BWRK Press Release "Alabama Coal Ash Ponds Receive Most Toxic Metals in the Nation in 2010"

For Immediate Release: January 6, 2012
Contact: Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper: 205-458-0095


New Report: Alabama Coal Ash Ponds Receive Most Toxic Metals in the Nation in 2010

According to the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Alabama power plants lead the way in disposal of wastes containing toxic metals into coal ash ponds.

Ten states accounted for three quarters of total pond disposal in 2010, including (in rank order): Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan. Just 20 facilities account for more than half of the toxic metals (57 million pounds) contained in power plant waste and disposed of in surface impoundments in 2010. Four of these are in Alabama, with Alabama Power’s Miller Steam Plant (Jefferson County) ranked first in the nation in this category. Alabama Power’s Gaston, Gorgas and Barry Steam Plants round out the top twenty.

These figures are based upon information compiled in a national database called the Toxics Release Inventory. Power companies are required to report by volume the toxic chemicals that are contained in coal ash and other coal combustion wastes dumped into surface impoundments, or ponds, every year. 

In 2010, power plants reported disposal of wastes containing 112.8 million pounds of toxic metals or metal compounds, a category that includes arsenic, chromium, lead, and other pollutants that are hazardous in small concentrations and difficult to remove from the environment once released. According to EIP, that reflects a nine percent increase in toxics disposals since 2009, and is higher than the total reported in 2008.

Most of these surface impoundments are unlined, which means the toxins in the ash are likely to seep into groundwater or nearby creeks and rivers. Monitoring data developed in other areas of the country shows this is happening at many coal ash surface impoundments.

Alabama Power’s Miller Steam Plant (Jefferson County) and Gorgas Steam Plant (Walker County) are both in the Black Warrior River watershed, just northwest of Birmingham. Miller ranked first in the nation for disposing toxic metal wastes into coal ash ponds and Gorgas ranked fifteenth. 

Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke has concerns: “These coal ash ponds discharge wastewater directly to surface waters in large volumes on a daily basis. Miller discharges to the Locust Fork and Gorgas discharges to the Mulberry Fork, two tributaries of the Black Warrior that are heavily used for recreation and fishing. A major concern moving forward is the increase in the amount of toxics being discharged by the coal-fired power plants to these coal ash ponds and ultimately to surface waters due to the addition of scrubbers, which pull some pollutants out of their air emissions and transfer them to our water resources instead.”

Wastewater permits for these plants are up for review every five years, and the next cycle of re-permitting begins soon. Black Warrior Riverkeeper is encouraging residents in the greater Birmingham region and throughout Alabama to insist that ADEM to make Alabama Power's permits more protective of our rivers, lakes, and public health.

Environmental Integrity Project’s coal ash waste disposal analysis can be seen by clicking here.

For pictures of Miller Steam Plant and Gorgas Steam Plant and their ash ponds, click here.

To learn how you can insist that ADEM make Alabama Power's permits more protective of water and public health, contact info@blackwarriorriver.org for more information.

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Black Warrior Riverkeeper (blackwarriorriver.org) is a citizen-based nonprofit environmental advocacy organization whose mission is to protect and restore the Black Warrior River and its tributaries. A member of Waterkeeper Alliance, Black Warrior Riverkeeper was the Alabama Environmental Council’s 2007 Conservation Organization of the Year and the American Canoe Association’s 2008 Green Paddle Award winner. Nelson Brooke, Riverkeeper, won the Alabama Rivers Alliance’s 2010 River Hero Award. In 2011 the Black Warrior became one of America's Most Endangered Rivers.

Additional reading & resources added by VAC:
2009 -  Dam Safety Inspection Report submitted to EPA RE: Gorgas Plant *(note heavy redaction of information)
2011 - Earthjustice report "State of Failure"
2011 - OIG Evaluation Report "EPA Promoted the Improper Use of Coal Ash Products With Incomplete Risk Evaluation"
2011 SEC documents on SOCO proxy filing submission & proper coal ash disposal
2011 Article: "There's Something About Vernon (and ADEM)" How APCO/SOCO lobbyists & state agency insiders convinced the Alabama Legislature to adopt dangerous coal ash legislation, and the epic problems with ADEM.
EPA Coal Combustion & Impoundment Reports (scroll down to Alabama for docs, all states listed)

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Earthjustice August 2011 Report on Coal Ash Toxicity--"State of Failure"

Despite the Alabama legislature's attempts to appear like they were doing something beneficial for the citizens of Alabama's health and environment, with the passage of SB80, a bill designed to regulate dry coal ash disposal, it's a 'dam' shame the wet coal ash storage ponds, maintained at APCO utility plants around the state, remain unregulated. Was the exclusion of these dams that by accident or by design?

APCO registered twenty-six lobbyists for 2011, according to figures with the Ethics Commission, and they all worked hard on our lawmakers to pass the coal ash bill despite the impassioned outcries from the citizens of Perry County, Alabama. Those citizens have served as a test case of what SB80 will do to our communities, but no one on Goat Hill listened to their pleas--choosing instead to do what they were told to do on behalf of the small army of APCO lobbyists.

Landfills are a toxic soup in and of themselves. Adding coal ash to our landfills and promising that regulations from SB80 will safeguard our communities and groundwater from any untoward effects of that action is hubris personified, with a stench of possible payoffs and corruption wafting from the inception and process of that bill that's hard to ignore.

Our laws and regulations in Alabama were woefully lax on landfill monitoring, inspections and enforcement before this bill, and passing SB80 won't change what's inherently wrong with ADEM--their utter failure to protect the citizens of this state from big polluters and their waste products. Particularly the low income and minority communities where most of these industries and waste dumps are located.

Conspicuously absent from this legislation was any language to tighten controls on the existing wet coal ash ponds, and the problematic dams that surround them, located around Alabama and almost exclusively at the state's electric utility sites.

Wet coal ash storage remains unaffected and practically unmonitored and regulated, with the exception of the Rattlesnake Dam at the APCO Gorgas Plant. The EPA has that site on its radar, and APCO is employing its usual stance of we-would-rather-fight-than-comply to back them off of any future scrutiny, in addition to blocking the release of more detailed data by claiming CBI--confidential business information.

According to the EPA's website the final decision on whether to allow APCO's CBI request  is still in process. 

We noted at last count, the Southern Company, (SOCO) had spent at least *26,670,000 for the combined years of 2009-2010 on lobbying in Washington. Tracking their expenditures in Alabama is made more difficult by the unlimited contributions corporations can inject into Alabama's political system, combined with a non-requirement of lobbyists expenditure reporting.

*page 20 "Leadership We can Live Without" The Real Corporate Social Responsibility Report for Southern Company--May 2011, Green America

It boggles the mind that SOCO and APCO spend so much on lobbying and corporate legal attack dogs, but when they are asked to spend some of their enormous profits to upgrade their plants and reduce the overall risk *(est. to be $9 billion in increased health care costs) to hundreds of thousands of people from their toxic emissions, they complain 'if you make us improve we'll have stick it to the ratepayers' and "compliance costs jobs."

*pg 16 of Green America Report

It's a scare tactic argument that's successful on the masses who simply don't know any better and blindly accept the well-honed propaganda machine messages of these corporate behemoths.

Our state regulatory agency, ADEM, functions more as enabler than regulator by their refusal to enforce strict guidelines on APCO. They have grown dependent on the money they take in from the numerous fees they levy against APCO to operate. On smokestack emissions, ADEM charges APCO between $33-$37.00 per ton. The typical emission total per year is in the range of 180,000 tons, and frequently higher. More emissions equals more money. It's a diabolical arrangement in the best of circumstances.

ADEM also does not require any groundwater monitoring (GWM) at APCO's sites despite the enormity of their coal ash storage ponds and their close proximity to our rivers and groundwater supplies.

Dry coal ash is also stored at their sites in quantities that can only be estimated through aerial satellite photos because no records of any actual measurable amounts are available for public examination. It is entirely possible that no one but APCO really knows.

Alabama Power's Gaston Plant Wilsonville, Alabama. The Coosa River is on the right, one of the two wet coal ash ponds is wider than the river. Additional dry coal ash waste areas are in the immediate foreground.

 The state of Alabama set up ADEM in this manner with huge involvement from the utility giant in writing the rules. They hold onto this archaic arrangement in the same way aided and abetted by like-minded politicians eager to sweep the only thing green about APCO, their monetary influence, into their campaign coffers. This too is a diabolical arrangement that ends in predictable outcomes.

We suspect the utility companies, anticipating future problems from the EPA, sought the passage of SB80 to allow them to clean out their nearing capacity wet storage ponds, dry the waste, and ship it to landfills statewide, in addition to recycling the product for everything from road building to kitchen counter tops:

"This is a classic leap-before-you-look EPA initiative, where health and safety questions get asked only after the fact." Through Freedom of Information Act requests, PEER also recently found that the EPA had allowed the coal industry to edit information regarding coal ash use in products, including promoting "beneficial uses" while downplaying or completely eliminating mention of possible risks.

Burning coal for electricity generates more than 100 million tons of coal waste a year, but about half of that winds its ways back into consumer products, on food crops, or in structure- or road-building materials. Coal ash is routinely mixed into cement, drywall, kitchen counters, and carpet backing, and used in retaining walls and as ground fill. Because it is often laced with arsenic, lead, and other heavy metals, many toxicologists say more research is needed about what we're putting in the ground (and potentially the water supply) and in our homes. But as of now, industry is running wild—and making a pretty penny—possibly at the expense of our health. "We cannot and should not view agricultural lands as suitable waste-disposal sites for industrial or societal pollutants, just because it's cost-effective in the short term."

Earthjustice lays out the existing problems in their latest report appropriately entitled "State of Failure." Tables 2 & 3 (ppgs. 10 & 11) contain data detailing the failure of strict supervision and safeguards that should be required by our state regulatory agencies on coal ash disposal.

Page 14, in the report, labels Alabama the "worst of the worst" when it comes to coal ash disposal:

Alabama represents the worst of the worst when it comes to coal-ash disposal. 

First, Alabama has no laws or regulations on the books to specifically ensure the safety of the state’s coal ash dams.
It is the only state in the country without such laws. 
Because there are no federal laws to ensure dam safety, this essentially means that Alabama dams are completely unregulated. Until 2011, Alabama also completely exempted coal ash disposal in landfills. Consequently, coal ash from its ten coal-fired plants has been dumped mostly in unlined, unregulated, and unmonitored ponds and landfills. Given the historical absence of controls on coal ash disposal, it is outrageous that more than 5 million tons of ash from the Kingston TVA spill was shipped to Alabama for disposal.

State oversight of Alabama’s dangerous dams is also totally missing.

None of the state’s 15 coal ash dams have been subject to state regulatory inspections in the past five years. After inspections by the EPA and TVA contractors in 2009-2010, five of the dams were given poor ratings and two had to make immediate repairs to improve stability. Alabama dams are, on average, the tallest and largest coal ash dams in the 12 most dangerous states. The average height is nearly 7 stories tall (over 66 feet), and the average surface area is greater than 192 acres (about 151 football fields) more than twice the average of coal ash ponds in the other nine states. These large ponds pose high threats—two of Alabama’s dams are high hazard, and 11 are significant hazard dams. Lastly, these ponds are old-the average age of an Alabama coal ash pond is 40 years. According to the EPA, that’s the estimated lifespan, but Alabama utilities have announced no retirement plans.

Alabama’s coal ash ponds disproportionately impact low income communities and communities of color. The EPA statistics show that more than 40 percent of the citizen’s living near coal ash ponds in Alabama is non-white. Also, about 25 percent of nearby residents are below the poverty line, which is more than twice the national average poverty rate of 11.9 percent.

The facts and statistics are a sobering eye-opener into the serious risks that Alabama's governmental agencies and lawmakers stubbornly continue to ignore in favor of big business wants. A grim picture emerges of a system completely devoid of stringent accountability coupled with a total lack of consistent oversight. We, as citizens, have no choice but to live in a "state of failure" when it comes to the protection of our communities from corporate and political Alabama, and it's a risk we should not be forced to accept.

State of Failure

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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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"Arsenic and Old Waste"--ADEM & AEMC Give Two Toxic State Reps a Top Billing

There’s a wonderful old movie by Frank Capra, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” in which two dotty old sisters poison elderly bachelors by spiking elderberry wine with arsenic. True to screwball comedy style, they were charming and blameless murderers. Unlike Cary Grant, who discovered the plot, the unknowing citizens of Alabama are being fed a similarly poisonous blend by the equally potentially dangerous actions of state representatives Canfield and Marsh-- the lead players in Alabama’s coal ash bill that could be more appropriately titled “Arsenic and Old Waste.”

In the movie, the deceased bachelors are buried in the basement by a crazy brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt digging the Panama Canal. The citizens of Alabama don’t have a script to follow and aren’t privy to the eventual epilogue of how this recent legislation will really play out, but we’ve had a preview of it in Perry County, Alabama, and the reviews have not been good.

Representative Canfield (1:14 mark in video on regulation of CA), Senator Marsh and our state regulatory agencies supported this legislation as “protective of Alabama’s environment and people” and believing that coal ash has beneficial uses so it can’t be that toxic. We say their claims are about as harmless as the elderberry wine served to unsuspecting gentleman callers in the movie.

For a parallel view, brought into sharp focus by Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey in the video below, you would have to go back to the turn of the century, when arsenic and mercury were considered beneficial ingredients in tooth compounds and beauty products by the general public who didn’t know any better. There were many deaths that resulted from people using them to improve their complexions and relieve pain, and it became obvious, a century ago, what the perils of arsenic and mercury exposure were.

Representative McKinley-WV offers the counterpoint to Rep. Markey and claims that any criticism of the "jobs bill" is "fallacious and found in tabloids, not in science." Who's paying him to be so disingenuous? To suggest the undoing of historical lessons learned and pass weak prohibitions on arsenic and mercury exposure from coal ash is like mandating cocaine to be put back into Coca-Cola for general consumption. We know better.

When it comes to properly classifying coal ash, we’re stuck in a semi-permanent intermission to strictly regulate it as a hazardous toxic waste, because the utility giants and coal lobby refuse to leave the Washington concession counter and let the story play out to its honest conclusion.

Since the legislation passed in the Alabama State House, the two main players in this story have been *awarded accolades by ADEM for their outstanding roles in coal ash legislation. We'll see a replay of the tragedy of Perry County as ADEM proclaims the bill puts "Alabama on the national radar for any company interested in" dumping their coal ash in in this state. Again.
*AEMC meeting 7/23/2011 pg.1 (pgs.1-4) pg. 2 (pgs.5-8)

ADEM CanField/Marsh Recognition

We suspect there were a few behind the scenes directors hired by Alabama Power to urge ADEM to give these two representatives their public ‘award.’ Representative Canfield went on to an even bigger stage as the new head of the Alabama Development Office, and a much cushier salary than the one he enjoyed as a state representative. Canfield benefits nicely from the quasi-governmental alliance created by the merging of the EDPA and the ADO, which Alabama Power plays a starring role in. Senator Marsh may go on to replace the embattled and disgraced Senator Scott Beason as the new senatorial lion in charge of all future Alabama legislation.

Collusion has its rewards and we submit that the entire coal ash scheme was the end result of a collaborative effort between ADEM, Alabama Power and these two representatives to advance all of their interests, profits and own careers over the rights of Alabamians expectations to live free from toxic exposure.

Some of the heavy metals contained in coal ash are known carcinogens (and can actually increase the risk of cancer by 2,000 percent) and some can cause learning disabilities, birth defects or respiratory trouble. Problem is, the most deadly types of health-related issues caused by these substances don't develop overnight, says Dr. Avner Vengosh, a Duke University scientist who studied the impact of the coal ash spill in Tennessee. "I'm not expecting to see an immediate impact on people's health," he says, adding it could take years for certain cancers to metastasize.

To put it all in focus and project the truth on the screen of the public view, run this previous article of ours through your mental projector, and view the behind-the-scenes cut that the cast of characters involved in this horror flick didn’t want you to see.

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential

*Photo credit: Classicfilmsrevisted

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Sustainable Ecosystems and Community News--Book Review: "Currents of Deceit"

Amazon.com one-click ordering

On April 20, 2010, the infamous BP oil rig exploded. Americans and the rest of the world alike were in shock and feared how much oil would be released and how much damage it would do. After three months, the spillage of the oil was stopped and restoration has slowly begun. But what if there was a spill of something invisible and the company responsible wanted to keep it a secret. In the book Currents of Deceit, Professor Ronald Perkins writes about such a situation.

Currents of Deceit begins with Scott Simmons, a marine biologist with the Florida Fisheries Commission, and his girlfriend Linda Stevens, a graduate student in biochemistry. Perkins also wrote himself into the book as Dr. Alexander, Linda’s old professor, a character based on his own experiences and interests. In the book, Simmons and Stevens find unusually high levels of PCBs and mercury in fish from the local market They are immediately intrigued and worried by their discovery.

Read more here

Would a company purposefully and knowingly keep a dangerous environmental and public health threat secret in the name of profit? It's a rhetorical question of course because it happens all the time with pernicious consequences. What happens when the governmental regulatory agency, the EPA, participates in this kind of subterfuge by relying on powerful lobbying groups and industry insiders to be the 'scientific' sources for regulatory mandates?

We've seen this happen with coal ash and bio-solids (sewer sludge). The federal regulations for both of these were based on the recommendations of powerful lobbyists for special interests who's only consideration was the bottom line--the proverbial 'profit over people and sensibility' worn-out model they have been using now for decades.

Now big business has turned its sights on doing away with the only federal regulatory agency that stands between us and a repeat of the flaming rivers of the late 1960s.

The EPA is currently under unprecedented enemy fire from the republicans who are calling for de-funding the agency at minimum, and doing away with it all together at most, describing them as a "loony left-wing job killing organization that's hell bent on an environmentalist whacko vision."

There are problems with the EPA we'll agree, big ones, but to consistently fight against the only agency that we have in place to enforce regulations on corporate America is wrongheaded and dangerous. On the other side of the coin, for the EPA to consistently cave-in to special interests and allow the rules to be written by industry is equally disconcerting.

It's a catch-22 situation that illustrates the pressing need for watchdog journalists, environmental groups and citizen advocates to keep a keen eye on the system and its players. Activism is not a dirty word--apathy and indifference might be.

Winston Churchill warned of the age of indifference (paraphrasing): 

'You can only have so many decades and years that are the "last chance" to avoid unalterably horrific effects. We have already passed these points. The age of consequences has begun.'

We would be wise to remember that even though Mr. Perkins book is a 'fictional work' in the literal sense, malefic corporate "Currents of Deceit" are always swirling around our communities and it's incumbent upon us to pay attention.
*Recommended reading:
Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of "No Net Loss"
"The Ripple Effect": The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-first Century

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A Threat or A Promise? Southern Company May Announce Coal Retirements

Josh Galeprin, Esq. writing for cleanenergy.org dismantles the Southern Company's arguments against following the rules of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) under a new proposal by the EPA requiring stricter limits on utility emissions.

In typical Southern Company fashion, they would rather fight than switch.

Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning testified before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power in April bemoaning the loss of revenue, jobs and increased rates to customers as his reasons to delay the EPA's looming deadline of implementation for the stricter rules.

Mr. Fanning had a lot to say to the subcommittee, but what was conspicuously absent from his testimony were the huge health costs and consequences to the public at large if Congress agreed to the delay he was asking them for.

Not one word about those, but plenty about the money and 'inconvenience' to his company.

Southern's website has this motto: "Think Bold, Act Sure"

John Walke director of the Clean Air Program for the National Resources Defense Councilof the National Resources Defense Council has something to say about that motto and Southern's decades-old bad attitude towards responsibility, compliance and accountabilty:

The public deserves to know why Southern’s “boldness” does not include taking responsibility for its air pollution and the consequences, while it “acts sure” that we won’t notice how much our public health is suffering. 

We couldn't agree more with Mr Walke and Mr. Galeprin.

This is all coming to head with a ruling from the SCOTUS on June 20th rebuking lawsuits "brought by states against power plants to reduce their emissions as a public nuisance." The SCOTUS ruled that the ultimate authority lies with the EPA following a Bush era ruling in Massachusetts vs EPA case from 2007.

In that case, the high court ruled against the Bush administration's position and confirmed that the EPA does have a duty to protect the public from dangerous smokestack emissions and carbon pollution under authority granted to the agency through the CAA & CWA.

Big business has been fighting the ruling ever since and no utility has resisted as stubbornly as the Southern Company (John Walke):

Forty years after the Clean Air Act was enacted, half of Southern’s power plant units still lack basic pollution control equipment called scrubbers that reduce the most deadly forms of air pollution.

Other utility companies, from Duke Energy serving the Carolinas and Midwestern states to Constellation Energy serving Mid-Atlantic, New England and other states, have said they stand ready to comply with the standards on time.

Not Southern.

It’s not as if the company hasn’t known these standards were coming, since they are more than a decade overdue.

But Southern has chosen to continually put off cleaning up all of their dirtiest power plants, and now wants to continue the delay even longer.

In the meantime, people continue to die, get sick and miss work and school because of the pollutants that Southern and other power companies spew into our air. 

Monday's ruling by the SCOTUS "puts the spotlight" squarely on the EPA to act in the best interest of the public. We're hoping they will continue their forward march to finally reign in the big polluters, but we're not going to hold our breath that will happen.

The EPA has dropped the ball in the last year on stricter coal ash regulations and boiler emissions rules implementation after signaling itself ready to crack down hard on both known sources of highly risky toxins. Despite the winds of heavy public sentiment in favor of increased oversight to push forward, the EPA caved to industry pressure and refused to act.

The EPA's reluctance might have something to do with the methods behind Southern's motto: big corporate money "thinks bold" in buying lawmakers sympathies through generous donations and it's agenda "acts sure" of its ability to persuade governmental agencies to back off.

Photo credit:  SF Gate Charlie Riedel AP

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"The Last Mountain"--Big Coal Destruction Continues Blasting Through Appalachia and the Truth

" Corporations do not want democracy they want profits"--Robert Kennedy, Jr.

"The Last Mountain" is a film by Bill Haney heralded as a "fight for our future." He's right about that and we're hoping some of our environmental groups in Alabama bring this film to our state for a community viewing.

There is one in Alabama that might not be interested in sponsoring any film that casts the light of truth on coal since they seem to have sold out to the persuasions of the men in black.

We have been sorely disappointed by the stance of this state conservation group and their support of the coal ash bill recently passing in the state legislature, and we do not agree with their statement that it was "good legislation and a positive first step." 

First steps in Alabama are generally the last and only step. If the EPA decides to classify coal ash as hazardous, the backers of the bill will fight any changes to this already bad legislation with everything they can muster. They will probably succeed, or at the very least, delay change for so long the damage will be done and irreversible.

Most of our environmental groups know this is standard operating procedure in the always on the side of big business legislature and a 'green group' taking sides with the benefactors of the bill is both mind-boggling and inexcusable.

Taking a deeper look into the sponsors behind the coal ash bill, Alabama Power Company (APCO) and Drummond Coal, and considering their controversial histories, raises more questions than answers about the possible motives of any so-called conservation group's seal of approval.

This was an opportunity to stand against coal ash in landfills across Alabama that was not taken. In our opinions, this group loses credibility by choosing to side with big coal and against the protection of any other Alabama community becoming another Perry County. We're not surprised really because Alabama's appetite for coal is so deep, dark and powerful it's able to bend almost any opposition to its will and will stop at nothing to further its agenda.

Like a heat seeking missile locked onto its target, coal interests identify opposition they perceive as shapers of public opinion and plant their ideals in the group like an insidious weed. Dependence on state funds may be acting as the water that keeps the weed alive and any attempt to pull it out results in the threat of decreasing the organizations funds.

But it's important to pick a side, stand for it and stay off the fence.

Political muscling by the coal industry and its affiliates goes on everywhere in the country.  Even our schoolchildren and education system are not immune from the proliferation of the industry's message--coal is good for jobs and America. Coal is good for you too children!

When big coal paid Scholastic to carry industry propaganda to fourth graders in the US a firestorm of controversy quickly ensued among environmental groups:

Scholastic’s InSchool Marketing division, which produced the coal curriculum in partnership with the coal foundation, often works with groups like the American Society of Hematology, the Federal Trade Commission and the Census Bureau to create curriculum materials.

The division’s programs are “designed to promote client objectives and meet the needs of target teachers, students, and parents” and “make a difference by influencing attitudes and behaviors,” according to the company Web site.

“Promoting ‘client objectives’ to a captive student audience isn’t education,” Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said in a statement. “It’s predatory marketing. By selling its privileged access to children to the coal industry, Scholastic is commercializing classrooms and undermining education.” 

Immense pressure caused Scholastic to remove "The United States of Energy" from their website this past May, but not before "the worst kind of corporate brainwashing" developed by the American Coal Foundation had already been distributed to 66,000 fourth grade teachers.

Nothing compares to a captive audience when your aim is to influence and mold the next generation's mindset about fossil fuels and big coal is always long on propaganda and profits and far short on truths.

It's no different in Dixie than it is anywhere else in the country. The message is always the same--look at all the civic good we do, jobs we provide and by the way, have you viewed our latest slick ad campaign? 

The next time you see one of APCO's commercials with fields of flowers, butterflies fluttering about and birds soaring through blue skies with the message of "We're Always On" think a little deeper about what "Always On" really means.

*Robert F. Kennedy Jr. commentary on Blair Mountain

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"...You Aren't Getting No Damn Appointment, If I Have to Kill Your Damn A** First!"--Albert Turner, Jr.

Obama wannabe Albert Turner, Jr.

Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner, Jr.aka the 'bellicose bulldog on the loose' is up to his old tricks once more--threats and warnings of bodily harm to those who disagree with his nonsense.

In a March 8th Perry County Commission meeting broadcast over a local radio station WJUS, with at least 25 witnesses in attendance, including the press and a Sheriff's deputy, Turner exploded in public at one of his own fellow commissioners. 

Again.

"Brett Harrison isn’t getting no appointment, and you aren’t getting no appointment, if I have to kill your damn ass first,’ ” Sanderson quoted Turner as saying.

The coal ash cad of Perry County just cannot seem to get a handle on that anger problem of his because no one makes him behave like an elected official should. Then again, as long as he has been in office and incidents like this keep piling up we have to wonder who on high is protecting his presumed right to act like a rabid dictator.

When the Marion Times Standard Editor, who heard the entire exchange, asked Turner for clarification a couple of days later and he promptly denied everything, warning her "I better not see it in the paper. You better get your facts right."

Read more here from the Tuscaloosa News

Turner assaulted a woman in a 2005 public meeting, grabbing her by the throat, throwing her to the floor and choking her until other commissioners and two deputies pulled him off of the woman. Assault charges ensued and Turner is paying for his defense with county money and being defended by county attorneys.

The victim has to help pay for the defense of the man who assaulted her through county tax dollars she pays into. What kind of twisted justice is that?

That assault should have been enough to do away with him on the spot. But it wasn't. 

And now he verbally assaults and threatens to kill a fellow commissioner in another public meeting in 2011. And gets away with it.

Why is this man still in office?

Anybody?

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"Don't Blame Me--I Didn't Know"

Some of the newly elected Alabama republican legislators basic defense of "I'm new and trying to learn my way around down here" is not an excuse to vote for bad bills.

Republicans in the House and Senate are claiming ignorance as an excuse for not understanding the consequences of voting on bills that affect all of us. We have gotten a lot of feedback from various people, on the coal ash bill in particular, and other dogs with fleas being walked around the halls of the state house trying to pass as champions, when they're nothing but real mutts.

When a legislator gets elected, we expect that they have a clue what the job entails, and that they understand they have a great responsibility to be aware all sides of an issue before casting a vote for it. But they don't. What they do understand is how to duck accountability and hide behind excuses. And feigned ignorance. And cowardly voice votes.

We imagine that the old bulls in the state house sit these freshman down real quick and explain the deal--you listen to me and what I tell you to do or you can forget about that plum committee position. Don't go asking too many questions and convoluting the process with facts. It takes money to run a campaign and you boys (and some girls) best get with the program if you want a political future.

Kind of my way or the highway and let's not have any failure to communicate.

One legislator who we will not name confirmed these suspicions when he said this: "Everything that goes on down here is political and this is not a system that serves the best interest of the people of this state. I hear it everyday, you vote for my bill and I'll vote for your bill."

Here's a news flash for you jackwagons--if you don't understand the issue beyond what the corporate lobbyists are telling you, who always lie, then don't vote on the damn bill! If you don't know because you're still "trying to learn your way around" then vote NO! How hard is that simple logic?

In legal matters the Latin phrase "ignorantia legis neminum excusat" (ignorance of the law excuses no one) means that a person who is unaware of the law or its content, may not escape liability. We think the same should apply to anyone holding office in Alabama. If you are going to apply for the job then you better understand what it takes to do the job honestly, not corruptly.

This weak excuse of "I am still learning" is the position of a fool who has no business passing legislation and deluding themselves into thinking they are too important to be bothered with independent research into all the facts.

There is simply no excuse for this ineptness masquerading as doing the state's business.

So Say We the Opinion Board of the Vincent Alabama Confidential

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"EPA Promoted the Use of Coal Ash Products With Incomplete Risk Information" OIG Report March 2011

In a report imbedded below, released March 23, 2011 by the US EPA Office of the Inspector General, we see there is much more than we thought to be very concerned about with the EPA's partnership with industry to recycle coal ash.

Especially when we learn that faulty and industry friendly data was used in making beneficial use guidelines. Towards the end of the report note how defensive the EPA becomes to the OIG recommendations, i.e.: "We can't possibly check previous sites because we don't have any records, we thought the states had them and the utility plants probably don't have any either." (paraphrasing) That's very telling.

Some quotes from the OIG:

"EPA has relied on the American Coal Ash Association data to determine the volumes of coal ash used in beneficial use applications." 

"EPA's promotion of CCR beneficial uses to date has been based, in part, on limited leachate testing data that may not be applicable to beneficial use scenarios."

EPA did not follow accepted and standard practices in determining the safety of the 15 categories of CCR beneficial uses it promoted through the C2P2 program. EPA’s application of risk assessment, risk screening, and leachate testing and modeling was significantly limited in scope and applicability. Without proper protections, CCR contaminants can leach into ground water and migrate to drinking water sources, posing significant public health concerns. 

EPA officials told us they relied on individual state beneficial use programs to review and approve specific CCR beneficial uses, and to manage associated risks. EPA established, but did not implement, plans in 2005 to identify environmentally safe and beneficial use practices. Had EPA implemented its plans, it may have known earlier about risks from large-scale disposal of CCRs described as beneficial use.

In other words, they went ahead with this plan in a very haphazard manner, and the OIG is to be commended for holding the EPA accountable and revealing how much they have gotten wrong. And it's a lot.

Relying on the American Coal Ash Association, which is an "umbrella lobbying group" of coal fired power plant giants, to determine anything regarding what application amounts of toxic coal ash are 'safe' is the fox watching the hen house. It's ludicrous beyond belief! What was the EPA thinking?

We would ask the same question of the Alabama legislators who are being inundated with the force of 26 Alabama Power/BARD lobbyists to not classify coal ash as toxic and allow it to be dumped in landfills all across the state. What are they thinking? That one is easy--they're thinking of ways to make big campaign donors happy and how to profit from a foolish law.

If the Alabama Legislature follows the insistence of ADEM, Alabama Power lobbyists and Lance Brown of PACE and allows SB80 (sponsored by Senator Del Marsh-R) to become law with this report in hand, we submit they are derelict in their fiduciary duty to understand the consequences and risks of coal ash to the public at large.

Representative Canfield-R Vestavia Hills, started this ball rolling with the the House version of the bill, HB50, that left the committee he chairs, Commerce and Small Business Committee on a voice vote, avoiding an official record of how each member voted, avoiding their constituents right to transparent government.

We will place the end result of this very risky bill squarely on each one of their shoulders first and foremost, if it becomes another devil may care type of Alabama law. 
EPA OIG Evaluation Report Coal Ash March 23, 2011

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HR872 Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act is a Bad Bill

A new bill would amend both FIFRA and the Clean Water Act to clarify congressional intent and eliminate the requirements of a Clean Water Act permit for the use of FIFRA-registered pesticides.

The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) praised efforts by a bipartisan group in the House of Representatives to eliminate the possibility of costly and duplicative pesticide permitting requirements that are a result of a misguided decision by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in National Cotton Council v. EPA.

The 2009 Sixth Circuit court decision, in response to the National Cotton Council v. EPA, overturned the Bush Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule exempting commercial pesticide applications from the oversight provided under CWA. The decision requires NPDES permits for pesticide applications directly to or near waterways in order to reduce and eventually eliminate pollutants in the natural environment. 

Alabama Representative Martha Roby is a co-sponsor for this bill and has taken her support to YouTube because it works in favor of Big Ag and the Timber industry, the two biggest supporters and money machines for the bill to our lawmakers in an attempt to influence them to undo the decision of the Sixth Circuit Court. 

This bill was introduced by Bob Gibbs--R whose top two contributors are the mining and oil and gas industry. Two industries that are the antithesis to farming wouldn't you agree?

Who else in Alabama is supporting the bill and for how much?

Representative Mike Rogers--R  -AL 3     $32,100

Representative Spencer Bachus--R--AL 6     $12,500

Representative Roger Aderholt--R--AL 4     $9,000

Representative Jo Bonner--AL 1     $24,950

Representative Mo Brooks--R--AL 5     $1,250

Representative Mike D. Rogers--R--AL 3     $42,600

Representative Martha Roby--R--AL 2     $3,250

Representative Terri Sewell--D--AL 7     $12,400

 Here's Roby in "her own words"

And from a recent weekly column to RickyStokesNews.com:

Once our small businesses are free from the threats of tax increases and federal regulations, they will be unleashed to grow and create jobs. I talked about federal regulations with members of the Alabama Farmer’s Association this week while they were in Washington for their annual conference. I explained that our federal government is overzealous with their regulatory authority. The EPA is a top example of federal agencies run amok, as evidenced by the long laundry list of regulations that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was questioned about at an Agriculture Committee hearing.

I told members of ALFA that farmers and other businesses owners create jobs, and that I will fight hard to reduce government regulations that stand in their way. The quicker that we can get the government to stop regulating our small business owners and our farmers, the quicker we can get our country back on track. 

She uses a catch phrase that is designed to resonate; "our farmers just want to farm" but she leaves out a few things. Much of the farming in the US today is heavily subsidized by the federal government, the same government that has helped kill our small family farms. This bill is not about "small business" by any stretch of the imagination Ms. Roby, that's disingenuous on its face.

Small farmers are everyday people trying to hold onto to their smaller operations. The average Joe if you will, who probably goes to church every Sunday and is conservative politically.

Ms. Roby claims in her column that she is "fighting for conservative values." By caving to the interests of Big Ag, who has been the other destructor of small farmers, is she picking and choosing which conservatives she is "fighting" for?

Back to the subsidizing for a moment, Big Ag is a big benefactor of federal money, so they are upset now that they have to spend some of their federal handout and give it back to the government? They have to be careful and make sure they aren't polluting our watersheds in following the Sixth Circuit Court decision? Where's the problem? Oh, that's right, it's about the federal handout isn't it? And being judicious with pesticides.

Enter Charles Conner, former USDA Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and Big Ag Corn Refiners past president:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the ruling will affect nearly 365,000 pesticide applicators nationwide and cost $50 million a year to implement. Conner said that the while the impacts of the new requirements will be severe, there is little evidence that they will provide any identifiable environmental benefit.
Conner also noted that EPA has just today requested an extension of the April 9th deadline from the Sixth Circuit Court. “With less than a month to go before the deadline, it is good that the EPA has finally realized that more time will be needed,” said Conner. “We hope the Court grants this request and that Congress will use the added time to clarify the law and ensure a more common sense approach to pesticide regulation.”

Note the $50 million figure. That is not a cost to the federal government according to the CBO document, that's an estimated figure of costs to Big Ag Conner has come up with to fire supporters up to support the bill.  As for the "no identifiable environmental benefit" he claims, what is he basing that on? Is he trying to suggest that lax regulations are of an environmental benefit? We are talking about pesticides here. Poisons. Toxins.

We can tell you where his claim did not come from, the EPA, because we checked with the pesticides and water divisions. His claims were not found to have merit by the Sixth District Court, who realized there is a threat to the environment and these chemicals should be regulated under the CWA.

So it's all wordsmithing and spin isn't it?

And just to make you all feel better next time you munch on a bag of peanuts or popcorn, farmers in Georgia, Alabama and Florida have been spreading coal ash FGD Gypsum from power plants on their croplands for thirty years. Cancer rates in all three states are elevated. Is there a connection? We can't say for sure because there are already so many carcinogens filling the air in the Southeast from coal-fired power plants. But it can't be a good idea.

Thirty years. Mind-boggling and in place because of the utility and coal industries. The EPA touts the "beneficial use for agricultural applications" but admits, along with the USDA "more research is needed to ascertain the long-term risks of agricultural application."

Wouldn't it have made more sense to fully know before you acted?

Maybe that's why the EPA is revisiting the issue and doing more testing after the Kingston spill, but this falls into the heel dragging of coal ash regulation despite responses exceeding half a million to the federal agency to classify it as toxic.

Big Ag and Big Coal are not for us. They never have been, never will be. They're not for the small farmer either. We support our small farmers, not the industrialized operations. In our opinions, Martha Roby and company are looking out for big business and not the family farmer. She's pandering, along with all the other political supporters to the big money crowd and forgetting that she is supposed to represent all of her constituents equally. 

This bill is not a solution, it's a problem, it's a way to skirt responsibility and not be held accountable for harming our watersheds. It's for Big Ag not the average farmer. We're firmly against it and urge you to contact your representatives in all states who are acting as cosponsors of this bill.

Here's your link to the list, scroll down to the representatives names and let them know where you stand. The bill is on a fast track, EPA regulations are due to be implemented on April 9th.

Additional link to take action: Beyond Pesticides Daily News

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