Southeast Ga. County Fights Plan To Bring In Coal Ash
In this 2013 photo, sprinklers water a coal ash landfill to limit dust, near the village of Usce, by the power plant Nikola Tesla, not far from the Serbian capital Belgrade. Coal ash is a byproduct from burning coal.
Darko Vojinovic / AP Photo
Officials in a southeast Georgia county are fighting a plan to bring coal ash to a landfill there. Coal ash is a byproduct from burning coal, and in the past several years, there have been big, expensive spills at coal ash storage facilities in Tennessee and North Carolina.
A private company that operates a landfill in Wayne County hopes to build a rail yard so that trains can carry coal ash there from power plants.
Ralph Hickox, a Wayne County commissioner, said he found out about the plan last month.
“I’m not a tree hugger,” he said. “I’m a Republican; I’m a Conservative; I like industry. But I don’t want to be the dump of the North. I’m sorry, but I don’t.”
Coal ash can contain toxic material. But in 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency decided it could be treated as nonhazardous waste.
A spokesman for the landfill in Wayne County said it’s already permitted to take coal ash.
Right now, the only issue under consideration is whether or not the company can build the rail yard. That decision is up to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is accepting public comments until early March.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division said it doesn’t have any role in this particular dispute since the landfill has been permitted for years.
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