Uniontown, AL
One of the many examples of Environmental Racism, is Uniontown Alabama where toxic waste from Kingston Tennessee was transported there with an agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. The city in Alabama is characterized by its poor, black residents, while Kingston is a mostly white city.
Our organization is committed to fighting against environmental racism and its devastating impact on marginalized communities. We believe that every individual, regardless of race or socioeconomic status, has the right to live in a healthy and sustainable environment. We work towards achieving environmental justice by raising awareness about the unequal distribution of environmental hazards and advocating for policies that promote equitable access to clean air, water, and land. We strive to empower communities to take action against environmental racism and build a future where everyone can thrive in a safe and healthy environment.
Environmental Racism Reform
Our Mission
Background Information
Unfortunately, Uniontown is one of the most notorious examples of environmental racism. The concentration of industrial plants in a place with a large Black population (90%) has sparked outcry among its residents due to neglect it has received regarding the handling of the waste in Alabama which was vastly worse than the handling of the same waste in Kingston, Tennessee.
The number of cubic yards of coal ash transported to Uniontown Alabama from Kingston Tennessee.
400M
Amount of toxic elements within the carbon ash from Kingston. Arsenic, mercury, lead, cadmium, and selenium. These are all chemicals harmful to human and animal life.
5
Population of Uniontown, Alabama. All of these people are suffering the risk that the toxic landfill provides to them.
9,803
Percent of Uniontown residents that live under the poverty line. Unfortunately, statistics like these influence higher governmental authorities to determine where hazardous waste goes.
40%
Environmental Injustice Map
Public Outcry
Message from Esther Calhoun
"Why is this coal ash considered hazardous when it left Kingston Tennessee ... declared as a superfund site, but then was no longer considered hazardous when it arrived in our community, a predominantly black town? We saw pictures of people in hazmat suits loading the coal ash in Kingston, while in Uniontown, workers were provided with little protection and community members with nothing."
Message from William Gipson
“It’s like methane gas, rotten eggs, it smells in the house all the time, I have heart failure and if I go outside on the regular and sit out it’s like I can’t breathe."
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This is a comment on the sheer gravity of the situation and how inhospitable Uniontown has become.
Message from Marianne Lado
"There is a fundamental problem here, the EPA’s existing civil-rights record. Despite their rhetoric, agency officials have yet to show 'political will' to address the problem of systemic discrimination in places where health hazards are.”
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This shows the unwillingness of the Environmental Protection Agency to even offer a little help to the already suffering community.
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