Environmental Racism

     The EPA is following through on an earlier promise to look into the use of minority communities as dumpling grounds for toxic wastes...and residents of at least Perry and Sumter Counties in Alabama's Black Belt may be paying close attention. Perry County is the daily recipient of train-loads of coal ash from that TVA spill a year ago at a power plant in Tennessee. And Sumter County is home to a huge hazardous waste landfill in Emelle.

     I've always thought the charge of environmental racism is a bit too easy to make....landfills are not going to be located on expensive real estate, and that's at least one of the factors that leads to them being located in poorer communities. I'm not saying it's right, just that it's not necessarily a plot against minority communities.
     Nonetheless, a review of the charges by EPA is long overdue. It will be interesting to see how friendly Alabama officials are during the investigation, since the state agency closest to EPA is ADEM, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (as opposed to Protection).

[UPDATE: Group wants EPA to revoke ADEM's authority over the state's water.]