Leo's Weekly Louisvillian of the Year

December 21, 2011
Louisvillian of the Year
How Rubbertown resident Kathy Little’s environmental activism made her public enemy No. 1 for LG&E
By Joe Sonka
When I first meet Kathy Little on her neighbor’s front lawn on a beautiful, almost cloudless late August afternoon, it’s one of those typical days on Cane Run Road in southwest Louisville that residents know all too well.
Little walks up with her Boxer’s leash in one hand and her 7-year-old granddaughter Bryanna’s hand in the other and delivers an exasperated greeting.
“Welcome to Cane Run Road.”
As we look west, about 100 yards away — just past the pauper’s cemetery and across from a trailer park — there is one cloud looming in the sky.
It’s a continuous plume of fly ash billowing out of the rickety Louisville Gas & Electric sludge processing plant, silhouetted by a mountain of coal ash that is more than 100 feet tall and stretches for a mile.
For the past two years, battling this toxic eyesore — the leftovers of arsenic, mercury, cadmium and other toxins from the coal burned at the Cane Run power plant — has been Kathy Little’s obsession.
“Right here,” Little says, pointing to Bryanna, whom she and her husband, Tony, are raising. “This is why I fight.”
But in truth, Little, 57, has fought for many more people than her granddaughter over the past year, relentlessly serving as both a citizen watchdog over the actions of LG&E and an inspiration to others in the same situation — living in the shadow of a coal ash landfill.
It wasn’t always this way on Cane Run Road. When Little bought her modest, one-story house in 1979, the view from her porch was not a long black mountain ridge of coal ash, but acres of farmland, apple orchards, and Indiana just across the Ohio River.
But as the years went by, the Cane Run plant — built in 1954 — expanded and became more and more of a nuisance, as the soot that blew over would cover their car and house, requiring frequent washings. It was annoying, but never really considered dangerous.
For Little, that perception changed soon after December 2008, when a breach of a coal ash pond in Kingston, Tenn., resulted in 1.1 billion gallons of toxic sludge swarming 300 acres of the town, leaving complete devastation.
In response to this disaster, the Environmental Protection Agency identified several “high-hazard” ash ponds across the country to draw attention to at-risk communities — including, to Little’s surprise, the one 50 yards from her home.
Once Little discovered this, she began researching and making phone calls, trying to find out what the contingency plan was in case of a breach. She didn’t get any answers from the Army Corps of Engineers, and the answer she got from LG&E didn’t exactly put her at ease.
“They said they would walk the neighborhood if a breach occurred,” Little says. “Now, our house wouldn’t be here, our door would be gone, so I doubt they’d be able to knock on the door to let us know. We’d be gone.”
She also began to learn what was in the dust that blew over from the landfill and the particles emanating from the smokestacks next door at the main plant.
“We have it coming from both ways,” Little says. “There are combustibles out of the power plant stacks, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, and, of course, that wonderful mercury. And then we have the particulates from the landfill — silica, the heavy metals from cadmium to mercury, you name it.”
Then there are the chemicals seeping into the watershed from the unlined ash pond, as well.
“Bryanna stays inside most of the time. But the fly ash gets inside, too. I don’t know if that is affecting her overall health, or whether I’m too protective. But it’s not fair to her, and it’s not fair to the other kids in this neighborhood.”
In 2010, Little received more disturbing news: LG&E had applied for a permit to build an additional 60-acre, 14-story landfill, this one even closer to her house.
So when LG&E held a public meeting that summer to discuss the permit, Little came prepared with questions. But what she encountered at the meeting was just more frustration.
“That point was my lowest of low points, because I couldn’t get any straight answers from them. And I just sat down and started crying.”
Lauren McGrath, an organizer with the Kentucky chapter of the Sierra Club, noticed Kathy and introduced herself.
“Just seeing somebody who was so on the ball, had done her research, knew what she was talking about, and yet not getting any answers,” McGrath says. “I wanted to connect with her.”
In recalling that meeting, Little says, “I met some friends that night … they picked me up. And at that moment, I determined that I was going to fight.”
Though Little had never done any kind of political or environmental activism, she hit the ground running — knocking on doors, collecting petition signatures, planning meetings — with the help of Sierra Club organizer Thomas Pearce.
“She was a grandmother who had just become awakened to the fact that this nuisance that had been bothering her for years actually had serious potential health impacts,” Pearce says. “And she was determined to do something about it. So we made a good fit.”
Free time soon became a precious commodity, as Little continued her full-time job in a human resources department, finding time to organize and walk the neighborhood after work and on weekends.
Impressed by Little’s dedication, McGrath asked her to speak at the University of Louisville’s Bluegrass Bioneers Conference. At first Little was nervous, but according to McGrath, “When she started speaking, everyone in the room was just totally captivated by her story, moved and motivated to do something. And that’s when it became very obvious to me that she was a clear leader.”
Little’s organizing picked up steam in early 2011, with the help of Pearce and fellow neighbor Debbie Walker, who lives closest to the landfill and had just gone through two bouts of cancer in consecutive years. They held community meetings at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall down the road, picked up the support of state Rep. Joni Jenkins, and held a rally outside the plant, calling for the company to withdraw a request for a permit to build a new landfill and urging them to switch from burning coal to a cleaner energy source.
Pearce, who’s been a community organizer for 25 years, says you don’t encounter people like Kathy Little every day.
“Once a decade. She is one of those rare people, just an amazing dynamo. She’s a great spokesperson for the community and is completely engaged in the process of building community power. That’s what sets Kathy apart from a whole lot of other folks.”
In April, James Bruggers of The Courier-Journal wrote a prominent article on the effect of coal ash on Cane Rune Road residents and their battle with LG&E.
Less than a week later, LG&E announced possible plans to phase out the burning of coal at the plant by 2016 and switch to natural gas, citing tighter federal regulations on emissions.
But Little wasn’t even close to finished locking horns with LG&E. In fact, she was gearing up to take on other coal-burning culprits, as well, traveling outside of Louisville to help communities facing similar predicaments.
This Spring, Eastern Kentucky Power Co. sought a permit for a 200-acre coal ash landfill in Clark County — right next to a neighborhood.
Little traveled to Clark County to speak with residents.
“I don’t want people to be snowed under by these utility companies who try to tell you that coal ash is benign,” Little says. “I want them to know from my experience.”
Eastern Kentucky Power soon rescinded its request for a permit.
“With her mere presence there, and how fired up people got after listening to her, they ended up canceling the coal ash expansion before they even got to a first meeting,” Pearce says.
Little then traveled to Atlanta with a group of students from Berea College to testify before the EPA. By the time she was finished sharing her story, several people in the audience were in tears.
Around that same time, residents of the small town of Bedford in Trimble County learned LG&E was seeking to construct a 200-acre coal ash landfill just across the road from residential farms.
Feeling powerless and not knowing how to stop this from happening, farmer Kelley Leach started Googling. He came across a story about Cane Run Road and took note of Kathy Little. He found her number and gave her a call.
Leach picked the right person.
“We’ve actually talked on the phone about our landfill for hours on end,” Leach says. “Especially when I get a little discouraged, I can give her a call and say, ‘Kathy, what do you do to get people involved?’ And she works me right out of it. She is such a good coach and a motivator.
“I couldn’t ask for a better advocate for the situation we’re in than Kathy Little.”
Little made the hour drive to Bedford to meet with the residents that Leach had assembled in a neighbors’ barn, right across the street from the proposed landfill. She told the residents her story, and gave them advice on what points to emphasize in the upcoming permit hearing and how to recruit more people to the meeting, where LG&E would defend its case.
Five days later, LG&E spokesman Paul Puckett walked into the lion’s den.
A crowd of nearly 100 packed into a standing-room only meeting space; they proceeded to lambaste LG&E for the next four hours.
When asked for the seventh time if he would want his family to live next door to their landfill, Puckett calmly told the crowd yes, as the ash is perfectly safe.
“Then you’ve been sniffing that coal ash too much!” replied P.J. Nacke, who fears a severe drop in the value of her farmland adjacent to the property.
After Puckett 1) replied in the affirmative that he would put his child in the town’s only certified day care center near the future landfill, 2) said LG&E would not pay for the medical care of a neighbor who had a child with asthma, and 3) politely ignored a citizen who mocked LG&E’s “green box” commercials, Kathy Little went to the mic.
Little isn’t a natural when it comes to public speaking. She tends to be soft-spoken and keep her head down, focused on her notes. But once she gets going, her message is powerful.
After listening to three hours of LG&E’s spokesman telling the people of Trimble County there is nothing to fear about living next a landfill, Little was too angry to be nervous. She locked eyes with Puckett and her voice never wavered.
“Even though he says he’d live next to this landfill, believe me, you should be very afraid. These people are not good neighbors.”
The next public meeting in Bedford will likely be held in early 2012, and Little is already gearing up for the fight.
“You (need to) get people to realize the impact, the suffering that people endure every day living near these coal ash facilities, the worry that you have every day, the stress that you feel because you can’t protect your child,” Little says. “That’s a horrible feeling. So what do you do if you can’t protect your child? You go out there and raise some hell. And you make people listen. So that’s what I do.”
Back home in Louisville, Little’s struggle against LG&E at the Cane Run plant heated up over the summer.
Earlier this year, Little and neighbor Debbie Walker convinced the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District to test samples from their soot-covered homes, which came back positive for fly ash.
LG&E attempted to discount the findings, telling them this is likely due to buildup over many years and claiming that dust doesn’t leave their property. LG&E also reminded them that the EPA does not currently regulate coal ash, meaning they aren’t breaking any rules (because there aren’t any rules to break).
The company even went so far as to invite the Walkers and the Littles to the LG&E plant to have dinner, where the company brought in a scientist to assure them — as they had many times before — that coal ash isn’t harmful.
“After that dog-and-pony show that LG&E threw for us,” Little recalls, “(Debbie Walker’s husband) Greg was so upset, he said, ‘Kathy, nothing’s ever going to happen to those people over there, they can do whatever they want.’”
And so they devised a new plan: Because the Walkers lived so close to the landfill, Greg would take pictures whenever he saw dust leaving the plant. Less than two weeks later, a mammoth cloud rose from the landfill and blanketed the neighborhood. Walker snapped pictures and sent them to Little, who in turn sent them to the media and APCD.
Within days of media reports covering the events, LG&E announced that their sludge processing plant had malfunctioned, and they temporarily shut it down for repairs. Based on this evidence, the APCD fined the billion-dollar corporation a paltry $4,000.
By November, APCD had cited LG&E for numerous additional violations. In response to LG&E’s claim that the house samples testing positive for fly ash was due to years of pollution buildup, APCD took new samples — this time from a house the company had graciously offered to power-wash, providing a clean slate.
The samples again tested positive for fly ash, finally and definitively proving that dust was escaping the landfill and entering the neighborhood.
The fine was only $26,000, but at least someone, at last, was holding the company accountable.
Ultimately, two-thirds of the violation notices LG&E received were substantiated by Walker’s photographs.
“That was the worst thing that could ever happen to LG&E,” Little says. “Because if you can’t see it, it didn’t happen.”
In September, it seemed Little’s leadership and hard work had finally paid off, with LG&E announcing they will indeed switch from burning coal to natural gas at Cane Run Road. The bad news: The change won’t take effect until at least 2016, meaning residents might have to face up to five more years of the landfill’s signature “dusting.” In addition, the coal waste left behind will likely be there for many years to come.
And that means Kathy Little’s fight is not yet finished.
“I think she’s become public enemy No. 1 to LG&E,” says the Sierra Club’s Thomas Pearce. “And it’s obvious at this point, I’m sure they’re trying to figure out how they can recover a bit of their public image. I mean, just the fact that her and Greg Walker single-handedly got them fined for the first time ever … They’ve become an autonomous, independent force to be reckoned with, and they’re not taking crap from anybody.”
Kathy’s husband Tony, who is politically conservative but emphasizes that this is a situation where government needs to regulate, deadpans that it could be worse. “So far, the LG&E security guards haven’t come over and pepper sprayed us. But who knows, we might be next.”
When Kathy Little first started throwing herself into this work, Tony admits he had mixed feelings.
“You know, sometimes I think I was being selfish, because it was taking her away from our family time, and I guessed I resented that a little bit,” he says. “Sometimes she’s at meetings late and we miss dinner, things like that.
“But I think what she’s doing is great. I think she’s accomplished a lot more than she thinks she has. It’s been kind of like David vs. Goliath. I think she’s thrown several stones, and they’ve hit pretty close to home over there.”
Kathy Little believes she wouldn’t have to spend so much time as a citizen regulatory agency if certain state and federal government officials would step up and do their job.
“People like Beshear and McConnell, it just seems like they are working for the corporations instead of us,” Little says. “I don’t understand that. But I guess I don’t have to.”
When asked what message is most important in her activism, Little recalls a conversation she had while canvassing: “I met this one lady when I was out knocking on doors who said, ‘You know, I don’t matter because I don’t own the property that my trailer sits on. But I’m hurting.’
“And I think if there’s any message that needs to be put out there, it’s that everybody counts,” Little says. “I don’t care if you own property or if you live out on a trailer on Cane Run Road. If you’re affected, you should count.”

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1117172736&ref=brem#!/events/326484604057242/

It's funny how statistics are just numbers, there is no emotional attachment. That is, unless a good friend becomes one. A nice gentleman that lives about 100 yards from the ash landfill @ Cane Run had a stroke 2 weeks ago. Nitrogen oxide (combustible particulates) I'm sure contributed to his medical issue. He just came home today and is happy to have gotten to the hospital in time, got the clot busting shot and rehabilitated quickly. But isn't it sad that because he lives near a power plant it is acceptable to our government that he has to breath dirtier air than the rest of Jefferson County. The government (ran by the corporations - the 1%), the politicians bought and paid for by the lobbyists deep pockets, have determined that coal ash needs to be protected from the people, not the other way around. We, the 99% need to step up now, before it's too late.

LG&E Fined up to $26,000 for Coal Ash Problems at Cane Run

LG&E Fined Up to $26,000 for Coal Ash Problems at Cane Run
by Erica Peterson on November 4, 2011

Louisville Metro Government has fined Louisville Gas and Electric for several violations surrounding equipment malfunctions at the company’s Cane Run Power Station.
In the Notice of Violation, the Air Pollution Control District fines the company $26,000, but notes the company could enter in a settlement with the district and undertake remedial action. If LG&E chooses that option, the settlement amount would be $19,500.

The APCD cites three specific violations—all surrounding excess emissions of coal ash at Cane Run. During six days in June, July and August, an equipment malfunction at the sludge processing plant sent clouds of dust into the air, causing a nuisance to neighbors. The district also found that the company failed to take reasonable measures to prevent the release of ash into the neighborhood on three dates in July, and failed to report excess emissions from the plant on four days in August.

WFPL Series on Coal Ash Contamination at LG&E Cane Run Plant

The Coal Ash Series, In Full

Erica Peterson July 22, 2011| 

Coal ash series in full here

You can’t see the smokestacks of the Cane Run Power Station from Stephanie Hogan’s home, even though she lives a block away. And while the power plant isn’t visible, it’s still a looming presence in Hogan’s life.
“Oh, he breathes so bad, he sounds like Darth Vader.” Hogan shakes her head, and her two-year-old son Cody wheezes. “You ain’t even been running.”

LG&E Announce Possible Retirement of Coal Burning Power at Cane Run!! James Bruggers-CJ

Possible closures at power plants

Cane Run, Louisville, LG&E. Began commercial operation in 1954. Three of six units already retired. Three remaining units, which began service in 1962, have a generating capacity of 563 megawatts. Plant burns 1.3 million tons of coal per year. 
Green River, Central City, KU. Began operation in 1950. Two units have a generating capacity of 163 megawatts. Burns about 400,000 tons of coal each year. 
Tyrone, Versailles, KU. Began operation in 1947. Three units. Two oil-burning units already retired and one coal 75-megawatt coal unit has been mothballed.

Neighbors of Cane Run plant worry about health impact of coal ash by James Bruggers-Courier Journal

Coal ash and scrubber sludge are combined at the landfill at the Cane Run power plant. The landfill is very close to many homes in the area. City has confirmed coal ash collected on at least one home, and more testing is to occur. LGE wants to expand the landfill. (Kylene Lloyd, The Courier-Journal) April 12, 2011 / cj/cj

Mountains are leveled in Eastern Kentucky to produce coal, but one Louisville neighborhood has been watching a different kind of mountain grow — one made of waste from burning coal at a power plant.
“We call it Coal Mountain,” said Kathy Little, who has lived for 32 years in Claremore Acres, which is in the shadow of Louisville Gas & Electric Co.'s Cane Run power plant along the Ohio River.
When we first moved out here, you could look over and see Indiana,” she said. Now that view is blocked by the rising pile of coal ash and scrubber sludge — some 650,000 pounds of coal-burning waste in 2009 alone, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory. “In drier times, you can see ash just blowing off the top.”
Some residents have been so concerned about the potential impact on health from the ash that they have been calling on state and local regulators to investigate their complaints. Testing by the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District has found evidence of ash in the neighborhood.
Given those concerns about the existing landfill, Little and many of her neighbors are worried about LG&E plans to build a new, 140-foot coal-burning waste landfill on 60 acres at the Cane Run plant.
LG&E, which still needs state Division of Waste Management and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approval to proceed, has said the new landfill is needed because the existing one will run out of room in about three years. The company says the new landfill, like the existing one, will not harm residents.
Neighbors have their doubts.
“It's dirty and nasty,” said Debbie Walker, who lives on Cane Run Road directly across from the existing dump. While grass grows atop much of the dump, a large, black area in the front where new waste is placed remains uncovered.
The residents' concerns focus mostly on the potential hazards of coal-burning wastes, which contain a mixture of toxic metals and other compounds. They say it has blown onto their cars and homes, and gets into their windows.

Something in the air- LEO Article about Mrch 17 Clean Air Rally at Cane Run

 

March 23, 2011

Something in the air

New EPA air standards prompt rally, industry reaction

BY JONATHAN MEADOR

Less than a week after the Environmental Protection Agency issued new national mercury and toxic air regulations for power plants, roughly 30 residents of southwest Jefferson County — home to LG&E’s Cane Run Road coal-fired power plant and EPA-designated “high-hazard” coal ash pond — gathered to rally for cleaner air and protest the utility’s ongoing intention to build a new 5.7 million-square-foot ash landfill near low-income residential neighborhoods located there.

March 17th 5:00 Rally at LG&E Cane Run Plant for Clean Air and to Demand Kentcucky State Government Protect us from Coal Ash!!

News Advisory

3/13/2011

Contact:

Thomas Pearce, 502-489-4700, thomas.pearce@sierraclub.org

Kathy Little, 502-448-6333, kathy_little@insightbb.com

We Oppose the Proposed Coal Ash Expansion and Demand Clean Air!

Louisville and Cane Run Residents Support Clean Air, Call for State Protection from Coal Ash

“We support EPA Clean Air Protections, and call for the state of Kentucky to protect residents from toxic coal ash by passing House Bill 237” Kathy Little, Neighborhood resident

What: Louisville residents and Cane Run neighborhood activists will rally to support efforts to demand old coal burning power plants like the LG&E Cane Run Plant be required to protect residents from toxic emissions and the effects of dirty coal ash.

Who: Sierra Club and Louisville Residents for Power Plant Justice, http://caneruncoalplantjustice.blogspot.com/

Where: In front of the LG&E Plant at 5300 Cane Run Rd next to Nana’s Country Kitchen on the Riverwalk

When: March 17^th 2011, Thursday, 5:00-7:00

Refreshments served at Nana’s

Debra Walker and her Granddaughter Lilly. Debra and her family deal with health issues from toxic coal everyday!

PROPOSED COAL ASH LANDFILL IN WINCHESTER KY

I was invited to speak before a group of residents in Winchester that are facing a very real possibility of EKPC, a power company, buying 200 acres of land near their homes and putting a coal ash landfill right in the middle of this rolling pristine countryside. Nick Comer from the utility company was giving a "coal ash is good" speech and I am looking around the room. This is not something these residents were expecting, they work hard, as we all do, build their homes, have children, and now, a possibility of a coal ash landfill? I was asked to talk about my experience living right across the street from a coal ash landfill. The day to day reality. Here is what I said;

Hello, my name is Kathy Little, thank you for inviting me here to speak this afternoon. I'm a mom and a nana. I have lived in my house in Louisville KY immediately adjacent to the LG&E Cane Run power plant for the last 32 years. Within their confines, they have numerous ponds, one being high hazard, and the almost filled to capacity dry ash landfill, similar to the one proposed here. It's approximately 200 yards away from my home. LG&E is in the process of requesting approval of a permit to expand and build another dry ash landfill at another location on their property. I and others are presently fighting to keep that from happening. The plant is 45 years old with three working units.

Thirty two years ago the area that I live in was rural, green, with numerous farms surrounding modest homes. It has changed dramatically with the addition of the present dry ash landfill. The company has a history of numerous violations. Just last week, lab analysis confirmed fly ash on three seperate samples taken from my house by the APCD. This fugitive fly ash is everywhere, it is brown to black, gritty and if you open your windows a fine dust settles everywhere. Airborne fly ash is extremely dangerous with the primary components being silica and limestone which cause lung disease with prolonged exposure. Fly ash in water releases mercury, chromium and other heavy metals that cause a host of illnesses including cancer. Children are particulary vulnerable to mercury intoxication which may lead to impairment of the developing central nervous system as well as lung and kidney damage. Ingesting soil from areas on which fly ash has been applied or settled is the most common way of exposure for children. I have an 8 year old granddaughter that lives with us, we have permanent custody of her, she's a great kid, she sent me an email the other day, it said "I am bitiful, I am intalagint and I have intalagince" the spelling was a little off, but the message is good, she believes in herself. I feel helpless that I cannot protect her from this chronic exposure. Fly ash is not benign and it will impact you and your children if the ash landfill becomes a reality here. Many of my neighbors are ill or have been ill with heart disease, cancer, COPD, kidney disease. Many homes were on well water up until 7 years ago, including a family with an autistic son. His mother has not had her mercury levels checked, however, she is convinced that living so close to the landfill and drinking from an unprotected water source caused his developmental delay.

As you turn left off of Lower Hunters Trace on to Cane Run Road you cannot miss seeing the ash landfill, it is huge, megastories straight up and very wide. It feels as though we are at ground zero, the craterous look of it reminds me of the topography of the moon. Large gray, rocky and most of the time there is a misty look at the top. On windy days you can see the fly ash blowing off the top. LG&E is suppose to wet it down to help prevent this from happening but the reality is, they do not, that is, unless we complain, then they'll do it for a few weeks.

Our taxable property values are 20 to 30 percent less than the same house sitting somewhere else. The current economic plunge including home values have just made a bad situation worse.

As far as current regulation of the dry ash landfill, or for that matter the high hazard ash pond, there is very little. What can be done is being done. The present dry ash landfill is unlined and is leaching enough arsenic and other heavy metals into ground water at levels that are eligible to be federal damage cases. Their present Title V operating permit and NPDES water discharge permits expired in 2007, the APCD and The Division of Water are working very slowly to update these. Rep. Joni Jenkins has introduced HB237 to the state legislature that would require official Emergency Response Plans for existing coal ash impoundments. It is presently stuck in committee and is very unlikely to see the light of day due to corporate greed. This is a safety issue and the lack of an EAP puts many residents, many children in unnecessary danger. I am telling you this because you will have a great deal of difficulty with present regulations now in place.

Thanks again for allowing me to speak.

Best wishes Winchester, fight with all you have to prevent this beautiful land from being destroyed.

Tell Obama and the EPA We Need Clean Air Regulations to Protect Us From Coal Fired Power Plants

Tell Obama and the EPA We Need Clean Air Regulations to Protect Our Communities From Power plants
Did you catch President Obama's State of the Union address?

The President discussed a bold plan that stresses American innovation to create clean energy jobs and put Americans back to work. We're excited about the President's forward vision - but Republicans are already looking to roll back environmental protections that will hurt our economy and make our families sick.  

I wish I were exaggerating, but just yesterday Newt Gingrich announced that the EPA should be abolished.¹ Really.
Sign our petition to demand Obama stand up for our health against Republican attacks! 

The Sierra Club is launching a massive grassroots blizzard with powerful activities all across the country aimed at reminding the new Congress and Obama Administration that they need to keep standing up for the health and protection of our families, not Big Oil and Coal polluters.
Our first step is to to hand-deliver 100,000 signatures to the White House to stress that the nation's physical and economic well-being depends on passing and enforcing strong environmental standards to protect our health and our economy. Together, we can turn back the tide!
Please add your name to the petition to protect our health from pollution!
Big Coal and Big Oil are working with their allies in Congress to eviscerate our health safeguards - this  is a real and urgent threat to each and every one of us.  As EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has pointed out, making polluters clean up their act during the past 40 years not only saved millions of American lives, but also has added trillions of dollars to our economy.²  
Yet Rep. Carter (R-TX) has already gotten the demolition ball rolling by attempting to use an obscure procedure called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to shutdown the EPA's finalized standards to control extremely toxic air emissions from cement plants. 
This one obscure rule alone is a big deal for the health of everyone you care about. Cement plants are the third largest emitter of dangerous, mercury pollution.  The new EPA standards will prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths a year along with 130,000 days of work missed due to pollution related health problems.³  Imagine cutting more rules like this.  It's a stark choice.  We know Carter and his friends have decided to stand with corporate greed. Let's make sure that Obama stands with us. 
Next year's State of the Union can be the story of how we beat back polluters to defend our health.

Tell Your Legislator to Support HB 237 to Protect Our Communites and Rivers From Coal Ash

Debra Walker and Granddaughter Lilly Want You to Protect Them From Coal Ash

Tell the KY State Legislature and the Governor to Protect our Communities From Coal Ash Suppport HB237



Right now coal ash is inadequately regulated in the state of KY. Many of the coal ash containments around our state are leaking toxic chemicals into our water.

In fact, residents living near the containments are at an increased risk of cancer and respiratory illnesses.

Tell state lawmakers it's time to get serious about protecting the people of Kentucky from toxic coal ash.

State Representative Joni Jenkins of Louisville has introduced a bill, HB237, to increase safety standards at KY coal ash containments but the bill is unlikely to get a hearing.

Tell Governor Beshear and your state legislators to stand up for Kentuckians and request that this bill get a fair hearing!

Representative Jenkins' bill would require power plants to have emergency plans in place in case of a coal ash spill like the one in Kingston, TN in 2008 that sent 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash sludge barrelling through the community, destroying homes and covering 300 acres.

The bill would also require new coal ash containments to put in place state of the art liners to prevent any more toxic chemicals from seeping into our water. 

We need your help. Tell Governor Beshear, your state legislators, and state senators to do the right thing for the people of Kentucky and support Jenkin's bill!

Thanks for all you do to protect Kentucky's environment!

Hexavalent chromium in Louisville KY tap water

Coal ash waste contains hexavalent chromium
February 1, 2011
Washington, D.C. —
Just weeks after recent headlines about hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing toxic chemical, contaminated drinking water systems around the U.S., a new report shows that scores of leaking coal ash sites across the country are additional documented sites for such contamination.
Hexavalent chromium first made headlines after Erin Brockovich sued Pacific Gas & Electric because of poisoned drinking water from hexavalent chromium. Now, new information indicates that the chemical leaks readily from leaking coal ash dump sites maintained for coal-fired power plants.
Public interest law firm Earthjustice, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Environmental Integrity Project are pushing for federally-enforceable safeguards from coal ash as this new information is released. Also, in a signal that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee recognizes the hazards of hexavalent chromium exposure, they have called on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to testify tomorrow on a hearing about the chemical.
"Communities near coal ash sites must add hexavalent chromium to the list of toxic chemicals that threaten their health and families," said Lisa Evans, senior administrative counsel at Earthjustice. "It is now abundantly clear that the EPA must control coal ash disposal to prevent the poisoning of our drinking water with hexavalent chromium."
Coal ash, the leftover waste from power plants, contains arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, selenium and many other chemicals that can cause cancer and damage the nervous system and organs, especially in children. Hexavalent chromium is a highly toxic carcinogen when inhaled, and recent studies from the National Toxicology Program indicate that when leaked into drinking water, it also can cause cancer.
"The cancer risk from hexavalent chromium is one more serious threat to health from coal ash," said Barbara Gottlieb, Deputy Director for Environment & Health at Physicians for Social Responsibility. "To protect the public from carcinogens and other dangerous substances, the EPA needs to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste."
"The pollution from coal ash sites is making people sick," said Dalal Aboulhosn who works on coal ash for the Sierra Club. "As we’ve seen time and again, big polluters can’t be trusted to police themselves. We need the EPA to hold them accountable."
"Studies by the EPA, the state of California, and the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry show that ingesting minute amounts of hexavalent chromium increases the risk of cancer," said Eric Schaeffer, executive director for Environmental Integrity Project. "Coal ash dumps have contaminated groundwater with much higher concentrations of this deadly carcinogen, according to the industry's own monitoring data. The Obama Administration should keep its promise to respect science and protect the public’s health, by putting strict standards in place to keep this contamination from spreading even further."
Among the findings from the new report:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the type of chromium that leaches from coal ash sites is nearly always of the hexavalent variety, which is the most toxic form of chromium.
The threat of hexavalent chromium drinking water contamination is present at hundreds of unlined coal ash sites across the country.
At least 28 coal ash sites in 17 states have already released chromium to groundwater at levels exceeding by thousands of times a proposed drinking water goal for hexavalent chromium.
Power plants dump more than 10 million pounds of chromium and chromium compounds into mostly unlined or inadequately lined coal ash landfills, ponds and fill sites each year. The electric power industry is the largest single source of chromium and chromium compounds released to the environment.
The U.S. Department of Energy and electric utility industry have known for years about the aggressive leaking of hexavalent chromium from coal ash.
Hexavalent chromium contamination from coal ash is clearly a grave threat. Yet the U.S. EPA, which is currently in the process of deciding whether or not to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste, has completely ignored the cancer risk from chromium in groundwater.
View the entire findings in the full report: EPA's Blind Spot: Hexavalent Chromium in Coal Ash
Factsheet about the report: Hexavalent Chromium in Coal Ash
Contact:Lisa Evans, Earthjustice, (781) 631-4119Barbara Gottlieb, Physicians for Social Responsibility, (202) 587-5225Patrick Mitchell, Environmental Integrity Project, (703) 276 3266Virginia Cramer, Sierra Club, (804) 519-8449
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LET'S KICK SOME ASH

Thanks to all that attended the meeting last night at the VFW, but for those that didn't, good news, things are moving in the right direction!! We have a state representative willing to submit legislation to committee regarding coal ash issues. We have Sierra that continues to help us locally, and also willing to help on the national level. Wonderful people, my sincere appreciation for your efforts. Ken says, we're just people that like clean air and water.

Many thanks to allies from KFTC and the interfaith community for your support last night. You guys rock!

I will be emailing and calling people in my neighborhood, on the southside of the power plant regarding forming a neighborhood organization in a week or so. No fees, no beautification projects in the works, just neighbors concerned about the filth and the pollution brought to us courtesy of LG&E. For those of us (all of us) that want instant gratification, I'm afraid it won't happen over night. But what's doing nothing got us?

Feel free to blog with us. We have an amazing opportunity for positive change
.
Catcha later.

Kentucky ranked 6th for worst mercury pollution in America, spurs new “coal justice” blog

Kentucky ranked 6th for worst mercury pollution in America, spurs new “coal justice” blog

A new report by Environment America reveals that Kentucky’s coal-fired power plants emitted 5,930 pounds of mercury in 2009, placing the commonwealth as the 6th worst emitter of toxic mercury in the nation right behind Indiana (ranked 5th), which spewed 6,046 pounds during the same year.
Titled “Dirty Energy’s Assault on Our Health: Mercury,” (Warning: PDF linkage) the report utilzed the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), which only includes emissions that have been reported to the EPA, thus potentially rendering the numbers far lower than might actually be the case.
“Our dependence on oil and coal-fired power plants has broad detrimental impacts on our health and our environment,” reads the report’s executive summary. “Power plants represent America’s single biggest source of air pollution, affecting our waterways, destroying ecosystems, and polluting the air we breathe. Pollution from coal-fired power plants in particular contributes to four of the five leading causes of mortality in the United States: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic respiratory diseases.”
In response to the news, the Sierra Club issued a press release, excerpts of which you can read after the jump …
(Bold emphasis mine)

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that puts pregnant women at-risk for birth defects in their children including learning disabilities, developmental disorders, and lower IQs.   One in six American women has mercury levels in her blood high enough to put her baby at risk, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Powering our homes should not poison Kentucky’s and Indiana’s kids,” said Thomas Pearce, Sierra Club organizer. “This report shows that toxic mercury pollution from coal plants has reached unacceptable levels.”
The Environment America report found that 11 electric utilities in Kentucky and Indiana rank in the nation’s top 100 emitters of toxic mercury.  The worst offender in Indiana was the American Electric Power Rockport Plant in Rockport, which emitted 1,226 pounds of mercury in 2009; while the worst offender in Kentucky was the Spurlock Power Station in Maysville, which emitted 921 pounds of mercury in 2009.  Other plants in the worst 100 included the LG&E Mill Creek Station in Louisville, KY; IPL Petersburg station in Petersburg, IN; Big Rivers II in Robarbs, KY; Merom Generating Station in Sullivan, IN; Nipso RMShahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield, IN; AEP Big Sandy in Louisa, KY; Kentucky Utilities Co. Station in Ghent, KY; Clifty Creek Station in Madison, IN; and Duke Energy Gibson Generating Station in Owensville, IN.
“Toxic mercury from the Mill Creek and Cane Run power plants are making us sick,” said Kathy Little of Louisville, KY.  “Kentuckiana parents need the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job,  and protect our children’s health.
Mercury pollution is emitted into the air from coal-fired power plants, then falls into waterways from rain or snow.  Mercury is then known to build up in fish then the animals—and people—that consume the fish, putting them at risk for reproductive failure and mortality.  Studies suggest that even a gram-sized drop of mercury can contaminate an entire 20 acre lake.  On the border of Kentucky and Indiana, the Ohio River is threatened with mercury pollution.

In other coal-related news, a new blog, Louisville Residents for Coal Plant Justice, was started this week in advance of the mercury study in an effort to educate the public about LG&E’s plans for a new coal ash landfill in the alreadt-polluted/f$$$$d-over Rubbertown neighborhood. Add it to your RSS reader to keep abreast of the latest in Louisville environmental justice goings-onLEO WEEKLY Blog Story

New Report: Indiana, Kentucky Power Plants Emit 5th and 6th Most Toxic Mercury Pollution in the Nation

New Report: Indiana, Kentucky Power Plants Emit 5th and 6th Most Toxic Mercury Pollution in the Nation

Louisville, KY –  Kentucky and Indiana are the 5th and 6th most mercury-polluted states in the nation, according to a new Environment America report released today, “Dirty Energy’s Assault on our Health: Mercury.” The analysis shows that coal-fired power plants in Indiana emitted 6,048 pounds of toxic mercury pollution in the year 2009, while coal-fired plants in Kentucky emitted 5,930 pounds of mercury in 2009. 

Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that puts pregnant women at-risk for birth defects in their children including learning disabilities, developmental disorders, and lower IQs.   One in six American women has mercury levels in her blood high enough to put her baby at risk, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

“Powering our homes should not poison Kentucky’s and Indiana’s kids,” said Thomas Pearce, Sierra Club organizer. “This report shows that toxic mercury pollution from coal plants has reached unacceptable levels.” 

The Environment America report found that 11 electric utilities in Kentucky and Indiana rank in the nation’s top 100 emitters of toxic mercury.  The worst offender in Indiana was the American Electric Power Rockport Plant in Rockport, which emitted 1,226 pounds of mercury in 2009; while the worst offender in Kentucky was the Spurlock Power Station in Maysville, which emitted 921 pounds of mercury in 2009.  Other plants in the worst 100 included the LG&E Mill Creek Station in Louisville, KY; IPL Petersburg station in Petersburg, IN; Big Rivers II in Robarbs, KY; Merom Generating Station in Sullivan, IN; Nipso RMShahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield, IN; AEP Big Sandy in Louisa, KY; Kentucky Utilities Co. Station in Ghent, KY; Clifty Creek Station in Madison, IN; and Duke Energy Gibson Generating Station in Owensville, IN. 

“Toxic mercury from the Mill Creek and Cane Run power plants are making us sick,” said Kathy Little of Louisville, KY.  “Kentuckiana parents need the Environmental Protection Agency to do its job,  and protect our children’s health. 

Mercury pollution is emitted into the air from coal-fired power plants, then falls into waterways from rain or snow.  Mercury is then known to build up in fish then the animals—and people—that consume the fish, putting them at risk for reproductive failure and mortality.  Studies suggest that even a gram-sized drop of mercury can contaminate an entire 20 acre lake.  On the border of Kentucky and Indiana, the Ohio River is threatened with mercury pollution. 
The report comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to propose a new standard to limit mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants, in March.  Grassroots environmental groups including Environment America and the Sierra Club are calling on the EPA to issue strong health protections that will reduce toxic mercury emissions from power plants by more than 90%.  

http://www.environmentamerica.org/home/reports/report-archives/global-warming-solutions/global-warming-solutions/dirty-energys-assault-on-our-health-mercury 

Facts about coal ash



Toxic Coal Ash -- Simple Facts 

• Coal ash is dangerous to kids.  Living near a toxic coal ash site is worse for your health than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

• In Jefferson County we have 2 power plants (Mill Creek and Cane Run) that have containments the EPA has already deemed as possible hazards

• Both the Mill Creek and Cane Run plants are currently leaking harmful substances into our groundwater.

• People living with 1 mile of these toxic coal ash sites have cancer rates 2,000 times higher than what EPA considers acceptable.

• 1.54 million children live near coal sites. 

• Here in Kentucky, there are 44 coal ash disposal ponds, including seven ponds rated “high hazard” and five rated as “significant hazard.” In the Louisville area, coal ash from the LG&E Cane Run and Mill Creek power plants may be contaminating our groundwater.

• Kentucky families are speaking out about this to say, “stop putting our kids’ health at risk.”

• We can stop the proposed expansion of the Cane Run Coal Ash Containment. It has not won final approval and the world is watching!

Kentucky is buried under coal ash-Our concerns

Our Concerns

Our concerns:

·       The Division of Waste Management should not grant the permit until after EPA finalizes the new coal ash rules; and the permit should incorporate provisions of the new regulations.

·       LG&E needs to phase out burning coal as soon as possible, and to start transitioning to solar and hydropower soon.

·       LG&E should move the location of the ash dump site out of the flood plain,

·       LG&E must use state of the art liners wherever they dump coal combustion waste to avoid groundwater contamination

·       This landfill should not be permitted until LG&E has stopped all leakage from the existing landfill and remediated the contamination there.

·       Good monitoring wells must be required with enforceable monitoring and reporting requirements so we have scientific groundwater monitoring that is enforceable around the coal ash dump.

·       LG&E must redesign the landfill to minimize the destruction of streams and wetlands.