Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

“Are the people of Perry County, Ala., less valuable than the people in Kingston, Tenn.?” asks Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen. The activist sent a complaint letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lisa Jackson this week in an effort to stop shipments of coal ash recovered from the east Tennessee spill site to a poor, black community in Alabama. Residents near the Uniontown, Ala., landfill say the coal ash is stinking up their town. And they, too, worry that the same toxic sludge that poured down on the community of Kingston causing serious damage and threatening human health, may create problems for them as well.

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Toxic coal ash recovered from a massive spill site in east Tennessee was deemed too dangerous by the state of Pennsylvania to be stored there, but some Alabama officials welcomed that coal ash with open arms. One U.S. Representative from Alabama is standing up for the people, urging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish consistent standards at the federal level that would fully address legitimate concerns about the content of coal ash waste.

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“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.

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