Analysis - The Institute for Southern Studies
Analysis - The Institute for Southern Studies
Analysis - The Institute for Southern Studies
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CCR fraction #3:<br />
CCR fraction #4:<br />
Annual CCR generation which is currently supplied <strong>for</strong> industrial beneficial use applications could also switch to<br />
offsite commercial RCRA Subtitle C permitted landfills if such use becomes curtailed in part or in whole from either<br />
state government regulations or from market stigma (47.0 million tons is beneficially used).<br />
Future cleanup of CCR disposal unit failures (e.g., impoundment collapse) would require disposal in RCRA Subtitlepermitted<br />
waste landfills (the two CCR impoundment release case studies in Exhibit 4A of this RIA represent a range<br />
of 0.25 million to 3.3 million tons per failure event).<br />
One or more of these four potential shifts of CCR disposal from current non-hazardous landfills to hazardous waste landfills, could have a<br />
disproportionate effect on populations surrounding these locations, and in particular, minority and low-income populations surrounding<br />
commercial hazardous waste facilities, if current landfills operated by electric utility plants do not obtain future Subtitle C permits (Option 1).<br />
A recent (2007) study determined that minority and low-income populations disproportionately live near commercial hazardous waste<br />
facilities, although the study included other types of commercial hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities in addition to commercial<br />
hazardous waste landfills. 187 An example of such potential EJ concerns is a 2009 US national news item involving the decision made by the<br />
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to train transport 3 million tons of the TVA’s (Kingston TN electricity plant) December 2008 CCR<br />
impoundment collapse site cleanup waste, 350 miles away to a landfill in a rural Alabama county which reportedly has about 70% minority<br />
(African American) and 33% low-income residents. 188 However, this example serves to illustrate that EJ concerns are not necessarily<br />
conclusive or shared by all affected EJ populations, as evidenced by the following remarks made to news reporters by the Alabama county<br />
government officials and county residents: 189<br />
“To county leaders, the train’s loads, which will total three million cubic yards of coal ash from a massive spill at a power plant<br />
in east Tennessee last December [2008], are a tremendous financial windfall. A per-ton “host fee” that the landfill operators<br />
pay the county will add more than $3 million to the county’s budget of about $4.5 million. <strong>The</strong> ash has created more than 30<br />
jobs <strong>for</strong> local residents in a county where the unemployment rate is 17 percent and a third of all households are below the<br />
poverty line. A sign on the door of the landfill’s scale house says job applications are no longer being accepted — 1,000 were<br />
more than enough. But some residents worry that their leaders are taking a short-term view, and that their community has been<br />
too easily persuaded to take on a wealthier, whiter community’s problem…. County leaders, who are mostly black, bristle at<br />
accusations of environmental injustice, saying that the ash is perfectly safe and that criticism has been fostered by outsiders, or<br />
even competitors who wanted the ash disposal contract <strong>for</strong> themselves….. Bob Deacy, vice president of clean strategies and<br />
187 Source: United Church of Christ, “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty 1987-2007”, March 2007. . This study evaluated and made findings on minority and low-income<br />
population data within a 1.8-mile radius “host neighborhood” of 413 commercial hazardous waste facilities, compared to “non-host” areas. <strong>The</strong> study (page x) found that<br />
“Host neighborhoods of commercial hazardous waste facilities are 56% people of color whereas non-host areas are 30% of color… Poverty rates in the host neighborhoods<br />
are 1.5 times greater than non-host areas (18% vs. 12%).”<br />
188 Source: Shaila Dewan, “Clash in Alabama Over Tennessee Coal Ash,” <strong>The</strong> New York Times, 30 Aug 2009 at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/us/30ash.html<br />
189 Source: At least two news organizations identically reported these remarks on 30 Aug 2009:<br />
#1 of 2: New York Times, “Clash in Alabama Over Tennessee Coal Ash” at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/us/30ash.html<br />
#2 of 2: Waste Business Journal, “Waste From TVA Spill Begins to Arrive at Alabama Landfill Amid Controversy” at<br />
http://www.wastebusinessjournal.com/news/wbj20090901D.htm<br />
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