(As the latest edition of The Press-Sentinel was going to press, I was in
Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C.
The following is my April 24 testimony at the Environmental Protection
Agency’s [EPA] public hearing on its proposed federal rule changes on coal
ash.)
Good afternoon.
Thank you for this opportunity.
My name is Dink NeSmith. This is my 47th year in the
newspaper business. My hometown is
Jesup, Georgia. We are facing the risk
of having millions of tons of toxic coal ash dumped in a privately owned 2,300-acre
landfill which is 10 miles from our courthouse.
We are not alone in Southeast Georgia.
Deep-pocketed companies traditionally target scores of small, rural
communities.
We become Sacrifice Zones, as those giant corporations
dump on us to get rid of dangerous and noxious waste that they don’t want. Toxic coal ash is a prime example. Simple
logic decries, “You don’t solve one
problem by creating another.”
Do I need to mention the stranded Poop
Train that stunk up the tiny town of Parrish—population 982—in rural
Alabama? Would you have allowed that repulsive
nightmare to linger in Washington for more than two months? We don’t deserve
to have our communities sacrificed by the callous greed of others.
With its enormous size, the Broadhurst
Environmental Landfill in Jesup could become one of the largest—if not the
largest—toxic coal-ash dumps in America. Until Republic Services Inc. withdrew
its plans in 2017, our community was destined to receive—every day—100 rail
cars loaded with 10,000 tons of toxic coal ash.
In five short years, we would have had a toxic mountain of more than 18
million tons of coal ash. That is still
a possibility. Your proposed anything-goes set of rules will be
devastating to our community and hundreds of others.
There’s no nice way to say it. If you
throw out today’s protective coal-ash guidelines, communities such as Jesup will
become environmental prostitutes with the big-moneyed polluters serving as it’s-all-about-the-money
pimps. Your action or inaction makes us a David up against a massive army of Goliaths. That’s why we depend on you—the EPA. Americans
need you to stand up for our
environmental safety.
The long list of proposed rollbacks on
federal coal-ash rules is, in a word: scary. In another word: ludicrous, if your middle name is really “protection.” If you are listening to the people—beyond the
powerful industrial lobbyists—you would be hearing: “What? This can’t be!” The cleanup of toxic waste should never be at the discretion of the
company that created the problem. Putting
the fox in the henhouse to protect the chickens is a horrible idea!
The first two things a plumber must learn
are:
1. The hot goes on the left.
2. The stuff must run downhill.
The Atlantic Ocean and the coast’s
sensitive estuaries are 40 miles downhill from the Jesup landfill. When another
leak or spill occurs—and that will
happen—the poison will spread throughout the massive Altamaha River watershed
that drains one-third of Georgia.
The
landfill is situated in and around wetlands which empty into the Altamaha and Satilla
rivers. Both flow into the
Atlantic. Another alarming fact is that
the landfill sits atop the Floridan Aquifer, a vital drinking-water source for
millions of people in South Georgia and North Florida. You already know the
poisonous heavy metals in toxic coal ash.
Ask the people of Flint, Michigan, what part of lead in their drinking
water isn’t hazardous to their health.
Take a moment.
Look at this no-thicker-than-a-nickel
piece of plastic. This is supposed to be
our assurance that our water is safe from toxic coal-ash pollution for 10 years
… 50 years … 500 years … forever?
Really?
Your agency should never allow landfills
such as ours to be located in waterlogged environments. Our safety, our peace of mind and potentially
our economic well-being have been sacrificed.
We look to agencies—state and
federal—to protect us. If these
governing bodies don’t, who will? You have
a responsibility to remain the Environmental Protection Agency and not become
the Environmental Pollution Agency.
If my grandmother were here today, she’d
be 118, and she’d say, “You’re about to create a ‘mell of a hess.’” Think about it. And think about what Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
said, “There is no right way to do a wrong thing.” What you are proposing is, in a word: wrong.
Thank you for listening.
Dink NeSmith
Chairman of the Board
The
Press-Sentinel
Jesup, Georgia
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com
