Lisa Jackson

“Lisa Jackson, will you help us?”

The phrase is repeated over and over in a short film by Alabama activist Betsy Ramaccia. You can view the film on www.AshHoles.org. Last month at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) meeting in Tennessee, Ramaccia dressed in a haz-mat suit and handed out fake newspapers with the headline “The New Ash Hole of Alabama,” and directed them to the Web site. There, viewers can hear the voices and see the faces of several Uniontown, Alabama residents pleading with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to protect them from the dangers of coal ash. The Web site also has a form letter asking for protection where people can add their names and e-mails and submit them to Jackson.

“This is a case of environmental injustice, in which an underrepresented population of mostly African-American citizens who live at or below the poverty line are being taken advantage of. I ask that you protect me and my fellow citizens of Uniontown, Alabama, and the United States of America by calling coal ash what it is: a toxic substance that needs to be federally regulated,” the letter reads.

Earlier this week, the EPA approved the TVA’s request to store more than half of the toxic coal ash it recovers from east Tennessee site on which it spilled last December when a TVA impoundment pond burst, to a landfill near Uniontown in Perry County. Perry County is one of the poorest counties in Alabama. More than 30 percent of its population lives in poverty and the vast majority of residents are African-American.

Coal ash contains dangerous toxins such as arsenic and lead, which have been associated with serious health concerns.

Is it right to store dangerous material if it only affects the poor? Residents who expressed themselves on Ramaccia’s film don’t think so: “Ms. Jackson. Please help us here in Uniontown, Alabama.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Uniontown residents plead with EPA, ‘Will you help us?’