Environmental Pains Bring Environmental Gains

By Renee Cail

For years on end 

An environmental hell

Invades our very being

Heard the liberty bell?

Trees that hung

So High above us

Poisoned soil harms our plants

Can we quell this toxic dust?

I can’t breathe

Is it Something in the air?

Manufactured greed

Environmental racism’s ugly stare.

 Generations come forth

Deliver your dreams

Your innovative spirit

Can save our polluted streams.

 

Equality evades us

As activists heed the call

Marginality is rampant,

Determination softens the fall.

 

The poor, rural, and of color

Are voicing their rights that’s good,

In a nation chasing dollars

And polluting our neighborhoods

Buildings suddenly appear,

Hammering away

Devaluing our existence

Another battle, another day

Nana left her garden

Decibels crowded her ears

Diesel trucks and drills

Brought her dry, warm tears

Keep on fighting

These environmental pains

Get off my land

We welcome environmental gains.

We will be blogging individual articles from The League Line, our quarterly newsletter

Link to Winter 2021 League Line: https://www.bredl.org/theleagueline/Winter2021.pdf

#environmentaljustice

 

“They didn’t give up”

 

We will be blogging individual articles from The League Line, our quarterly newsletter

Link to Winter 2021 League Line: https://www.bredl.org/theleagueline/Winter2021.pdf

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By Cathy Cralle-Jones, Law Office of F Bryan Brice Jr.

 

December 16, 2020 marked the end of a six-year struggle by BREDL, Chatham Citizens Against Coal Ash, and EnvironmentaLee to protect their communities from the legacy of generations of improper coal ash waste management.  Like a reserve quarterback called in to finish the game, I was privileged to be called on to help finish the legal challenge initiated by BREDL after John Runkle’s retirement. 

Undeterred by the proverbial “it’s a done deal, why bother” commentary, BREDL and its chapters fielded a team to try to stop the mounds of ash heading for their communities, and organized quickly.  They presented substantial comment and evidence at the public hearings challenging the safety of the planned ash disposal and its likely impacts on the communities, and filed their Contested Case Petitioners only two days after the permits issued.  After a December, 2015 hearing, BREDL lost the initial fight before North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings Judge Lassiter who ruled, even before hearing evidence from DEQ or Charah, that the permits were valid.  Again undeterred, in June of 2016, BREDL appealed Judge Lassiter’s final decision to Chatham County Superior Court.  In November of 2016, Judge Fox reversed, in part, Judge Lassiter’s decision.  Fox held that, to the extent that they allowed the placement of ash in “areas not already mined or otherwise excavated”, the permits were void.¹ 

Many voices continued to say it was a “done deal” and a waste of time to try to challenge Duke Energy and its contractors, and encouraged BREDL to stand down.  Committed to protect their community and the environment, they didn’t give up. 

At the August 2019 continued hearing, I was not allowed to offer new evidence, and was allowed only limited cross examination of DEQ witnesses.  Observers said it was like watching David fight Goliath with one stone and arms tied.  However, on December 13, 2019, to everyone’s surprise, Judge Lassiter issued her ruling.  This time she aligned with Judge Fox and held that, to the extent that the permits allowed placing ash in areas that had not been previously excavated prior to June 2015, the permits were void.²  As a result of their courage, persistence, and cooperation in larger struggles regarding coal ash management, BREDL and its chapters were able to check the “win” column on this one.  

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¹  This decision was appealed to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, which remanded the case back to the original Administrative Law Judge.

 ² This led to the cases being settled in December, 2020. 

 

 

A Timeline of Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League's Coal Ash Work

 

Campaign victory! In big win for communities, coal ash disposal company drops appeal of Chatham, Lee County cases

 

We will be blogging individual articles from The League Line, our quarterly newsletter

Link to Winter 2021 League Line: https://www.bredl.org/theleagueline/Winter2021.pdf

By Therese Vick 

Almost a year to the day that Administrative Law Judge Melissa Owens Lassiter reversed her decision which had allowed coal ash to be disposed of in Chatham and Lee Counties, North Carolina, the communities are announcing another victory. Charah, Inc., the company that owns the two sites, has dropped its appeal of the 2019 ruling and has agreed that no coal ash will go to the Colon site in Lee County. The Brickhaven site will be closed as required by the permit issued by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). In the settlement, the company also agreed on enhanced groundwater monitoring of the Brickhaven site in Chatham County.

After the Dan River coal ash spill in February 2014,  Governor Pat McCrory and Duke Energy had a 150-million-ton coal ash problem. The resulting public outrage culminated in the Coal Ash Management Act -- including a last-minute addition: disposing of coal ash in mines would be considered “beneficial reuse.” Emails obtained by BREDL through public records requests showed a scheme was hatched as the CAMA legislation was introduced. State regulatory staff met with Charah, the owner of the landfills and the contractor handling coal ash disposal for Duke, and former House member, Mitch Gillespie, who was at that time Assistant Secretary of Environment for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (now DEQ) to “discuss permitting options.”

In November 2014, it was clear what the plan was. Duke Energy announced its plan to dump up to 20 million tons of toxic coal ash on unsuspecting Chatham and Lee County communities. They claimed it was “mine reclamation”, even though large portions of the actual footprint of the proposed coal ash megadumps had never been mined. There was an unprecedented rush to permit these sites. Local officials gave up and told residents, “We can’t fight Duke.” Legislators turned their backs. It took 6 years, but we didn’t give up.

This victory was based on grassroots organizing and the principled position that BREDL and our chapters, Chatham Citizens Against Coal Ash Dump and EnvironmentaLEE, and allies took – that coal ash must be kept on utility property and not taken to other backyards for disposal.¹ No other applications to use mines for coal ash disposal have been submitted to DEQ.

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¹ BREDL technical report Coal Ash Disposition: The Alternative for North Carolina  https://www.bredl.org/pdf4/Coal_ash_report_14-083_w_Appx_A_B.pdf