Corruption, Politics, Big Business and Environmental Injustice
POLITICAL CORRUPTION IS A NATIONWIDE ISSUE AFFECTING ALL OF US. ALABAMA RANKS #5 AS THE MOST CORRUPT STATE. *DOJ 2007 stats Something is very wrong in the Land of Cotton PERTINENT ENVIRONMENTAL AND CORRUPTION ISSUES IN OTHER STATES ARE ALSO DISCUSSED
NO OTHER COMMUNITY, RICH OR POOR, URBAN OR SUBURBAN,BLACK, BROWN,RED, YELLOW OR WHITE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO BECOME AN "ENVIRONMENTAL SACRIFICE ZONE." Dr. Robert Bullard Environmental Justice Movement Founder
Impact Perry County, a citizens group, has won one round in their legal fight to gain access to public records against the Perry County Water Authority, and now turns their sights on to the pervasively corrupt Perry County Commission (PCC) led by coal ash cad extraordinaire Albert Turner, Jr.
Perry County has been wallowing in dirty money ever since the PCC approved the mostly minority community to be a toxic waste receptacle for the remnants of the coal ash from the TVA Kingston spill. It was a controversial project from the start, rife with strong potential for nefarious activity, and despite the claims of the county that "the entire community would benefit" from the deal, the only real beneficiaries seem to have been Turner and his buddies.
And who else is benefiting? Why the state of Alabama and ADEM of course:
It's no secret: Perry County Commission has made around $1,000,000 in the months since coal ash shipments began coming to the Uniontown landfill facility. When all 3,000,000 or so tons of coal ash have been dredged from the Emory River in Tennessee and trucked to the local landfill, the county's general fund will see about $3,000,000 in extra revenue. When confronted with concerns about the potential environmental impact of the coal ash on Perry County, commissioners have reminded citizens of this cash infusion's potential benefit to county finances. Testifying before Congress in December, Commissioner Albert Turner went as far as to say the host county fee has transformed Perry County from one of the poorest counties in Alabama to one of the wealthiest. Alabama's Department of Environmental Management, though, hasn't been quite as vocal about a similar arrangement between that organization and landfill owners throughout the state. During Alabama's 2008 legislative session, the legislature passed a law requiring all municipal solid waste landfills to pay $1.00 to ADEM for each ton of solid waste disposed in Alabama landfills. That fee is part of the state's Recyclable Materials Management Act, which purports to fund community-based recycling programs throughout the state, along with providing operating funds to ADEM. The state regulatory agency approved the coal ash deal in mid-2009, and began receiving payments shortly thereafter. Like Perry County Commission, ADEM has now made about $1,000,000 off of coal ash being dumped in Perry County, and stands to make at least $2,000,000 more.
Add a particularity distasteful African American lobbyist Greg Jones of the Jones Group, LLC who represented the company behind the landfill, Perry Uniontown Ventures (PUV), to the list of human misery merchants. PUV has since filed for bankruptcy to avoid lawsuits. They took the money and ran and "pulled a Bentley" on their brothers and sisters in Uniontown, with a little help from Stephen Bradley's partner, Guy McCullough and the law firm of *Maynard, Cooper & Gale who also lobbied for PUV.
*(ppg 52 of 83 Alabama Ethics Commission 2010 lobbyists records)
There was benefit alright, to lawyers, PR men, corrupt officials and the company itself, but not one thin dime has improved the quality of life for the people who have to live with this dangerous dump and are suffering because of the avarice of these toxic representatives.
The fact that this watchdog group has to take legal action to access public records speaks volumes, but they are not the only Alabama community that deals with stone walling by public officials over public records and transparency on a regular basis.
Stars may fall on Alabama, according to the sentimental old song, but sunshine rarely does.
We wish this group great success and will be following this story closely.
Updated October 27
This ABC news story from the 2010 National Legislators Convention in Kentuckywas hot news on many blogs and various news sites late yesterday evening that focused primarily on decadent bad behavior by the attendees from the ethics standpoint, but it's on our radar for additional reasons: We know a thing or two about lobbyist Greg Jones who was hosting a golf outing for four Alabama legislators who thought it was more important to play with their balls instead of attending ethics seminars that were going on while these bad boys were enjoying their recreating.
"Par fore the course" because you know what they say about birds of a feather..." Vultures is more like it, read on.
Mr. Jones' lobbying firm represented the Perry Uniontown Ventures Group who were responsible for establishing dump sites in the Perry and Marengo black belt counties that accepted the toxic coal ash sludge removal wastes from the Kingston TVA spill in 2008. The sites were specifically chosen to be placed in minority areas and have caused great misery to those residents, some of whom have filed lawsuits, and it is the subject of ongoing debate that stretches from Alabama to Washington, DC.
According to the permit granted to the landfill by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the landfill owners and managers are bound to bury the coal ash separately from household garbage, which is also dumped into the ground there in Perry County very near people’s homes. This angle clearly shows that coal ash is being mixed with household garbage, which can contain dangerous substances by itself. According to expert sources, it may be unprecedented for a landfill to combine these elements in one place, and there is no sound science showing the cumulative effects. Add that to the problems the landfill has had getting rid of the liquid waste that drains out of the coal ash, and you have the makings of a massive environmental justice disaster on a scale no government agency has even begun to come to terms with. (Photo credit: Locust Fork Journal/Glynnis Wilson Southwings)
As we have written about before, the Jones Group holds itself up as a champion for minority causes and touts solidarity with "their own" in addition to being one of the vanguards of Alabama's minority children, but we do notice that some of their stellar causes have been removed from the website since we last reported on them.
But this is still there;
Services: "Lobbying - Educating legislators and using our knowledge of the legislative process to affect legislation."
"In lobbying legislation on behalf our clients, we make every attempt to affect the outcome of legislation by coordinating planned and well-executed efforts to either have legislation passed or conversely, keep it from being passed."
They have the added distinction of lobbying for Stephen Bradley & Associates (BARD) who is himself a lobbyist and "governmental affairs consultant." Mr. Bradley, who is pasty white in color only, carries on the fine tradition of the Black Belt Big Mule Coalitionthat specifically targeted minorities and took advantage of them every chance they got during the Industrial Age of Alabama and into the Civil Rights Era.
*(Neither client is listed on the Jones website under clients, but they are on page 45 of 83 of the 2010 lobbyists form submitted to the Alabama Ethics Board.)
Ethics in either of these men seems non-existent based on their documented histories. The contrast between the Jones Group's causes and the history of the Big Mule Coalition is striking and the images that portray them are in direct conflict with each other. But not in Alabama the veritable definition of contradiction and corruption.
If we didn't have enough of a reason to dislike Mr. Jones before, this story does little to change our opinion towards this cad. We have to wonder if the minority people of Alabama knew what he is really made of, if there wouldn't be a little reverse Big Mule justice applied to him and these minority legislators that choose to associate with this fiend.
The most compelling aspect of this is that minorities, in a state that fought hard to overcome racism and crimes against them from the Big Mules among others, are now experiencing similar crimes from within their own race. If you're black, poor and live in Alabama you're still viewed as an expendable commodity and the poverty pimps in their own race have made an unholy alliance with the remnants of the Big Mules to keep them further enslaved from the toxic effects of big business and the elected representative corruption in their communities.
The ABC news story describes this state legislature convention as "one big party on the taxpayer dime" that's nothing more than a four-day party. We can go them one better than that--we hear that for the 90 days each year that the Alabama legislature meets in Montgomery that the hi-jinks and debauchery going on while the state's business is supposed to be conducted would rival the National Lampoon film Animal House.
ABC Video
The Alabama group is composed of:
Artis McCampbell (D-Demopolis, Perry County)
Oliver Robinson (D-Birmingham)
Harry Shiver (R- Bay Minette)
Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro)
A story in today's Montgomery Advertiser has these arrogant jerks defending themselves with claims of "they weren't doing anything wrong." Even if that non-plausible excuse flies, we need only to look at the past actions of some of these thug-like villains to see what they do and bear witness to the bad behavior of certain Alabama politicians.
While seven hearings have been scheduled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider a classification for coal ash, not one was scheduled in Tennessee, the site of the disastrous TVA coal ash disaster in 2008. Residents of Roane County, Tenn. directly affected by the 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal ash disaster were ignored. A coalition of environmental justice organizations - forming the Citizens' Coal Ash Hearing Committee - will host a people's hearing to help ensure that the voices of those who have been impacted by the lack of a "hazardous" classification of coal ash have a chance to testify.
The people's hearing will take place at 5:30 PM EST, Thursday September 2, 2010 at the Roane State Community College in Harriman, Tenn. The hearing will provide time to collect testimony and comments that will be presented to the EPA regarding the ongoing coal combustion residuals rule making process. An EPA official will provide a brief overview of the proposals prior to the people's hearing.
We hope you'll consider attending the Citizen's Coal Ash Hearing and spread the word to your friends. Thanks for all you do to protect our mountains and communities.
Sincerely,
Matt Wasson iLoveMountains.org
*** Citizens' Coal Ash Hearing Committee: Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM), the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, The Tennessee Clean Water Network, Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, Tennessee Environmental Council, Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light, Cumberland Stewards, United Mountain Defense, and the Scott County Environmental Coalition ***
P.S. -- Please help us spread the word on Facebook
Trustworthiness:
Vendor reliability:
Privacy:
Child safety:
None were scheduled in Alabama either.
No EPA hearings were scheduled for Alabama either.
Perry, Marionand Marengo Counties are the unfortunate recipients of most of the toxic coal ash from the Kingston TVA spill.
We know they have a thing or two to say to the EPA about this issue and they've certainly tried and been repeatedly ignored by the federal and state governments, US EPA and EPA Region 4:
Perry County, Alabama--"The area where they're dumping it is 70 percent people of color and many are below the poverty level. It's an environmental justice community. It's a county where all the white people, for the most part, are going to vote Republican and all the black people, for the most part are going to vote Democratic. Democrats don't come down there because they know they're going to get the vote anyway. So neither party pays a lot of attention to Perry County.
It's primarily a poor community, with people that grow gardens every year not for hobby but because they need the food. They can't grow their vegetables now because they're afraid of what may be in the water.
They bring the wet coal ash down here and mix it with household garbage, creating an enormous amount of leachate. It's thick and brown—it's like a toxic milkshake. In order to reduce the amount of leachate, they pump it from the bottom of the landfill into trucks and drive it around to the top, on top of the coal ash and let that filter through—but that intensifies the arsenic.
We sent two complaints to Lisa Jackson. First I sent one informal request for help, then two formal complaints through the EPA process, and they've never responded to a single one." John Wathen Hurricane Creekkeeper
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) profits from each ton dumped in these three counties:
"ADEM recovers a good bit of money off that coal ash. They get a fee for every ton of ash that gets disposed of there. EPA has a vested interest because they have to get the spill cleaned up in Tennessee and they can't do it without a place to put the ash."
Reader decide if those could be considered possible motives, though definitely not all of them, for the obvious racism and classicism being perpetrated on the poor and mostly minority communities in Alabama where the coal ash is being sent to.
Some of the ash was sent to Mobile, Alabama for treatment and when those residents found out about it their public outcry put a stop to it. It helped their cause that the wastewater was being discharged into Mobile Bay which is a high priority body of water to the state powers that be.
Why are the voices in these other communities, the ones that are "70% poor and minority" that depend on the local groundwater for their drinking water supply, who are just as loud and impassioned as the majority white community in Mobile, falling on stone deaf regulatory ears? *See the "Document Box" in sidebar for EIPs latest study on coal ash August 2010
As we have quoted in the heading of this blog: "A man is known by the company he keeps"
We are continually astonished that wherever major environmental assaults are happening in this state, Mr. Bradley's name (and now his partner as PR man for Perry Uniontown Ventures) seems to always be a part of it.
In the blog entry "Why does one lobbyist hire a lobbying firm to lobby for them" we raised the question of why the Jones Group, LLC, a minority owned and run lobbying firm from Montgomery has Stephen Bradley & Associates (which includes Mr. McCullough) as their client? Perhaps this coal ash disposal issue has the answer; the Jones Group also lobbies for Perry Uniontown Ventures the owners of the site.
So now we have another question for this lobbying group that crows about their "championing for minority cause and rights";Why are you helping to kill and sicken the residents of Uniontown and destroying the environment when the ones who are suffering the most are minority residents?
I think we know the answer to that one. It is about what it is always about, the money.
Bradley & Associates could not get influence with the black leaders of the community. So, they hire a minority firm to get a foothold into communities that they "need assistance" with.
Environmental injustice and environmental racism at it's worst once again. Mr. Bradley already did this to another black community, Emelle, now it was Guy's turn and we would be willing to bet they had conversations about it.
ADEM is in on the act too. Par for the course with them as history has shown us with that corrupt department with far too much power.
Everybody who gets rich off of these reprehensible acts never has to live in the communities they destroy.
Now with the landfill owners being threatened with massive litigation, they file for bankruptcy which stops any new litigation against them. Guy McCullough is leading the charge and running interference for the company. We wish him no success in that endeavor.
This is Perry County's problem courtesy of the Perry County Herald:
(notice how much he sounds like Bradley in what we have heard about the quarry proposed for Vincent)
PRESS RELEASE from LANDFILL OWNERS:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 25, 2010
CONTACT: Guy McCullough (205) 933-6676
Perry Uniontown Ventures I, LLC
And Perry County Associates, LLC
Petition Court to Reorganize
MOBILE, AL — The owners of Arrowhead Landfill, near Uniontown in Perry County, Alabama, have filed a voluntary petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Alabama to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Jeffery J. Hartley, bankruptcy counsel for Perry Uniontown Ventures I, LLC (PUV) said today’s court filing was brought about when landfill operators Phillips and Jordan, Inc. and Phill-Con Services, LLC withheld monies they have received from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) under a $95 million contract for the disposal of coal ash at the landfill owned by PUV. The two companies operate the landfill under an agency agreement with PUV.
“Given Phillips and Jordan’s refusal to turn over monies to ownership, to
make payments they had agreed to make, or to provide a proper
accounting of the funds, PUV had no choice but to petition the court to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while it reorganizes,” Mr. Hartley said.
Mr. Hartley said Phillips and Jordan has received more than sufficient funds
from the TVA contract to allow for the payment of ordinary expenses of the
facility, such as wages, taxes, county fees, insurance and payments on the
facility’s debt.
The Arrowhead Landfill, regarded as the most advanced of its kind in the eastern U.S., will continue to operate safely and effectively, without
interruption, while the bankruptcy proceeding moves forward, Mr. Hartley
said.
The Arrowhead Landfill is a 976.5-acre Subtitle D landfill, located 75 miles
west of Montgomery, Alabama. When TVA and EPA chose Arrowhead over 25 other sites, they cited—in part—the fact that “Arrowhead meets or exceeds the most stringent protective disposal standards for municipal solid waste landfills.”
The landfill was completed on time and on budget and landed the TVA
contract in the first year of real operations during tough economic
conditions. The facility has enjoyed a record of operational safety and success throughout its history.
Arrowhead is served directly by the Norfolk Southern rail line. TVA and
EPA have each recognized that Arrowhead’s unique access to fast track
rail transport reduces the level of traffic congestion, air impact, and road
repair necessary to safely dispose of the coal ash.
The coal ash disposed of at Arrowhead has been reclaimed from a spill that
occurred on December 22, 2008 at the TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant in
Roane County, Tennessee. It is transported directly from Kingston to
Arrowhead via a fast track of the Norfolk Southern rail way in specially
protected and sealed rail cars. More than 1,000,000 tons of ash have been
safely disposed of to date. The state-of-the-art Arrowhead Landfill, which operates as a public-private
partnership, has resulted in an unprecedented economic boost for Perry
County, Alabama.
County Commissioner Albert Turner, Jr. has testified before Congress that the resulting windfall has “transformed one of the poorest counties per capita in Alabama to one of the more affluent counties in Alabama.”
Mr. Hartley said he expects PUV to quickly restructure the company for
long-term profitability and growth.
“The Arrowhead Landfill has all of the elements necessary to pay its obligations, to be profitable and to ensure the safe disposal of coal ash from the Kingston Plant. We are, therefore, confident that both PUV and Arrowhead will be solid businesses going forward. In the meantime, however, the facility will continue to operate safely and with the extraordinary standard of excellence established throughout the facility’s life,”Mr. Hartley said.
"Safety, extraordinary standard of excellence, meets or exceeds the most stringent protective disposal standards for municipal solid waste landfills, unprecedented economic boost...etc"
Unbelievable they can even use those words to describe what that dump has really done to Uniontown residents, but so familiar that type language is to Vincent residents....
Now for the real story:
Let's start with a quote from Artur Davis, a man who wants to be the next Governor of Alabama:
U.S. Rep. Artur Davis says he sympathizes with both the revenue-starved local officials and the coal industry.
“I am more than sympathetic that the storage of industrial waste is a job source in high unemployment counties like Perry and that the county will benefit from tax revenues generated by this storage,” Davis says. “I am also mindful that the storage violates no current state or federal law, and that a reclassification of coal ash as hazardous could pose significant burdens on coal-reliant industries.”
It's okay if they get sick as long as they have jobs and the big offenders don't get hit in their bottom lines Mr. Davis? Pick a side and get off the fence sir. Your job as an elected official is to represent your people faithfully, not the big donors to your campaign coffers that do not have the people's interests in mind.
That is very similar to what one of the proponents of the quarry in Vincent said about the Old Alabama Plating Company at Hwys. 60 & 231, that caused so many residents and even animals to get cancer; "It was a terrible place to work, but at least they had jobs."
The EPA spent 14,000,000.00 cleaning that mess up. But much like the Uniontown situation, ADEM did nothing to enforce compliance, neither did EPA Region 4.
From Radioaudio.net Thursday, April 8, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Victims of toxic coal ash travel to D.C. on Monday, will make case for pending regulation with office of Obama “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein
Frustrated residents being ignored, will urge White House officials to declare coal ash hazardous and stop holding up public health protections
Cleveland, Ohio, April 8 – Residents from Alabama, Oklahoma, and Ohio will meet with staff of the White House Office of Information of Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) on Monday to discuss the pending regulations on coal ash. Tim Tanksley, Elisa Young, and John Wathen, represent three of seven individuals from communities across the country who joined together this week in a letter to President Obama’s “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein, inviting him to meet about the proposed protections on coal ash.
All seven individuals had already sent personal letters to Sunstein, recounting their experiences with coal ash pollution in their communities, and asking him to come see for himself how it has poisoned drinking water, endangered people’s health, and caused home values to plummet. They say they have not yet received replies to their invitation for a visit.
"Coal ash is a dangerous substance that hurts individuals and devastates communities," said Rachael Belz of Ohio Citizen Action. "Since Mr. Sunstein did not respond to the invitations from the neighbors of the coal ash facilities, we will take our case directly to his office in Washington.”
While in town, the group would also like to meet with other congressional and regulatory leaders about regulating toxic coal ash.
Coal ash, an unregulated hazardous byproduct of burning coal, has been dumped into communities across America, contaminating groundwater and drinking water with toxic metals including arsenic, mercury, lead and boron.
Last October, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed new rules to regulate coal ash disposal, but the new protections have been stalled for over five months at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the office charged with reviewing them for the President, which Sunstein runs. Since his office received the proposed regulations on Oct. 16, 2009, Sunstein's staff has met with representatives of the coal and fly ash industries more than 20 times.
Sunstein has not made any public trips to see the real-life effects of coal ash on communities across America, despite the citizens’ requests.
The invitation to meet came from residents of Alabama, Indiana, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. “Are you really hearing the whole story about coal ash?” the seven citizens asked in a letter to Sunstein on Monday. “From those of us who deal with coal ash in our daily lives, we do not think you are.”
Below are a few excerpts from the individual letters that citizens sent to Sunstein. Full text of the meeting request, and the previous letters inviting him to their home towns, are available on the Ohio Citizen Action website.
* Tim Tanksley, of Bokoshe, Oklahoma, wrote: “The fly ash is in our air and in our water; it is flowing into our creeks, streams, and eventually into the Arkansas River. Among the 20 households nearest the pit, there are at least 14 people with cancer.”
* John Wathen, of Uniontown Alabama, the community that has been receiving toxic coal ash from the cleanup of the 1.1 billion-gallon spill in December 2008 in Harriman, Tenn., wrote: "Trucks unload the ash within 200 feet away from people’s homes. They are also intentionally washing it off train cars and trucks into a stream... The landfill was pumping this toxic leachate over roads and down into public ditches at night.” John can also describe how some residents hang rags soaked in Pine-Sol in their windows just so that they can avoid the smell and get to sleep at night.
* Elisa Young, of Meigs County, Ohio wrote: "They have lined our kids’ running tracks with power plant waste, filled in roads with it along the Ohio River causing huge fish kills, and even made cattle feeders out of it.”
Ohio Citizen Action is 80,000 Ohioans who have joined together to prevent pollution. Non-profit and non-partisan, Ohio Citizen Action was founded in 1975. The organization’s website and more information about toxic coal ash can be found at http://www.ohiocitizen.org
Who else is profiting from Uniontown disaster ADEM:(also from the Perry County Herald)
What's the Deal with ADEM?
It's no secret: Perry County Commission has made around $1,000,000 in the months since coal ash shipments began coming to the Uniontown landfill facility. When all 3,000,000 or so tons of coal ash have been dredged from the Emory River in Tennessee and trucked to the local landfill, the county's general fund will see about $3,000,000 in extra revenue.
When confronted with concerns about the potential environmental impact of the coal ash on Perry County, commissioners have reminded citizens of this cash infusion's potential benefit to county finances. Testifying before Congress in December, Commissioner Albert Turner went as far as to say the host county fee has transformed Perry County from one of the poorest counties in Alabama to one of the wealthiest.
Alabama's Department of Environmental Management, though, hasn't been quite as vocal about a similar arrangement between that organization and landfill owners throughout the state. During Alabama's 2008 legislative session, the legislature passed a law requiring all municipal solid waste landfills to pay $1.00 to ADEM for each ton of solid waste disposed in Alabama landfills. That fee is part of the state's Recyclable Materials Management Act, which purports to fund community-based recycling programs throughout the state, along with providing operating funds to ADEM.
The state regulatory agency approved the coal ash deal in mid-2009, and began receiving payments shortly thereafter. Like Perry County Commission, ADEM has now made about $1,000,000 off of coal ash being dumped in Perry County, and stands to make at least $2,000,000 more.
Scott Hughes, an ADEM spokesman, said the money "allows [ADEM] to provide recycling grants to communities, to provide funds to clean up illegal dumps, and it provides funding for ADEM's Solid Waste division."
Hughes noted that county governments have always been allowed to charge a per-ton fee to landfills operating within their county, but the new law allows ADEM to benefit from the businesses as well. In addition to the per-ton fee ADEM now collects, it brings in revenue by granting permits to landfill operators, permits which have to be renewed every five years.
Some in the conservation movement, however, are uneasy about the financial relationship between ADEM and such businesses.
In a video statement last year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of the National Waterkeeper Alliance said the failure of state government, particularly of ADEM, was "the number one problem in the state of Alabama." He went on to call ADEM "one of the worst environmental agencies in the United States."
Kennedy said ADEM was a prime example of a "captive agency," that is, a government agency that has become indebted to the very groups it is supposed to police, with "the biggest polluters in the state dictating policy."
Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen has advocated for Perry County citizens who say their quality of life has suffered due to the landfill, particularly the coal ash being disposed of there. He echoed Kennedy's feelings on the matter.
"This is just one more symptom of how ADEM has failed the entire state," Wathen said Tuesday. "I would like to ask ADEM one thing. I would like to know why the people in Swan Pond, Tennessee [where the Emory River disaster occurred] are more important than the people in Perry County, Alabama."
He has criticized ADEM for being slow to respond to citizen complaints of illegal activity at the Uniontown landfill. In particular, Wathen says he is concerned about the allegation that landfill owners, faced with an overabundance of landfill leachate after recent heavy rains, have been illegally pumping the sludge onto the ground on undeveloped parts of the landfill property. Wathen took photos he said proved those allegations and submitted them to ADEM, calling on them to investigate. When, nearly a month later, investigators visited the site, they returned with a report of no violations.
In an email to the federal Environmental Protection Agency's director Lisa Jackson, Wathen says the leachate discharges have contaminated residential property near the landfill and deprived the public of the use of parts Chilatchee Creek, whose headwaters he says have also been contaminated by the leachate pumping.
"It is my opinion that ADEM intentionally delayed the inspection," Wathen told Jackson, "to allow PCA-Arrowhead personnel to install the new silt fencing photographed by ADEM inspector Janna McIndoe." Wathen is referring to fencing installed in ditches on the landfill property to stop solid particle flow but allow water to pass through. "To me," he continued, "It seems very suspicious that after 18 days delay, new fences were photographed by ADEM and in every photo prior there are no such fences, old or new."
ADEM's report on the complaint chalks the complaints up to landfill operators pumping storm water off the site.
"It is anything but storm-water being intentionally pumped into the roadside ditches," Wathen told Jackson. "It is in my opinion an intentional and illicit discharge of toxic mater from an ADEM permitted site. I was there and saw, sampled, smelled, and photographed this material when there had been no rain." He said he ran tests on the liquid and found higher than acceptable levels of arsenic and other contaminants. The pumping, according to residents living near the landfill, happens late at night to avoid detection.
Wathen says he is also concerned about a deficit in the landfill's assurance bond. This bond, which landfill owners are required pay into throughout the life of a landfill, exists to provide funds to safely maintain and reclaim a landfill site once it closes. According to ADEM's website, PCA owes over $1.6 million in assurance bond payments. The agency had been allowing PCA to make only partial payments on the bond. ADEM's estimated cost of reclamation of the landfill site for the purpose of the assurance bond is $3.5 million.
Friends of Hurricane Creek, of which Wathen is a member, is one of 14 environmental agencies across the state petitioning EPA to take over ADEM's regulatory authority in the state. They submitted a petition to EPA last month claiming ADEM was incapable of enforcing water pollution regulations.
At that time, Wathen said his and other groups had been "very diligent" in documenting pollution violations throughout the state, and the agency had made "no effort to enforce even the most basic regulations."
ADEM is allowing only partial payments on the bond, someone ask Marsh Acker of the Vincent Zoning Board if he is listening since this is an issue he keeps spouting off about in reference to the proposed WRQ Vincent Hills quarry.
If something of this magnitude can happen to Uniontown, what chance do we stand in Vincent if this quarry gets in and sinkholes start opening up under the large, pressurized Colonial pipeline, the gas lines, the RR that carries toxic chemicals through downtown Vincent everyday?
We make the evening news and national papers and the Vincent and Shelby County officials can explain it away saying that "at least we had jobs and revenue for the county and community" just like all involved with the tragedy in Uniontown seem to be doing.
Including Artur Davis which we expected much more from. Think about his words to the Uniontown residents come election day.
Bradley Byrne is being bought by Stephen Bradley, along with his unsavory lobbying friends like Geddie and all the PACs they are both involved in.
(Might help explain why only his election material has been in the Vincent officials papers at CC meetings. Mr Bradley made sure they were put there.)
We have elected these officials in Vincent to represent us, the people. They have been anything but representative people's government and taken Bradley, Fowler and WRQs side against us at every turn for the promise of money, with no regard to the credible concerns we have. The Perry County Commission president Albert Turner, Jr. has done exactly the same thing to the citizens of Perry County with coal ash from the TVA Kingston Spill.
ADEM and EPA Region 4 condone these egregious actions of environmental injustice because they are profit machines for state coffers.
This is why people need to be so well informed about what is going on around them in other communities, not just in their own backyards. The same clique of bad actors are usually involved in controversial environmental issues all over the state. We need to really examine candidates before we cast our votes and not take the responsibility lightly, especially in the land of cotton, quarries, corruption and coal ash.
(Click on title for link)
Thursday April 15, 2010 They told this community there would be no reason to be concerned when they proposed doing this. Where have we heard that before?
"The transfer of the ash 327 miles from Tennessee to the mostly black community of Uniontown is partly a story about how people are faring at the receiving end. Federal environmental justice policy requires that low-income and minority communities aren't burdened with out-sized environmental risks."
Read what the residents have to say about that in Uniontown, Alabama.
Why is this happening? Once again "profit for the county and state over people." This tune is becoming far too familiar....
"The state environmental agency, which oversees the landfill, and Perry County, whose commissioners approved it, get a fee for the ash dumped there. The county expects to take in more than $3 million for county roads, schools and other needs."
That agency would be ADEM and there's that same old line about "money for roads and schools" AGAIN.
We were tipped off to this story by citizens who noticed it while researching information via the web. Just another example of the "Mules" carrying on their bad, or should we say, BARD traditions of using minorities to further their destructive agenda?
On the 2010 registered lobbyists list from the Alabama Ethics Commission website, there are two lobbyist entries that caught someone's attention:
Jones Group, LLC The
111 Washington Avenue
334-832-7334
Montgomery, AL 36104
Their clients from the PDF file on record AEC:
Abbott Laboratories, Inc.
Alabama Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs, Inc.
Alabama Gamefowl Breeders Association
Alabama State Employees Association
Alabama State University
Alabama Cable Telecommunications Association
John Guthrie, Jr. and Associates
Greene Track Incorporated
Community Action Association of Alabama
City of Montgomery
Community Education Centers, Inc.
Community Care Network, Inc.
LKQ Corporation
Stephen Bradley & Associates, LLC
South University
Tuskegee University
Tom Coker & Associates
P. Michael Cole, L.L.C.
Maynard, Cooper & Gale, PC
Pfizer Inc.
Perry Uniontown Ventures 1, LLC (Owners of the dump site where the coal ash from the TVA Spill is being sent to. Guy McCullough, Bradley's partner is their PR man.)
In checking on this group by visiting their web page, they are solely minority owned and operated and appear to be involved in some worthy monority causes and issues.
Except for two; Stephen Bradley & Associates and Perry County Ventures.
We have been told phone calls were made to the Jones Group and were not returned when the issue was raised about Mr. Bradley's history and current endeavors in Shelby County, Alabama. The callers wanted to know why, a minority owned firm would lobby for a "well to do" Caucasian firm, that is pushing for a large quarry in Vincent that will have a huge impact on Vincent's minority population.
An adverse effect for those people is putting it mildly. That has been covered previously in this blog.
Did Mr. Bradley hire this firm as a "voice" to the black communities he seeks to invade with his client's companies? Or did he hire this firm to act as a go between to black leaders and lawmakers to help "get them on board" with his client's interests?
This is one of the problems in Alabama that minority residents face and the press will not touch--the selling out to big business by strong minority groups and black politicians who claim to represent the best interests of "their people." We see this with the SCLC (Calvin Woods New South Coalition), Tuskegee Institute, Artur Davis, Albert Turner, Jr. in Perrytown, Sheila Smoot, Larry Langford, William Bell and a long list of others.
The lure of money and power is strong and the Big Mules have learned that the very people they once oppressed are valuable allies in pushing their agenda into minority areas through faces that are much more familiar to these communities than the faces of the Big Mules.
History tells us that the "Mules" tactics have never been in the best interest of minority groups and we suspect once again it is profit over people that rules the day.
