News from a Changing Planet -- #32 -- Earth Day Always

An activist and a lawyer who are working to make the principles of the environmental movement and the first Earth Day - clean air, clean water, justice -- a reality for all of us.

Earth Day was a week ago, and I didn’t write anything — that was on purpose. The origins of Earth Day are radical, and all about collective action (and the subject of my very first News from a Changing Planet!). Earth Day now is often a greenwashing event and an annual plea to “show your love for Mother Nature.” But the work that brought about the first Earth Day in 1970 and the vision and mission of its organizers can’t be achieved on one day (or by shopping “sustainably”).

Blah blah blah…whoop dee doo what does it all mean, Basil?! Credit: Shutterstock

I wanted to remind readers that living up to the values of Earth Day requires action all year round. The achievements of the environmental movement — Earth Day itself; the defeat of pollution-friendly members of Congress and subsequent expansion of the Clean Air Act and passage of the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and more — happened because of sustained activism and efforts in electoral politics.

I was reminded of the need for this kind of commitment by Justin J. Pearson, one of the Tennessee state legislators who was expelled from the legislature for joining a protest for gun control following a school shooting in Nashville. I thought of him because, before he was a state legislator, he was an environmental justice activist. In his hometown of Memphis, he founded Memphis Community Against Pollution, which successfully fought the construction of the Byhalia Connection Pipeline, a 50-mile high-pressure crude oil pipeline.

Justin J. Pearson in Memphis. Credit: CNN

If not for the work of Pearson and others in Memphis, including the lawyers at Southern Environmental Law Center, the pipeline would have been built, and would have passed through southwest Memphis and the Boxtown neighborhood, an area of the city founded by formerly enslaved people, and over the Memphis sand aquifer, which supplies all of the city’s water.

This part of Memphis is already severely burdened by pollution — it is one of the most polluted parts of the country. A University of Memphis study found that there are at least 22 polluting industries there. South Memphis is largely a Black community, and across the country, industrial pollution in Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities across the country is much more prevalent than in white communities, and is linked with negative health consequences, like asthma, and can also contribute to premature death.

This is the route the pipeline would have taken, and also contains information on demographics and existing pollution sources. Credit: Southern Environmental Law Center.

The Allen Fossil Plant, a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-fired power plant, is in south Memphis. For decades, it exhaled coal dust particles into the air and stored toxic coal ash in leaking, unlined ponds, which are in contact with the groundwater in the shallow aquifer, just above the aquifer from which Memphis gets all of its water. In 2017, arsenic levels in the shallow aquifer were found to be 300 times higher than the legal limit, a sign of coal ash contamination. In 2018, the plant was shut down, and replaced with a natural gas power station next door, which burns methane. This plant also pollutes the air and also puts a lot of strain on the aging well infrastructure that provides South Memphis’s drinking water.

(For more on coal ash, visit my archives: This story, this one, this one and this one.)

At least 4 major highways run through south Memphis; it is home to the Memphis airport, which is FedEx’s hub, and the busiest cargo airport in the country and sometimes the world. In 2015, The Asthma and Allergy Foundation named Memphis the U.S.’s Asthma Capital; Shelby County, where Memphis sits, was among the top ten counties with the highest asthma emergency department and hospitalization rates between 2008 and 2012, according to a 2017 study. Life expectancy in south Memphis is 67 years, compared to the county (which includes wealthy white suburbs) average of 79 years, and the state average of 75 years.

A truck carrying coal ash drives from the Allen Fossil Plant to a landfill in South Memphis. Credit: Brandon Dill for the Washington Post

But just two weeks after the victory against the pipeline construction was announced, Tennessee Valley Authority revealed their plans for coal ash removal from the leaking ponds: they would pile it on trucks, and drive it across south Memphis to a landfill 19 miles away, every day, making 240 trips per day on diesel-powered trucks, for the next ten years. The route passes through a part of the city that is 80 percent Black.

This piece from The Washington Post last August, by Darryl Fears, lays out the story very well. However, it leaves out some context.

TVA is a federal agency, and should be operating in compliance with the Biden administration’s policies and executive orders on environmental justice and clean energy. Instead, it has proposed one of the largest natural gas buildouts n the country, according to Amanda Garcia, a lawyer with the SELC, effectively committing its customers (Memphis residents and others in the region) to a fossil-fueled future and also forcing them to bear the burden of pollution for decades to come.

An aerial photo of the Allen Fossil Plant facility. Credit: Southern Environmental Law Center

Late last year, TVA’s contract with Memphis Light and Gas Works (MLGW), the city’s water company and electric utility, came up for renewal. TVA wanted Memphis to essentially be their customer forever — they would have annual contracts, but would need to give TVA 20 years notice if they wanted to get out of the relationship, which Garcia and others have called a “forever” contract. In December, however, MLGW voted down the contract, preserving the community’s ability to reevaluate their relationship with TVA and leave with five years’ notice.

This decision matters: it sent a message to TVA that they couldn’t keep treating Memphis like its residents don’t matter.

Justin Jones (another Tennessee state legislator who was expelled for protesting) and Justin Pearson. Credit: CNN

This whole saga may sound discouraging — Pearson and his allies won the fight against the pipeline, only to be hit with yet another injustice. BUT I don’t think that’s the takeaway. The takeaway is this work is hard and it’s never over, but it’s worth doing, because we know what happens if we do nothing: things get worse, and the people who don’t share our values make the rules.

I am grateful that Pearson did not give up - after the Byhalia Pipeline victory, he ran for office, and he is now in the state legislature, fighting for gun control and environmental justice issues. Amanda Garcia, who fights to clean up the air and water for people in Tennessee every day, is still doing that work AND talking to me on the phone for hours to explain it. If they can keep doing this work, the rest of us have no excuse.

And it is important to pay attention and to know about the injustices being inflicted on our fellow citizens — in this case, by an agency of the federal government. A country that allows certain people to suffer the harms of pollution because of their race, their income, or where they live, is a country that is less free and less just for all of us. The work of Earth Day is to help fix a broken promise, and to restore what we owe to each other.

Happy Earth DayWeekMonthYearDecadeCenturyForever.

Tatiana