Updated:Added a video of the Segall/Rogers debate. Josh has some great points about developing rural Alabama. It's on the flip.
"For that kind of payroll, the city fathers would tie a big red bow around City Hall and hand it over."
Addie Pray makes this droll observation in the novel, Paper Moon. Set in depression-era Alabama, it details the activities of two lovable con artists. In this instance, the pair is scamming small towns by promising to build a paper mill with a payroll of 120 people.
In some parts of Alabama - specifically Perry County and other black belt communities - it's like the Depression never ended.
Now, in 2010, the promise of greater prosperity is much worse than a paper mill. It's TVA coal ash, and the city fathers County Commission is actually excited by the possibility of accepting 15,000 tons of toxic coal ash laden with heavy metals into their county every day.
Within 6 months of operation, the landfill would pay Perry County, city of Marion, and city of Uniontown $120,000 ($40k each)
Pay Perry County $1 per ton on all deposits per day.
Set up a dedicated escrow account to pay .05 per ton for road maintenance
For the first 3 years of operation, the county and towns get to dump their solid waste for free.
Initially, the amount of waste to be dumped was limited to 7500 tons per day. Assuming the landfill hit the limit and worked a 5-day week, that was $390,000 per year for dumping fees and $97,500 for road fees.
Referring back to the census data, we see that the county has very little in the way of a property tax base because property values are low. And there's not a huge amount of sales tax revenue being generated either. Perry County residents spend just 31% of the amount spent by Alabama residents in general.
During his 2008 campaign against Mike Rogers, Josh Segall discussed the problems of rural Alabama communities. With the departure of many good-paying jobs overseas, what's left are service jobs with lower pay and little benefits. "People have to wonder if their children can move back and make a living where they grew up."
He discussed this in detail during his debate with Mike Rogers:
Other Industry in Perry County That goal is problematic in Perry County. It's home to three major employers: the landfill, a catfish plant, and a private prision that was recently in the news when two inmates escaped. The state has announced plans to remove about 250 inmates from the Perry County Detention Center.
Perry County Officials Often At Odds With Citizens' Group The prison approval process was controversial. A group called "Concerned Citizens of Perry County protested the action, but received little sympathy from the political leaders:
"This proposal was initiated and approved by the Perry County Commission without allowing for any public comment or public participation in the decision," the citizens' group wrote Sept. 22. "No research, study, investigation, or determination was made about the economic or social impacts of this proposal on our community or our county." [...]
County Commission Chairman Johnny Flowers, who is leading the effort to bring in the Perry prison, is familiar with the residents' complaints, but says Perry County desperately needs jobs. He maintains that the prison is the best bet.
"Their concern is one thing and my motive is another. My motive is jobs," Flowers said. "Their motive is selfish. Most of them already have a job."
This scenario mirrors the fight over the establishment of the landfill in the county. Opponents challenged the approval process, but were stymied both by Alabama law and the enthusiasm of Perry County officials.
Barbara Evans, community organizing coordinator of WildLaw, discussed the issue in a recent Montgomery Advertiser column:
The Perry County landfill is located right across the road from a black residential neighborhood. Initially, citizens tried to stop the landfill through unsuccessful court action. What is not well known is that the landfill developers were invited in to Perry County by political leaders.
For the past three years I have worked with the Alabama Legislature to put some controls on landfills. Right now, if a landfill developer wants to put a landfill in a county it must gain approval of the county commission or local host government. However, if that host government fails to act on the request within 90 days, the landfill is automatically approved.
There are national headlines about how this coal ash is being sent to a predominately black, low-income area in Alabama. People are understandably outraged. I find it sad, and telling, that two giants of the civil rights movement, Albert Turner Jr. and former SCLC President Charles Steele, are the original backers of the whole landfill effort in Perry County.
Unlike many things in Alabama, the fight over the landfill has divided traditional allies and united blacks and whites on both sides. In fact, everybody in this fight seems eager to display their own civil rights stripes.
The landfill's most vocal champion, for instance, is John Hulett, the county's first black sheriff, now the probate judge and the county's de facto political boss. Mr. Hulett, 72, helped erect Tent City and establish the country's first black political party, Lowndes County Freedom Party.
County officials say they're just trying to bring in jobs and increase the county's tax base. Opponents charge that prisons, landfills, and similar industries never bring in as much revenue as promised and, in fact, impede the county's ability to attract other industry.
How Perry County Benefits from the Coal Ash Looking strictly at the numbers, the county officials may feel that they have no choice.
Remember that the previous limit of 7500 tons per day had the potential to bring in almost half a million dollars each year. The TVA coal ash shipments require the county to double the allowable dumping limit - from 7500 tons per day to 15000 tons per day.
That increase also doubles the dumping and road fees the county can collect to almost a million dollars a year - even as employment at the landfill rises from 5 full-timers to as many as 50.
Alabama Law and ADEM Process Favors Landfill Owners Ms. Evans rightly points out that opponents hand were tied when the landfill was developed - and there's now little recourse for citizens wishing to stop the coal ash shipments.
Congressman Artur Davis, whose district includes Perry County, agrees that the shipments are quite troubling, but not illegal, and there's a temptation for officials in poor counties to grab revenue wherever they can find it:
“While the transfer of millions of tons of coal ash may not violate Alabama’s environmental standards, it is well known that Alabama’s standards are weaker than the standards set by most of our neighbors. My consistent position has been that while local counties have leeway to decide whether they want to operate landfills, there are serious public policy issues at stake when potentially hazardous wastes are dumped into a community.
Perry County officials have hard choices to make given the staggering unemployment and depressed tax base in the county, and it should be no surprise that they would embrace a lucrative new revenue source. I also see no evidence that any existing federal regulations have been violated here. But regardless of the debate over this shipment of coal ash, the controversy is a symptom of a larger problem that keeps recurring.
I have long said, as a congressman and now as a candidate for Governor, that Alabama’s industrial profile can no longer depend on a race to the bottom. We cannot build a future for rural Alabama based on how little we demand of our corporate citizens, and how little we protect our people, not in a century where China, India and South America have us beat on each front.”
Each year, there are efforts to strengthen Alabama's lax environmental standards, and each year, citizen lobbyists are stymied by powerful lobbyists and their allies in the Alabama Legislature. My June 16 diary describes this process and links to a more detailed discussion (written by Barbara Evans) of the reform effort.
Other communities are also dealing with ADEM's lax oversight. For instance, in Northwest Alabama, human waste is being sprayed on fields as fertilizer. In a stunning example of the need for Constitutional reform, a constitutional amendment is needed to stop the practice.
It's not just ADEM though. The Decatur Daily recently scolded the EPA for allowing toxic sludge to be sprayed on Lawrence County farms.
Poor Counties Need Better Options The ideal solution is for counties to have options other than the industries nobody wants, like landfills, prisons, rock quarries, etc. Josh Segall explained how to accomplish this last year during his campaign. First, we need better infrastructure.
"What grows the economy and jobs is roads, sewer systems, office parks... With more basic infrastructure, the rest of Alabama can be more like Huntsville and Mobile."
Evans points out too, that we shouldn't view this as a racial issue - although Perry County is majority African American, so is the County Commission approving these permits.
Instead, she rightly frames the issue as one of poverty and class:
This is not just a case of environmental racism. It is primarily a case of environmental injustice. The people most adversely affected are low-income people. Those who would dump this coal ash are the powerful. They are white and they are black.
Our wimpy landfill laws and the huge profit margin of landfills are already encouraging landfill development in many of our rural counties. When will it stop? It's Perry County today and your county tomorrow.
Rural Alabamians feel like they are under attack. If it isn't landfills, it's rock quarries or corporate hog farms.
In this video, Josh Segall discusses rural issues and the importance of "keeping rural places alive":
Better State Leadership and Industrial Development is the Solution We can expect more of this. Alabama has excess landfill capacity and many owners are soliciting out of state business. And it's all completely within Alabama law and ADEM regulations.
Alabama's not just open for business, we're open for garbage too!
The only solution is to elect leaders who are committed to building a healthy state economy. We need them here in Alabama and representing us in Washington.
Hint: Josh Segall's making another run at Mike Rogers in 2010. He'll need our help!
T.H.E. Social Work Agency Adoption home studies & care management services in the North Alabama area.
Licensed, certified, caring social workers. blog advertising is good for you
