Posted on 07/07/2012 1:08:10 PM PDT by EBH
EPA's Office of Civil Rights said it will investigate a discrimination complaint filed by residents of Perry County, AL, home to the Arrowhead landfill which has accepted spilled coal ash from the massive Tennessee Valley Authority 2008 spill in Kingston, TN.
The residents allege the state violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by issuing the landfill its permits. EPA's OCR wrote a June 14 letter to David Ludder, the attorney representing 54 Perry County residents who filed the civil rights complaint against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), saying it "has accepted for investigation" the allegations that the state's permitting of Arrowhead Landfill "will adversely and disparately impact the African-American residents in the community."
However, the complaint is likely to be difficult to resolve because while it was ADEM that issued the permits to expand the landfill to accommodate the spilled ash, it was EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson who ultimately approved TVA's plan to transfer of the coal ash from relatively wealthy Kingston, TN, to the poor, minority community of Perry County, AL.
Title VI generally prohibits recipients of federal funds from engaging in discriminatory behavior. This marks one of the first high-profile petitions EPA has accepted for investigation and stems in part from Jackson's vow to elevate environmental justice issues since she came to the agency.
Okay, but what are they doing towards Muslim outreach?
2008 — only our environmental laws allow them to go back more than 3 years and get you.
Unlimited liability, no wonder why business is moving overseas.
“environmental justice issues”
More extortion and wealth redistribution coming up.....
Seems like that trash could be someone's treasure.
/johnny
As a TVA customer, it is my "wealth" they will be redistributing. Grrr!
Yet another of Zero's promised blows to the coal industry, making it ever more expensive to operate a coal plant, our main source of power. If it wasn't for shale gas, we might be turning off our air conditioners about now.
You are so correct but the amounts in fly ash are so miniscule that many times it falls well below the minimum detectable hazard levels of many analysis labs who use the EPA standards. Naturally, with this EPA that could change overnight.
I was part of a team who developed a recycling process for this type of fly ash. Clean fly ash is a sought after commodity mostly as a filler for portland cement. At the time we developed the process, having a “Loss of Ignition” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_on_ignition) percentage below 6% was the threshold. High sulfur coals will provide this because it burns hotter than the low sulfur coals. Typically the low sulfur coals will have an LOI above 8% so it is not usable as a post burn commodity without processing. Our process separated the high carbon content ashes and were returned to the boilers to have another crack at being completely burned. The cleaned fly ash was typically around 3-4% after processing. One was built in Holland that I know of by our Dutch affiliate.
So why don’t we see these processing plants all over the country? The environmentalists. It was through this and other recycling process designs that we learned they are not interested in solutions, only issues, because their goal is to kill the free market while raising money for themselves to keep “fighting the struggle”. Gee where have we heard that one before?
The 'leaders' in the watermelons give soundbites to the lame-stream-media, and the morons watch it on TV and believe it.
When you explain it to them, and show them, it's 50:50 on who they get p.o.'d at.
/johnny
The envirowackos from the EPA will never rest and cannot possibly be happy until we’re all once again living in caves, scratching for roots and tubers, and checking our friends and family members for lice.
No fires in caves, of course; too much smoke pollution.
An article here on it of all places.
Even treehuggers get the possibilities.
The EPA is tyrannical, hence, myopic.
These are government hirelings so they won't get very far before the Hafrican reign of failure is over. They should spend their remaining time learning how to apply for food stamps, unemployment, and mental disability. No free market employer will hire them.
The state of Alabama needs to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the EPA for treason and sedition.
And that is why I got out of the hazardous waste business as an EHS professional. I could not take it anymore.... Last permiting issue I handled dealt with the disposal of powedered paint...when we went before the Air Pollution folks in Cleveland I used their own engineering formula to prove we didn't need a permit. Our representive was adamant that we did, I finally got really pissed and told her we submitted the permit notification in good faith, we have done the testing you requested, and calculated the PM to your own most stringent guidelines and the numbers are just not there to require a permit, let alone controls ...which we already do for our own equipement cleanliness. So we're not guilty of any kind of violation if the regulation does not apply. So..prove we need it. I was told she was just doing her job...I said so have I and beyond. We got the 'formal waiver.' Which we didn't need in the first place. So...that rant leads me to how business gets burned everyday by the EPA...they don't have to prove you are guilty...you have to prove you are innocent.
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