NPR--Secret 'Watch List' Reveals Failure To Curb Toxic Air

NPR and the Center For Public Integrity team up for a four part series "Poison Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities" kicking it off with the release of an EPA "secret watch list:"

Pollution violations at more than 1,600 plants across the country were serious enough that the government believes they require urgent action, according to an analysis of EPA data by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity. Yet nearly 300 of those facilities have been considered "high priority violators" of the Clean Air Act by the Environmental Protection Agency for at least a decade.
About a quarter of those 1,600 violators are on an internal EPA "watch list," which the agency has kept secret until now.

The report cites a "lack of modern equipment and rules" and a "system of self-reporting" as major contributors to the rampant, serial pollution that's continuing to threaten communities and lives. They're exactly right, but industry propaganda spins out fear and misinformation to the masses by claiming that increased regulation and equipment updating will result in a "loss of jobs and unnecessary rate hikes."

What these industry disinformation spin masters leave off is the documented increase in costs to Americans for health care, higher mortality rates and the overall increasing toll on human health from less stringent regulation and oversight. These industry apologists would have us believe that profits by the polluters trump citizen's rights to clean communities.

That idea came about during the Bush era EPA which instituted a steady decrease in the value of a human life as a means to institute less regulation.

It was a big lie then and it still is now. 

view full searchable map »

Incredulously, only one Alabama company wound up on the serial offender list: Chemical Lime Company of Alabama in Calera.

Region 4 EPA recently released their 'answers' to the residents of North Birmingham in response to the Walter Energy contamination (Deadly Deception). The 'answers' and explanations from the EPA are couched in generalities and offer no real solutions to the resident's plight.

On the heels of media attention and the environmental justice meeting that occurred in Birmingham this past July, it's our postilion that no one at that meeting heard a word. Inside sources tell us that the meeting was never supposed to be public, and it only went public because of pressure from the right people in positions of influence.

The EPA acts schizophrenic at times, listens to too many voices, contradicts itself and occasionally does things that defy logic unless you're a mental patient. This may be one of those instances. Why do they seem more concerned with keeping secrets and remaining less than transparent in releasing information that serves the public good? There's no excuse for that, but we're interested to hear their explanations.

Allowing these toxic titans to self-police and self-report is inexcusable. So is misleading the public by keeping internal 'secrets' designed to protect corporate America at the expense of citizen America.
*additional reading: "Many Americans Left Behind in the Quest for Cleaner Air"
Air monitoring results N. Birmingham--locations to view data

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"Mudd " Slinging--William Bell vs Bill Mudd

Birmingham Mayor William Bell is on the attack against Birmingham lawyer and business owner William "Bill" Mudd over the Birmingham Barons $60 million dollar Baseball Park project. Bell descended into street thuggery with a direct insult to Mudd that hints at Bell's real feelings about businesses who don't belong (which Mudd does not) to his favorite private cartel--the Birmingham Business Alliance. Their mantra seems to be if you aren't with us, you're against us, and we'll threaten eminent domain as a necessary tactic.

This is a deal about baseball alright--the inside kind.

Mudd's B&A Warehouse would be a perfect segue into the entertainment district that is a part of Bell's, and the BBA's, plan for downtown Birmingham. Perfect unless Mayor Bell and private real estate developers cannot cut a deal with Mudd, who isn't really interested in selling his successful event/venue business to the city of Birmingham just so they can level the building in favor of something else. Mudd would rather have his business incorporated with the ballpark.

But the Mayor refuses to negotiate with Mudd, instead he has Jeffrey Bayer and another private real estate investor, Alan Engel, contact Mudd to 'lightly' pressure him to sell his property. Mudd mentioned he was curious, after those two phone calls, why private real estate investors were calling him instead of the Mayor. It's a great point and we wonder ourselves what the answer is.

Bell then called after the two developers and promised to call Mudd back and discuss the proposal further. It was an empty promise that Bell never intended to keep. What he did instead was ratchet up the specter of eminent domain and embark on strong-arm tactics against Mudd.

It's noteworthy that the BBA isn't living up to its name and supporting Mudd's existing business.

Bell's bully remark on a Fox 6 segment transforms any future meaningful dialogue into a non-productive, mud-slinging pr contest with the first fistful of useless nonsense thrown by the Mayor himself:

Mayor Bell voluntarily pulled the B&A warehouse out of a package of properties that the city will use eminent domain on to assemble the land for the stadium because most of the council wants to continue negotiating with owner Bill Mudd, who says he wants the project built around his property and doesn't want to sell.

Bell says the city will continue negotiating but he thinks this is about one thing: "Money, money, money, money," Bell said.

To which Mudd responded, "I don't want his money, and I don't need it. And it's insulting for me to hear that. And if he wants to come down here, walk across the park and talk about it, I'll tell him that."

Is this the same Mayor who praises economic development and claims to be supportive of all businesses in his not so fair city? The same Mayor who wants to run off Mudd's business in favor of the Negro Baseball Museum, a worthy enough project admittedly, but there's not one word in a 400 page document from the Mayor's office on how it will be paid for.

Taking into account that the notorious Walter Energy sponsored an April 2011 event in conjunction with the city of Birmingham, the Barons baseball team, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, earlier this year for Jackie Robinson Day, is it a stretch to imagine Walter may be involved with the Museum funds?

Would that explain the absence of any information on the funding for the museum, given the recent black eye Walter has gotten for the north Birmingham contamination? Have they offered to fund the project to placate city leaders and the Mayor? Would they contribute to appear racially sensitive after they have allegedly committed terrible transgressions against minority residents in Birmingham?

We'll never know until the Mayor decides to provide information on the funding, but one thing we can count on is that Bell doesn't care about fair and open communications with Mudd and B&A.

His latest salvo against Mudd is reprehensible, irresponsible and unbecoming the office of the Mayor in a city the size of Birmingham. He should be ashamed of himself, but he isn't because he knows the local paper will side with him on the issue.

It didn't take long for that to happen. In a recent Birmingham News editorial the "Our View" ED board claimed Mudd was "wrong" to "hold the city hostage" over the deal. In typical one-sided fashion and probably in anticipation of future advertisement dollars, the News acts as the go-to water boy for Bell's schemes yet again.

Shame on them too.

Mudd was interviewed on WAPI's morning show August 23rd. Judge for yourself who's really holding who hostage: (mp3 sound files)

Mudd Interview Part I

Mudd Interview Part II

Bill Mudd conducted himself as a gentleman in that interview. We certainly cannot say the same for the Mayor of Birmingham.

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential

*photo credit: Bernard Troncale Birmingham News

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In a League of His Own--Mayor William Bell

Birmingham Mayor William Bell is doing his level best to sidestep any taint from the Walter Energy contamination in north Birmingham by claiming that “until spring of this year he’d never been notified of soil contamination.” Bell’s coziness with the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA), the entity who lured *Walter Energy away from Tampa where they had been headquartered since the end of WW II, makes us wonder if he’s being truthful about what he knew and when, or slyly covering for the generous corporate campaign and event sponsor at the direction of the BBA.

*entry #243--"I wish they were all this easy," said a beaming Jim Searcy, vice president of business and industry retention at Birmingham Business Alliance.

William Bell has always been a team player, but it's questionable whose team he has been a member of all these years--the one that benefits him or the one that steps up for his constituent's interests. Why isn't he going to bat for his citizens in north Birmingham? All we're hearing from him is excuses of why no one should put the bead on him for any responsibility in the toxic mess.

(On a side note, Walter Energy is up for takeover after their CEO of three months decided to call it quits. Watch for the next corporate owner to be hailed as yet another big bucks entity coming to Birmingham.)
 

In a recent CBS 42 “Deadly Deception” clip, Mayor Bell incredulously claimed that he was not permitted to even communicate with the EPA about the decades-old issue in north Birmingham or anything else EPA related:

“The EPA still had the Mayor of Birmingham, not William Bell, but the Mayor of Birmingham listed as being banned from being able to communicate any form, way shape or form, with the federal government, in particular the EPA.”

What Mr. Bell was referring to, and twisting to suit his purposes, is a move by the federal government in 2009 that came after former Mayor Larry Langford was indicted on bribery and conspiracy charges, which placed him on a federal “Excluded Parties List:”

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford no longer has the authority to sign federal grant applications or enter into agreements that involve federal money as a result of his indictment on bribery and conspiracy charges.

Langford's name was placed on the federal government's Excluded Parties List -- a list of people and organizations barred from conducting business with federal agencies -- by the Environmental Protection Agency in March. Langford received a notice of the action in late February.

That action by the feds was to prevent Langford from having any more authority over federal grants and monies. It did not mean that Bell was "barred" from communicating with the EPA like he would have everyone believe with his recent statements. Unless he wants us to think that the EPA would not be willing to take a call from him that should have gone something like this:

‘I need help over here in my city Region 4, my residents are sick and dying because of a nearby coal plant. I'm hearing from them every day. We have three schools in the area and I am really worried about the children. Could you please send someone over here to do some testing and let’s see what we have going on over here?’

Bell never made that call and he’s never shown any concern for those residents until CBS 42 pulled back the curtain on the whole deal through their investigative reporting. Has anyone with CBS 42 put two and two together and questioned, among themselves, the validity of what Mayor Bell is now offering as an excuse?

Giving Bell the benefit of the doubt, that he really didn't understand, is not any more comforting because it suggests he isn’t sharp enough to comprehend the 2009 decision. The leader of a large metropolitan area should be quick on their feet in the critical thinking department and possess an ability to fully understand the detail and meaning of any federal actions directed at his city.

Blaming his inaction on Larry Langford's misdeeds is a lame ploy. And Bell knows it. He's a savvy political player who's well-versed in the game of misinformation and distraction.

We think he's playing the ‘I didn’t know’ card for political duck and cover in a publicly embarrassing situation while following the scripting of certain corporate interest coaches.

Much like the Birmingham News, who won't break themselves of the habit of protecting Walter Energy's misdeeds by continuing to use words like "voluntary cleanup," in addition to allowing Walter to continue the incessant parroting of their "good neighbor" and 'not our fault' nonsense.

We also find it ironic that Walter Energy teamed up with the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute for Jackie Robinson Day earlier this year. The Mayor has an on and off reputation for favoritism to minority rights and figures when it seems to suit his own agenda, financial interests and publicity stroking.

It’s a proclivity he often forgets when it comes to the Big Mules and the BBA’s pie-in-the-sky ideas. He’s way too caught up in his chameleon-like changeability of ‘I’m for my people until someone else has an economic scheme that will bring in the money and elevate my importance.’ Luring the Barons to Birmingham is high on Bell's list of importance.

With the Robinson tribute he got the trifecta--he appears (albeit selectively) racially sensitive, Walter Energy grateful and Birmingham Barons bone-throwing all rolled into one. But what has he done for those north Birmingham residents who have been suffering for years so far? Absolutely nothing, because there's no glory in it for him, and he knows he'll get a sackful of angry corporate cats (aka Walter Energy and the BBA) if he gets too involved with the little people.

It's a shame really, because he could have had his own Robinsonesque moment, if only he'd managed to call up enough courage to get on the right team just once in his long and often controversial political career.

Jackie Robinson’s contribution to baseball and his people deserved to have that honor in April, we won’t disagree with that, but of all the sponsors who could have been approached for the event the city chose Walter Energy. The same company who is the number one alleged suspect primarily responsible for the toxic poisoning in the minority neighborhoods of Collegeville and Harriman Park since 1989.

What would Jackie Robinson have said about that choice?

He would have called it what it is: foul ball.

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CBS 42 "Deadly Deception" Documentary August 9, 2011--9:00PM CST

From the leaders in environmental news we can use, CBS 42, Sherri Jackson and Ken Lass bring us full circle with the pervasive contamination in north Birmingham and beyond in their upcoming summation documentary on "Deadly Deception."

In what should be a contender for a well-deserved RTNDA Edward R. Murrow Award, this groundbreaking series from CBS 42 proves that one state media organization understands the concept of being unafraid and bold.

For decades the minority population in the Collegeville area of Birmingham have been the victims of toxic secrets, secrets that have cost them not only their health, but many have lost their lives for nothing more than just trying to live their lives. It didn't have to happen to them. The state knew the risks. The EPA knew the risks. Many people in positions of authority knew the risks. The citizens directly affected by the contamination were willfully kept in the dark while the profits poured into everyone else's pockets. 

It's happening all over Alabama: a flippant attitude of "better dead than unprofitable" permeates the economic development platform of this state. Jobs and profits trump clean air, clean water and the rights of citizens to exist in communities with a reasonable expectation that they will be safe from exposures that can kill them.

Years have passed, and many Alabamians are just now learning their right to live safely in their neighborhoods has been taken away from them by corporate Alabama. Compounding the tragedy is the fact that it's taken death after senseless death for these people to find out what they have been living with.

Why has it taken this long and why did so many have to die? How many more will?

Don't we have a Dr. "in charge of Alabama now" sitting in the Governor's mansion? Has he cast aside his Hippocratic Oath in favor of a monetary oath owed to his BARD benefactors and similar corporate campaign contributors? The same question stands for our lawmakers: where do their true loyalties lie?

There must be an end to this "deadly deception" and the paying to pollute mindset before any more lives are lost, communities are irreversibly ruined and more schoolchildren are sickened from the complete lack of responsibility by those charged with supposedly keeping us all safe. 

Anything less is not just a "troubling situation"--it's a fatal vision.



CBS 42 Deadly Deception Documentary-1

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CBS 42 Reports on the Jim Walter North River Mine Coal Slurry Spill and the First Round of Water Quality Tests

*Updated pictures of spill entering Lake Tuscaloosa BWRK July 28, 2011

CBS 42 continues their out-in-front of the pack environmental coverage of Walter Energy (WE) this time it's Fayette County and not north Birmingham.

The initial water testing results of the North River following WE's Jim Walter North River Steam Mine coal slurry spill are in, and as predicted, they aren't good.

The effects of the slurry spill don't resemble a benign event like the one described by Jim Walter spokesman Dennis Hall as nothing more serious than "mud and rocks after a heavy rain." Something much more ominous is revealed through this testing and raising suspicions of deliberate attempts to downplay the event.

Test results show:

---Levels of increased arsenic are being detected anywhere from a minimum of 3X to as high as 34X the limit of EPA levels

---Lead levels are coming at 3X EPA limits 

---Suspension of solids are registering at 4-5X EPA limits

---Turbidity is running at 8-12X higher than the water quality range limit 

Black Warrior Riverkeeper is conducting additional testing and will release their results soon. ASMC's Randall Johnson seems to be laying the groundwork for other direction finger-pointing by claiming that the elevated levels of toxins and pollutants are above and below the area of the spill. Maybe someone should remind him of the drifting nature of water columns.

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Black Water Don't keep On Rollin'--Jim Walter Mine Coal Slurry Spill in Fayette County, Alabama

On Friday July 15, 2011, at the Jim Walter Mine North River Steam Coal Mine in Fayette County, Alabama, a sensor failed to shut off the coal slurry pumping system for an estimated four hours, resulting in toxic waste being discharged into Freeman Creek. The creek flows into North River and on downstream to Lake Tuscaloosa and into the drinking water supply for the City of Tuscaloosa.

Here's a picture of how the water in the *North River usually appears:

Here's how it looks *post spill:

The Alabama Surface Mining Commission's (ASMC) Randy Jackson is assuring viewers that the "sediment will not be harmful" and "it will wind up in Lake Tuscaloosa and settle out there." It should be noted that neither Mr. Jackson or anyone else at the ASMC have any authority over water issues. They're not experts, but they'll try and portray themselves as them on TV.

ADEM's spokesman Scott Hughes says he notified the Tuscaloosa Water Department to "monitor its water" and says "the water is safe to drink."

Dennis Hall, JW North Mine spokesman is quoted as saying this about the spill: "It's like it rained and piles of mud slid into the water."

Everybody involved is attempting to downplay the spill as nothing to be concerned about. 

They're dead wrong and what we should worry about is why they want to mislead us about the dangers of what is really in that 'harmless' slurry:

Below is a list of chemicals found in coal slurry and sludge:

Aniline Acenaphthene Acenapthylene Anthracene Benzidine Benzo(a)anthracene Benzo(a)pyrene Benzo(b)fluoranthene Benzo(ghi)perylene Benzo(k)fluoroanthene Benzyl alcohol bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate bis(2-chloroethoxy)-methane bis(2-chloroethyl)ether bis(2-chloroisopropyl)ether Butyl benzyl phthalate Chrysene Dibenzo(a,h)anthracene

Dibenzofuran Dibutyl phtalate Diethyl phthalate Dimethyl phthalate Dioctylphthalate Fluoranthene Fluorene Hexachlorobenzene Hexachloroethane Indeno(1,2,3-c,d)pyrene Isophorone N-Nitrosodi-n-propylamine N-Nitrosodiphenylamine Naphthalene Nitrobenzene Phenanthrene Pyrene

Acrilamide Hexachloro-1,3-Butadiene Hexa-Cl-1,3-Cyclopentadiene 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene 1,2-Dichlorobenzene 1,3-Dichlorobenzene 1,4-Dichlorobenzene 2,4-Dinitrotoluene 2,6-Dinitrotoluene 2-Chloronaphtalene 2-Methylnapthalene |2-Nitroaniline 3-3'-Dichlorobenzidine 3-Nitroaniline 4-Bromophenyl phenyl ether 4-Chloroaniline 4-Chhlorophenyl phenyl ether 4-Nitroaniline

Specific Elements and Compounds
Source: Kentucky Division of Water. DOW-DES Analytical Data File.
Electronic File: Martin Co.Coal.Co.Slurry Release Data.xls

Jim Walter Resources (aka Walter Energy) is not a small company bringing in peanuts for profit. In the first quarter of 2011, the company brought in higher than 2010 profits of $408.7 million. It's a hugely successful company with money to burn who springs generously for some hay bales, a few truckloads of gravel and near-site pumping to mediate their spill of 'no consequence' in Fayette County.

We would like to ask ABC 33/40 why they did not check out these claims of 'no big deal' before they ran their story on the incident. By not doing that, what we're left with is propaganda and half-truths, and even more reasons to view Walter Energy as an extensively problematic operation in Alabama.

Shame on all of them.
*Photo credits Tuscaloosa News and: psellers

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Churnalism, Inc. and the North Birmingham Walter Coke Contamination

In an editorial from the Birmingham News on July 9, 2011, once again the editorial board missed the mark of accuracy, and either failed to gather the known facts or purposefully spun the the issue of the Walter Coke contamination in north Birmingham. Either way, the idea of verify first and print second is absent in our state media.

The editorial started out in the right direction and raised the importance of testing new and proposed school sites before construction begins. It's unthinkable that the Birmingham School Board and the City of Birmingham would embark on erecting a new school, especially in an area of years of heavy industry, without doing an environmental assessment first. They were forewarned about the existing problems as far back as 1989.

An ounce of prevention would have been well worth the proverbial pound of cure for students attending the Hudson K-8 school in Collegeville. The CBS 42 series "Deadly Deception" (DD) has been following the Walter Coke contamination story in north Birmingham for months now, and once again, print media is slow to catch up to the fast moving train of hard-hitting investigative reporting that CBS 42 has led with.

What makes the mistakes by the BNED so disappointing is that CBS' series has done the work for them, and all it takes to run an accurate editorial is to spend a little time looking through the video reports from Sherri Jackson and Ken Lass, lead reporters for the DD series. We wonder if they even bothered, based on their editorial, and hope that they did not rely too heavily on press releases and conversations with Walter Coke and Birmingham officials in forming their print opinion.

Here's what they got wrong:

"Walter Coke has been under an EPA enforcement order since 1989, so the agency can require Walter Coke to perform testing and cleanup, which the company is doing voluntarily now."

When you are under an enforcement order, clean up is not voluntary. It's ordered, as in you have to do this. Walter Coke has spit out the same angle; "we are doing the remediation on our own motivation to be a good neighbor." 

"-- arsenic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or benzo(a)pyrene -- are associated with Walter Coke," said the EPA's Brian Holtzclaw, although a spokesman for the company said they can come from a number of sources, "even nonindustrial sources, other than us."

Still, Walter Coke is doing its part and voluntarily paying to replace soil at Hudson K-8 and residential properties in the area where high levels of contamination were found. 

'Voluntarily doing their part' is a repetition of repeating the illusion that the company is 'doing the right thing just because.' It's interesting they allow the company to slip in the possibility that 'something else' may be causing the contamination besides the coke plant that has been operating at that site since 1967. Walter Coke even went so far as to blame the residents in the area for some of the contamination in previous correspondence with the EPA, read: "non-industrial sources." CBS included those documents in their series, all it would have taken to find them was for someone on the BNED to bother to look.

While Birmingham school officials said they didn't know about the contamination and didn't conduct environmental tests, they should know better now.

Yes they should, but they did know and CBS 42 made that clear in their previous segments on DD. Birmingham School Superintendent, Dr. Craig Witherspoon knew about the contamination in 2010, according to a document from the EPA, and he did nothing to inform the parents despite being asked to do so. The City of Birmingham also had to know prior to construction because of the 1989 order from the EPA documenting the contamination in the area. Why is the editorial board unable to put two and two together and report it decorously?

The most recent soil tests at Hudson showed "unacceptable levels" of contamination, said Holtzclaw, which led Walter Coke to strip out six inches of soil, put down a vapor barrier, fill in with new soil and resod the contaminated area. Soil testing will continue. 

The contaminated soil can and should be replaced we agree, but if the source of the contamination persists recontamination of the 'new soil' is certain and inevitable. Considering that it took decades for action to begin on any remedial action, it's not a stretch to presume additional remediation will not be timely.

 "If the pollution is coming to the soil...you can clean up that individual soil. but it's still going to be getting dirty and polluted so you gotta look at the source of the air pollution."---Dr. Anne Turner-Henson. 

Despite the residents calling for the school to be closed, the EPA is incredulously claiming that's not necessary, and the residents remain unhappy with the over-their-heads technical speak coming from the Jefferson County Department of Health:

The level of chemicals found at Hudson doesn't warrant closing the school, Holtzclaw said, but the testing will continue. Meanwhile, the county health department is monitoring air quality to make sure the school and surrounding areas are safe. 

Completely glossed over and absent from the editorial was the statement of EPA official Holtzclaw who said he was "shocked" that the Hudson K-8 school was built on ground that the EPA had already deemed contaminated. As far as the surrounding areas being safe, that's wide open for debate too, and we'll put that monkey squarely on the back of the EPA who has a nasty habit of raising the levels of acceptable exposure to allow big polluters leeway.

Birmingham News writer Marie Leech included in her story the glaring problem that happens in Alabama and other states, about the lack of a federal mandate that cities test for contamination before building new schools:

For most states, including Alabama, "EPA has recognized over the years that there were no guidelines or oversight when it came to the safety of building school properties," Holtzclaw said.
That led the EPA in November to establish a set of voluntary guidelines for school sites that suggests site reviews, environmental reviews and public involvement.
Environmental testing before schools are built is not required in Alabama, officials say, which could lead to more problems like the one at Hudson. 

The BNED did take issue with the nonsense of not testing first, but why did they let the city officials who knew off the hook? If there is something upsetting in this whole ordeal that ought to rank high on the list, although the EPA and ADEM are the most deserving of harsh criticism because they knew first and did nothing for decades. The EPA added insult to injury and failed miserably in making recommendations "voluntary" not federal requirements. However, even if there had been mandatory guidelines, Alabama would have found some way to challenge the legality of it, preventing adoption of the rules until the lengthy legal battle ran it's course.

 

Bob Morgan director of capitol projects for city schools gets dangerously close to sounding like an utter incompetent when he feigns 'whadda ya want from me, nobody said anything': 

Morgan said several community meetings were held when plans for the new school were being drafted, and nobody raised any concerns.
"In fact, everybody in the community said they wanted a new school," he said. "As long as we have people living in the community and sending their children to school, we have to provide them a school to go to." 

No one in the community knew they were living in a carcinogenic soup Mr. Morgan or they would have raised the same concerns (and hell) they are raising right now. But the city and state knew. Did you know too? Is it appropriate for you to assign any blame to parents for wanting new schools for their children to attend? We cry foul on that and you too, sir.

The worst transgression continues to be the blase attitude of our media who fail to get the facts straight and present honest stories on matters of tremendous public interest in a timely manner. The information was there since 1989 why didn't anyone in the print media find it?

The new motto of the Birmingham News is "this is our story" and they've taken some flack from some who felt the motto would have been better suited to 'this is your story.' Many are now distrustful of the News and their trend in recent years of filtering news stories with a biased interest, slanted in favor of business, established politicians and deference for certain advertisers endeavors.

Their position seems to have shifted to a predetermined discourse on particular issues  that doesn't rock the boat too hard and create a spillage of revenue dollars. Or political tempers. 

What took them so long to offer an opinion about the contamination in north Birmingham, and once they did, why does the BNED 'voluntarily' swing at the issue with velvet gloves and allow Walter Coke, the Birmingham School Board and city leaders some leeway? We suspect it's rooted in the bending of news stories and editorials to fit news values, political interests and media logic--the new norm in the age of press releases from governmental and corporate propagandists permeating news rooms.

The end result is more 'churnalism' than journalism.

Children continually being exposed to deadly toxins and city leaders acting dangerously irresponsible is not an issue to come late to reporting on, and if you are going to be tardy, at least make every effort to be 'dressed appropriately' in accuracy.

Anything less is not the real story.

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CBS 42 "Deadly Deception" Series Continues

CBS 42 continues to be the leader in following and reporting on the North Birmingham Walter Energy toxic contamination story. 

Monthly meetings are being held with the affected residents in conjunction with the EPA, Jefferson County Dept. of Health (JCDH) and Walter Energy in an attempt to better inform the community. Indicators are that attempt is failing miserably on all levels--mistrust is now running higher than ever and frustration seems to be increasing among the residents with each successive meeting.

It's a notable and ominous statistic that 7-8 additional funerals have occurred since the last monthly meeting. 

Walter Energy continues to maintain its innocence and claim they have no part in the contamination, despite being ordered by the EPA to remediate the contaminated areas in these neighborhoods. Walter's version of it is that they are cleaning up out of the goodness of their big business hearts.

What's happening to this area of North Birmingham is an environmental crime of serious proportions that appears to have no good end in sight. Adding fuel to the fire is a spokesman with the JCDH who speaks to these frightened and worried residents in technical and departmental jargon that they cannot understand. Our opinion is that this is not a miscommunication as much as it is a by design attempt to buffalo these people with technical verbal confusion.

Part of the problem is that some of the answers are not simple, as when the Jefferson County Department of Health tried to explain the process by which it measures contamination. The residents say the explanations are too complex.

“As far as I’m concerned, you have just wasted 30 minutes of my time. I have no earthly idea what you're talking about," says Jimmie Smith, who lives in Collegeville.

The confusion has led to mistrust.

Some feel the company is just putting them off, while contamination continues and they fear the resulting disease is killing them.

“It's where, well, we'll tell these black people we'll do it next month and the next month and by then they'll probably be dead," says a resident of North Birmingham.

That kind of talking over your audience sleight of tongue should end with this last meeting and not be repeated again. It's disingenuous and insulting at best and a blatant attempt to distract and deflect at worst. These are real human beings with real lives who are dying in alarming numbers from elevated cancer incidents in this area. They deserve a lot more respect than they are getting from the authority and corporate figures involved in this preventable tragedy.

CBS 42, Sherri Jackson and Ken Lass should be roundly applauded for staying on this story.

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CBS 42 "Deadly Deception" Continuing Reports on Walter Energy Contamination in North Birmingham Communities

Residents say Riggins School should have been closed--EPA agrees.

CBS 42 reporters Sherri Jackson and  Ken Lass reveal new chapters in the journey for justice of Collegeville and Harriman Park residents where residential properties and nearby schools have tested positive for high levels toxic contamination.

Community meetings were held recently in conjunction with Region 4 EPA that are giving rise to more troubling questions than good answers about why the Birmingham School Board, and Dr. Craig Witherspoon, did not inform the community of what they knew--these children and residents were (and still are) living with a silent killer.

In our last article on the "Deadly Deception" we included the initial report by CBS 42 that clearly showed Dr. Witherspoon being less than honest with these residents about what he knew and when he knew it. His words:

"We have met with the EPA and the levels are good....."

He knew that wasn't true, but it didn't stop him from evading accountability. He could have warned the residents a year before now, when he was provided copies of the EPA's test results that were anything but "good," and showed levels of contamination exceeding EPA levels by "300-600 times accepted levels" for cancer causing toxins, but he chose not to tell these residents what he knew.

Other school board officials described the tests as "indeterminate and inconclusive." There appears to be a united front of disinformation and denial by the school board. What was their motivation to keep quiet?

In the follow-up community meeting shown above, EPA Spokesperson Brian Holtzclaw has this to say about Riggins School, which he assumed was going to be closed on the basis of the results revealing dangerously high levels of toxins:

"Before the time it was going to be closed, I actually created a fact sheet just for Riggins School, you need to put fences up, you need to put signs all around, you need to educate all the students and faculty. I presumed they did circulate that (holding up the sheet he created with an ADEM logo on it) and send it to all the parents."

That never happened. Any of it. The school remained open and children continued to be exposed.

Adding insult to injury, the Carver School was closed, but not because of known contamination, it was closed to make way for a new school on the site for even younger children and renamed to Hudson K-8. Holtzclaw said he was "alarmed by this" and so are we.

Some of the residents stories are heartbreaking to listen to, and far too many of them of them have the same undercurrent--family members they have had to watch loved ones suffer and die from various cancers over the years. In the clip *"Contaminated Soil and Sickness" we hear from a few of them.
*(appears in the playlist section of the entire "Deadly Deception" series linked below)

CBS 42 goes on to say that "the only Birmingham school representative at the community meeting this month and last says he works in project management with Birmingham schools and he was unable to answer any of the questions."

Why didn't the Birmingham School Board send their representative spokesperson or Dr. Witherspoon to these follow-up meetings? Was it because of the initial report that was less than flattering to either of them? CBS 42 wasn't intentionally trying to show them in a bad light, they were reporting the facts of the story. Those facts, combined with Dr. Witherspoon and spokesperson Michaelle Chapman's own words, revealed the depth of deception both were engaging in to keep this whole affair quiet.

Making the call to send a "project management" employee who "was unable to answer any of the questions" did not occur in a vacuum and without, in our opinions, a deliberate intent to shield Dr. Witherspoon from any further scrutiny.

We're appalled at his behavior and applaud CBS 42 for continuing to follow this story in the interest of public service and not caving to the intense pressure they must be under from the Birmingham School Board, and possibly Birmingham Mayor William Bell, to just be quiet about the whole ordeal.

In this case, a parallel silent killer would be silence. CBS 42 understands that.

It's reprehensible that the Birmingham School Board and Dr. Witherspoon do not.

*Link to CBS 42 series "Deadly Deception"

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CBS 42 Investigates "Deadly Deception" Sloss/Walter Energy Contamination in North Birmingham

*Updated 5/17--We hear that there are two more lawsuits in the works against Birmingham industries with one that may be filed in the next two days.

CBS 42 reports on the results of a four-month long investigation into the decades long contamination of a northern Birmingham area and the assigned culprit--Walter Energy aka Walter Coke, Inc. But is there another company more responsible for the toxic assault that is off the radar of the EPA and the CBS 42 investigation? And why did it take more than two decades for any action to begin to clean up the contamination?

North Birmingham has long been the site of some of Birmingham’s heaviest and dirtiest industries--steel manufacturers and the coal and coke companies (Sloss, Walter Energy, Drummond ABC Coke) that work hand in hand with them. These industries are situated in areas that are overwhelmingly black and economically challenged, long the favored prime targets of environmental injustice by corporate Alabama.

In this story, CBS 42 focuses its investigation into a deadly issue that has gone on for twenty-two years, since 1989, according to EPA and state environmental agency documents (ADEM) that the investigative team uncovered. Cancer rates in this area of Birmingham are abnormally elevated, along with higher than normal for the city as a whole cardiac and respiratory illnesses.

What’s poisoning these people is obvious, but what’s not so obvious is the motivation to keep quiet, and deny these residents important public health information that some of the leaders of Birmingham and the EPA, along with ADEM, knew about and did not tell the citizens they are charged with representing and projecting.

Instead, what’s happened is all of these entities have protected the corporate interests before the people’s interests resulting in completely preventable extrinsic factors that have caused a spike in sickness and deaths here. One could say it’s a form of murder by omission, defined as “a duty to perform a particular act and the defendant knows (and consciously accepts) that their failure to act would probably result in death or grievous bodily harm.”

Who knew it and when did they know it?

As we stated above, and according to CBS 42, the EPA and ADEM knew in 1989 there were known carcinogens in the area from Sloss, (now Walter Energy) and nothing began to happen to correct it until the EPA came back into the area in 2009. The investigation reports that letters to the nearby community of Riggins did not go out from the Birmingham School system until April 6, 2011.

On March 21, 2011, a town hall meeting was held that was unrelated to the contamination with Birmingham Mayor William Bell, School Superintendent Dr. Craig Witherspoon and other officials. Walter Energy had already started removing soil from the Opportunity Center at Riggins and the residents began asking questions of Bell and Witherspoon, whose answers were less than truthful:

Witherspoon--”We met with the EPA…the levels are good. I’m not sure on that, that’s something we’ll have to check on.”
Bell--”I hadn’t heard that they had been involved (referring to Walter Energy), but we’ll check on that.”

The investigation team shows a letter from the EPA dated October 2010, indicating the EPA had previously met with Dr. Witherspoon and his staff to discuss the results of the soil testing. The results weren’t good and showed levels of toxic chemicals above regulatory limits for human exposure. Additional meetings took place in April and May of 2010 to discuss the results.

Dr. Witherspoon knew, but he claimed to these residents he did not. He lied, willfully and purposefully. As for Mayor Bell, it is possible he did not know, but we highly doubt it.

Mayor Bell was in a very contentious race in the last election and the bulk of his campaign contributions came from the corporate community, similar to his days as a city councilman for Birmingham. Bell had one large expenditure to the political hit team of the notorious Matrix Group, and the mere presence of Matrix always signals political hard ball to the extreme, covert operations and corporate collusion.

In other words, Bell is beholden to special interests first and foremost and therein lies his misplaced loyalty and irresponsibility to his constituents. He should be held publicly accountable for his inaction in this matter. Witherspoon should be out of a job and investigated for knowingly keeping this information from the public.

Mayor Bell, in our opinions, is sleeping with the enemy, an enemy he will protect before his people. He’s not motivated to go against his corporate gifters even when those same interests are causing residents in his city to get sick and die because of industrial poisoning.

Birmingham spokesman for schools, Michaelle Chapman (11:59 mark in the video) didn’t help this situation with her air of indifference and foot in the mouth interview for the news segment by saying things like this:

“I’m not aware of what was done there (regarding the school site), I just learned of that…”
“We send information when we have the information that we believe the people need to know about.”

“What we believe the people need to know about.” That speaks volumes about the total lack of judgment and maybe an orchestrated campaign to hide vital information of great concern to the affected population.

Chapman was asked “What can parents count on you doing?” Her response is very disturbing to hear and watch:

“That we…I don’t kn--…please don’t…turn the camera off!”

Clearly she was frustrated, caught off guard and in no mood to deal with hard questions. Maybe she needs to find another job better suited to her attitude, such as a correctional officer.

Walter Energy spokesman, Walter Monahan claimed the company was doing the testing and soil removal "simply because they are being good neighbors” and blamed the tar on the roof of the Riggins building for that specific site contamination. The EPA spokesperson cast doubt on the "good neighbor" claim and debunked Monahan's spin by stating "the facility is under an Administrative Order...of testing, evaluation and cleaning."

We found an Administrative Order from the EPA that revealed the serious contamination was known even before 1989. ADEM and EPA Region IV knew in 1986:

Page -8-
Samples from those wells (GWM wells) collected by ADEM on April 17, 1986 as part of a Comprehensive Monitoring Evaluation. Analyses of groundwater samples taken from these wells revealed the following hazardous waste constituents:
Well #1--chromium (over primary drinking water standards), phenol, copper, cyanide and arsenic.
Well #2--chromium (over "), arsenic (at a concentration of more than twice that of any other wells), and copper.
Well #3--flourene, phenanthrene and cyanide.
(Results continue through Well #6)

The order also states that US EPA Region IV collected samples on February 11, 1986 that were equally alarming.

Walter Coke did their own testing in 2009 and the predicable blame the residents game and it's not our company's fault came out in force:

Local industries probably have contributed to the presence of arsenic and cPAHs in the neighborhoods due to the following:

• Birmingham’s rich industrial history

• Local industries in proximity to the neighborhoods

Historical and current residential activity also has contributed to the presence of arsenic and cPAHs in the neighborhoods. These include the following:

• Historic use of coal for residential heating in the neighborhoods

• Residential yards used as driveways

• Use of pesticides and/or treated lumber in yards

• Storage of household chemicals in yards

On the basis of the data and their evaluation, there is no clear indication that the arsenic and cPAHs found in the neighborhoods are attributable to historic or current operations of the Walter Coke facility.

The EPA in 2010 did not agree with their conclusion, and performed their own tests leading us to where this is now in 2011, and Walter Coke still trying to save face with the "good neighbor" ploy.

The "Main Enforcement Order" that was applied to the company in May of 1989, three years after known contamination was occurring, could have stopped this, ADEM & EPA Region IV could have stopped it, but instead of meaningful action being taken back then, toxic contamination was allowed to go on for decades unchecked.

This has been a long campaign of ineffectiveness, hands-off, cover up and skirting responsibility that defies logic that is all too commonplace in Alabama. It's truly “Deadly Deception” by all involved with a high price for these north Birmingham residents.

We applaud CBS 42 for revealing this story, but we have to wonder why Walter Energy is the only violator targeted when they are not listed as the first culprit causing contamination to this area:

Why is there no mention of Drummond in this investigation?

And wouldn't the lawsuit filed against Drummond for "Filthy Lucre" by other residents in North Birmingham, that we wrote about in an earlier post, be a compelling addition to the CBS 42 investigation?

The answer is yes, but what's the answer for the omission of the parallel story and the number one polluter?

The coal and coke companies in north Birmingham are not going to change their way of doing dirty business, and in ten years or less (if the EPA bothers to come back) this story will repeat itself.

A large majority of these residents will assume everything will be fine after its been 'cleaned up', the company will follow the rules since they were caught, and there's nothing else for them to worry about.

However, the sources of the contamination will still be there, protected by the non-existent enforcement of ADEM against the state's biggest industry giants, who will continue to allow unabated and unchecked pollution to occur, and make a lot of profit for the state coffers while looking the other way.

And isn't that the true "Deadly Deception?"

*Link to EPA database "RCRA Community Engagement Outreach related to Walker Coke, Inc. Facility"

*Note--if any links to EPA documents do not function, please let us know, we have the documents saved.

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