Environmental Justice Violations Alleged in PSJ Incinerator Siting
In December, 2011, residents of Port St. Joe, Florida asked U.S. EPA to investigate Florida DEP’s violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Read the Title VI Complaint and attachments here:
Title VI Complaint Attachment A Attachment B Attachment C Attachment D Attachment E
- The complaint says the incinerator will have disparate impacts on African Americans living within 2 km of the smokestack. It says the impacts are:
(1) human exposure to facility emissions, particularly carcinogens;
(2) light pollution from an elevated, open design flare system 100 hours per year. In the words of a nationally recognized air pollution expert, “Basically, there is going to be a fireball visible for miles up to 100 hours per year. Put another way, every third night of the year for an hour each time, folks in Mill View could be looking at a roman candle fireball over the incinerator site.”
(3) increased traffic congestion, accident risk, vehicular emissions and noise from increased truck traffic.
- Research shows biomass incinerator developers target low income and communities of color. According to Professor Robert Bullard at Clark Atlanta University, called the father or environmental justice, “biomass incineration marketers are exploiting the extremely high black jobless rate to peddle their wares.” Read his article here: Dr. Bullard on Biomass Incinerators
- The City of Port St Joe bears a toxic legacy left behind by decades of pollution from numerous industrial activities. By far the most polluting industry was the St. Joe Company that ran a paper mill from 1938 to the late 1990s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joe_Company “Joe,” clear-cut the old growth forests in the Panhandle for the paper mill. St. Joe Company dumped toxic waste into St. Joseph Bay, the Gulf County Canal, and the City’s wastewater lagoons. Joe also buried paper mill waste in areas of the City and sold off the land for house lots. The area is known as Mill View and covers about 520 acres. Florida politicians have worked hand-in-hand with the corporations over the past several years to ensure that Joe bears only minimal responsibility for its toxic legacy in Mill View. About 300 families are living on top of the waste dump in Port St. Joe.
Read the legal settlement between the state, Joe, and Stone Container over the paper mill pollution. Consent Order 2002.pdf Joe got off practically scott free.
- The Title VI Complaint says the impacts caused by the incinerator “will aggravate and compound historical impacts suffered by the population from other facilities within the area.” This includes St. Joe Company/Florida Coast Paper Co., LLC paper mill operations.
- Politicians and judges from the local level in Port St. Joe all the way up to the governor and the U.S. Congress have been complicit in letting the corporations off the hook for the pollution in Port St. Joe. Read about 1st District Court of Appeal Judge Hawkes working with St. Joe Company at the same time he denied Millview residents the right to bring a class action lawsuit against Joe. TajMaHawkes Corruption Story The deals are being investigated by the Judicial Conduct Committee. Hawkes was removed from the bench in November 2011.
- Much of Joe’s toxic pollution is still sitting in the areas soil and waterways. The waste dumped in Port St. Joe contained hazardous substances including dioxin and PCBs. These are some of the most toxic chemicals known to science. Read more here: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/FormerStJoeForestProductsSite/FormerStJoeForestProductsPHA010606.pdf
- The State of Florida has not adequately addressed the legacy pollution in Port St. Joe, putting at risk human health and the environment. The March 2010 “Health Consultation” done by the Florida Department of Public Health is a white-wash: guess who collected and analyzed the soil samples? St. Joe Company. Florida’s Millview Whitewash Report
- The City Commission has made a mockery of the situation by adopting regulations in the Conservation Element of the PSJ Comprehensive Plan, 1.5.6 that says, “The City shall coordinate with the Florida Department of Health to provide information regarding “Good Gardening Practices“ to the residents of Mill View Subdivision and encourage the use of such practices to reduce the possible of exposure to fill chemicals.” Common sense shows “good gardening practices” will not prevent small children and others from being expose to the toxic waste in their yards and beneath their homes.
- In 2001, at a meeting held by the Florida Dept. of Public Health in Mill View, these “safe gardening practices” were explained and pamphlets distributed on that issue which gave the following advice:
Don’t eat, drink or smoke while gardening.
Take off shoes before entering house.
Wash clothes.
Limit root crops.
Bring in top soil.
Don’t garden when weather is dry and wind is blowing.
Wear gloves.
- The Port St Joe City Commission approved the incinerator on October 4, 2011. The Commission’s actions will expose residents to even more toxic pollution.