Some of the more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash that spilled from an impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee last December is making its way to landfills in poor and black communities in Alabama and Georgia. TVA is sending the spilled coal ash waste from Tennessee to landfills in in Taylor County, Georgia and Perry County, Alabama.AAEA is recommending that TVA should reprocess this sludge on site for reuse of the fly ash to produce concrete.
The choice of these communities for disposal of the waste raises environmental justice concerns, since almost 41% of Taylor County’s population is African-American and more than 24% of its residents live in poverty, while Alabama’s Perry County is 69% African-American with more than 32% of its population in poverty, according to the latest census data. Residents had no voice in the decision-making process, given that there was no opportunity for public comment. (Grist)
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