Uniontown, Alabama, a small town in Perry County, has a population of about 2,234. Its population is 88% black, and its median household income is about $14,094.[1] Uniontown may be small, but it has attracted national attention surrounding its ongoing legal battles with the EPA and the State of Alabama over the Arrowhead Landfill. Many residents and environmental justice advocates believe that the town is victim to environmental racism.[2]

The battle started over a decade ago, as many Uniontown residents opposed the permitting and development of the Arrowhead landfill near the town.[3] Dissatisfaction with the landfill escalated in 2008 when the facility began accepting a large amount of toxic coal ash that had spilled into the Emory River in Tennessee.[4] In Tennessee, the coal ash was classified as hazardous under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA),[5] with those who cleaned up the coal ash suffering serious injuries, including brain cancer, lung cancer, and leukemia.[6] In 2010, however, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) approved the transportation of some of this coal ash to Uniontown where it was reclassified as nonhazardous under the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) and disposed of in the Arrowhead Landfill.[7]

The decision by ADEM to permit sending coal ash to the Arrowhead Landfill is central to the ongoing disputes between the citizens of Uniontown and the ADEM. Residents allege that they have suffered from foul odors, upset appetite, respiratory issues, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and excessive dust encroaching on their property due to the nearby Arrowhead Landfill.[8]

In 2013, thirty-five residents of Uniontown filed a Title VI Civil Rights complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against the ADEM.[9] The complaint alleged that ADEM’s authorization of the construction of the Arrowhead Landfill had a disparate impact – a policy that is neutral on its face but has a discriminatory effect on a protected class – on the African-Americans in the nearby community.[10] Specifically, the complaint alleged both health-related and non-health related harms including those related to coal ash, the degradation of the nearby cemetery, increased roaming of wild-life, and decreased property values.[11]

In 2016, the company that owns the Arrowhead Landfill filed a $30 million lawsuit against some of the Uniontown residents alleging defamation.[12] In response, residents of Uniontown supplemented their original compliant with the EPA alleging that ADEM had engaged in and failed to protect complainants from a continuing practice of retaliation and intimidation.[13]

However, five years after the initial Uniontown Title VI Civil Rights complaint, the EPA determined that there was insufficient evidence to support the complaint of civil rights violations as well as the retaliation complaint.[14] Specifically, the EPA concluded that it was unable to find a causal connection between the permitted actions and the alleged harms.[15]

Seeking another avenue for relief, three Uniontown residents filed suit in Alabama state court in 2017.[16] Ronald Smith, Latonya Gipson, and William Gipson, argued that the use of tarps as alternative cover at the landfill violated state law. Just last month, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals reversed the Montgomery Circuit Court’s summary judgment for ADEM and remanded with instructions to enter summary judgment for the residents of Uniontown.[17] The issues on appeal were: (1) whether the appellants had standing to contest the alternative-cover-materials rules and (2) whether ADEM exceeded its statutory authority in adopting the alternative-cover-materials rules.[18] The court stated that to have standing, the appellants only had to present “substantial evidence” that the use of alternative-cover-materials was causing or threatening to cause injury to their private property interests.[19] The court concluded that this burden had been met.[20]

The court also concluded that in adopting new alternative-cover-materials rules, ADEM had permitted landfill operators to use material other than earth to cover the solid waste, though the agency was not authorized to permit the use of such alternative materials.[21] The court found ADEM had exceeded its statutory authority in promulgating the rule, and thus that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to the defendants.[22]

Although this ruling is good news for the residents of Uniontown, Alabama, it is unclear how the state of Alabama will respond to the ruling.[23] Regardless, its response could affect both publicly and privately owned landfills.[24]

[1] Census Reporter for Uniontown, Alabama, https://censusreporter.org/ (search the “Profile” field for Uniontown, AL, last visited November 12, 2019).

[2] Oliver Milman, Environmental Racism Case: EPA Rejects Alabama Town’s Claim Over Toxic Landfill, The Guardian (Mar. 6, 2018, 6:00 EST), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/06/environmental-racism-alabama-landfill-civil-rights.

[3] Shaila Dewan, Clash in Alabama Over Tennessee Coal Ash, N.Y. Times (Aug. 29, 2019) https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/us/30ash.html?_r=1&hp.

[4] Marianne Engelman-Lado, Camila Bustos, Haley Leslie-Bole & Perry Leung, Environmental Injustice in Uniontown, Alabama, Decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1964: It’s Time for Action, Human Rights Magazine (Oct. 04, 2019), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/vol–44–no-2–housing/environmental-injustice-in-uniontown–alabama–decades-after-the/.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Environmental Injustice in Alabama’s Black Belt, Equal Justice Initiative (October 22, 2018), https://eji.org/news/alabama-black-belt-environmental-injustice.

[9] Complaint, EPA OCR File No. 01R-12-R4 (May 30, 2013).  https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2067658-12r-13-r4-complaint-redacted.html. See also Marianne Engelman-Lado, Camila Bustos, Haley Leslie-Bole & Perry Leung, Environmental Injustice in Uniontown, Alabama, Decades after the Civil Rights Act of 1964: It’s Time for Action, Human Rights Magazine (Oct. 04, 2019), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/vol–44–no-2–housing/environmental-injustice-in-uniontown–alabama–decades-after-the/.

[10] Id. at 1.

[11] EPA, Closure of Administrative Complaint, EPA File No. 12R-13-R4 (2018) at 6, available at https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-03/documents/2018.03.01_lefleur_l_re_letter_of_closure_of_administrative_complaint_fi.pdf.

[12] Environmental Injustice in Alabama’s Black Belt, Equal Justice Initiative (October 22, 2018), https://eji.org/news/alabama-black-belt-environmental-injustice.

[13] EPA, Closure of Administrative Complaint, EPA File No. 12R-13-R4 at 19 (2018), https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-03/documents/2018.03.01_lefleur_l_re_letter_of_closure_of_administrative_complaint_fi.pdf.

[14] Environmental Injustice in Alabama’s Black Belt, Equal Justice Initiative (October 22, 2018), https://eji.org/news/alabama-black-belt-environmental-injustice; see also Env’t Prot. Agency, Closure of Administrative Complaint, EPA File No. 12R-13-R4 (2018), https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-03/documents/2018.03.01_lefleur_l_re_letter_of_closure_of_administrative_complaint_fi.pdf.

[15] Env’t Prot. Agency, Closure of Administrative Complaint, EPA File No. 12R-13-R4 at 7-18 (March 1, 2018), https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-03/documents/2018.03.01_lefleur_l_re_letter_of_closure_of_administrative_complaint_fi.pdf.

[16] Smith, et. al v. LeFleur, No. CV-17-900021, 2019 WL 5091863

(Ala. Civ. App. Oct. 11, 2019).

[17] Id. at *5.

[18] Id. at *5.

[19] Id. at *5.

[20] Id. at *8.

[21] Id. at *12.

[22] Id. at *12.

[23] E.A. Crunden, Alabama Ruling Hits Two Landfills with Ongoing Environmental Justice Concerns, The Waste Dive (Oct. 18, 2019), https://www.wastedive.com/news/alabama-landfill-environmental-justice-advanced-arrowhead-waste-management-court/565068/.

[24] Id.