Despite the benefits, residents like Holmes say the landfill has changed the community she grew up in. “Everybody was happy and we looked out for each other as we still do,” she said, “but we never had nothing like this.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Resident upset about county’s decision to store recovered coal ash

The coal ash originates from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plant in Kingston, Tenn. Last December, more than a billion gallons of sludge from a breached impoundment pond poured down on to a neighboring community. The toxic wave knocked houses from their foundations, destroyed property, and contaminated nearby waterways when it spilled into the Emory River and traveled downstream.

In the months since, property values plummeted and residents have reported respiratory problems and heightened anxiety. Some people, including a toddler, have tested positive for heavy metals in their bloodstream. Coal ash is toxic, containing arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, which have been linked to serious health concerns including cancer, liver damage and neurological complications.

For months, the TVA has been undergoing a huge cleanup effort that is estimated to cost as much as $1 billion before it is complete. The cleanup effort includes shipping recovered coal ash from the spill site and storing it in distant landfills, including Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County.

Source: WSFA-TV

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Perry County residents still upset about recovered coal ash storage

“Money ain’t worth everything,” says Mary Gibson Holley, a retired teacher in Uniontown, in an interview with the New York Times.“In the long run, they ain’t looking about what this could do to the community if something goes wrong.”

When the coal ash spill occurred in east Tennessee last December, it knocked houses from their foundations, destroyed land, and contaminated nearby waterways. People living near the spill have reported heightened anxiety and respiratory problems. Even a young child was tested positive for heavy metals in his blood. Coal ash contains dangerous toxins such as arsenic, lead, barium, chromium and manganese which have been linked to serious health conditions such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications, to name a few.

It is estimated that the TVA will spend close to $1 billion before its cleanup effort in east Tennessee is complete. That cleanup includes relocating the recovered coal ash to landfills in other states, including the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown, Ala.

Arrowhead is getting about 8,500 tons of recovered coal ash. The deal, arranged by the TVA and state and county officials, has brought 30 new jobs to the area and will bring in more than $3 million in “host fees.” The benefits sound like a great deal for the very poor and mostly black county. And even some environmentalists say storage at the Arrowhead site is ideal, with dry storage dug into a nearly impermeable bed about 600 feet above the water table.

But lack of trust runs high in Perry County, where residents fear environmental hazards, such as tornadoes and flooding, not to mention equipment failures, might cause another spill like that in east Tennessee.

“We’ve been taken advantage of by several groups of powers that be,” said Robert Bamberg, a catfish farmer and organizer of Concerned Citizens of Perry County, a group of landfill opponents. “There’s a sense among the population that we’ve been thrown under the bus.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Uniontown residents concerned about shipments of coal ash