Residents and Activists Oppose ABC Coke Air Permit
Jimmy Smith, an 86-year-old Collegeville retiree, held an 8×10 framed photograph of his four daughters in his hand when he stood Thursday to ask the Jefferson County Department of Health not to renew an air emissions permit for ABC Coke.
He says his oldest daughter died of cancer and another daughter gets cancer treatments twice a month. He’s also a cancer survivor and a survivor of a community he says has been plagued with pollution for years.
“Ya’ll can deny this permit, and I promise you they will get the message. They will clean up their act,” he says.
Smith showed environmental test results that indicate 15 hazardous substances on his property.
He was among about eight speakers at the first hearing Thursday on whether to renew the emissions permit for ABC Coke. Companies with air emissions are required to have permits renewed every four or five years, the health department says.
About 40 people attended, including several who rode a bus from north Birmingham, an effort organized by Birmingham City Councilman William Parker.
Interest is heightened on the renewal of the ABC Coke permit. The company is owned by Drummond, which was at the center of a corruption trial involving a former state lawmaker, a company executive, and a lawyer. They conspired to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s cleanup efforts in the area.
Charlie Mack Powell, president of the environmental group PANIC or People Against Neighborhood Industrial Contamination, also spoke at the hearing.
Powell says people who live in the area with high soil contamination should be offered fair market value for their homes so that they can relocate.
“The plant ain’t moving,” he says.
Nelson Brooke, a board member with the environmental watchdog group GASP, wants the health department to require more stringent regulations on ABC Coke emissions and to protect the residents.
The health department will review the comments from the hearings and send the information to the EPA.
At the Supreme Court, the case of the candidate who sued, even though he won
At issue was a suit by Rep. Michael Bost, R-Ill., challenging an Illinois regulation that allows ballots mailed in by Election Day to be counted for up to 14 days after polls close.
Israel and Hamas agree on the ‘first phase’ of Gaza ceasefire deal
The deal raises the possibility that the war may now be over, ending the bloodiest fighting ever between Israelis and Palestinians.
After Spain’s blackout, critics blamed renewable energy. It’s part of a bigger attack
When millions lost power in Spain and Portugal this spring, some were quick to blame too much solar and wind power. That wasn't the cause, but the misinformation had an impact.
‘Fairyland’ recalls a girl’s life with her poet father in pre-AIDS San Francisco
Alysia Abbott's memoir about growing up in 1970s San Francisco with her gay, single father, has been adapted into a film directed by Andrew Durham and produced by Sofia Coppola.
Los Angeles: Spaghetti Cumbia, a band born from cultural fusion
Photographers and storytellers Karla Gachet and Ivan Kashinsky document cumbia music in Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina and the United States.
What are your holiday shopping plans? NPR wants to hear from you
Is this the season of cutbacks or splurges? As we prepare to cover holiday shopping and deals, NPR wants to hear from you, whatever your plans may be.
