Table of ContentsReferencesEmelle, Alabama: Home Of The Nation’s Largest Hazardous Waste Landfill.By Curt DavidsonTable of Contents·0 Problem·1 Background·2 Key Actors·3 Demographics·4 Strategies·5 Solutions·6 ReferencesProblemIn 1978, Chemical Waste Management, a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc., purchaseda landfill permit for a 300-acre tract of land near the village of Emelle in the center of Sumter County, Alabama. In Sumter County, one of the country’s most impoverished regions, one-third of the residents live below the poverty level. Over 65 percent of the residents are Black and over 90 percent of the residents near the landfill in Emelle areBlack. Since acquiring the landfill, Waste Management Inc. has dumped millions of tons of hazardous waste on what was once lush farmland, creating the largest hazardous waste landfill in the United States, and possibly the world. Nearly 40 percent of the toxic waste disposed of nationwide between 1984 and 1987 under the federal Superfund removal program ended up at the landfill. The 2700-acre landfill also sits directly over the Eutaw Aquifer, which supplies water to a large part of Alabama (Cray, 1991). BackgroundSumter County is located in the heart of the Black belt soils region in western Alabama. The Black belt was the center of Alabama’s cotton plantation economy before the Civil War and Sumter County was the major population center in the state. Nearly half of the residents were slaves. Through sharecropping arrangements, cotton continued to be produced which kept the Black population in a condition of poverty and dependence. TheCivil Rights Act of 1964 brought few immediate changes to the existing racial hierarchy. Schools remained segregated until 1969, and at least one racially segregated educational system still operates there today. Challenges to white minority control in the county occurred for the first time in the 1970’s and Blacks were just being elected to public office in 1978 (Alley et al., 1995). Not only was Sumter County going through great social upheaval during the time that the hazardous waste industry arrived, but it was also undergoing a number of significant demographic and economic changes. Government andbusiness elites were the primary players in affecting land-use decisions and growth potentials. Growth was stimulated in the area by the underemployed workforce, weak labor unions, strong right-to-work laws, cheap labor, cheap land, and extremely lenient environmental regulations. A general theme in this region was the arrival of polluting industries into poor minority communities with little input from local community leaders (Bullard, 1990).The industry used the argument of “jobs” for local residents to quell dissent by any concerned citizens. The relatively unknown environmental risks at the time were offered as unavoidable trade-offs for jobs and a broadened tax base in economically depressed communities such as Emelle. This industrial policy that “any job is better than no job” may have been a major factor in the reasons that local grassroots groups failed to stop polluting industries like Waste Management Inc. from operating. Waste Management Inc. and other industrial firms at these times tended to view the black community as a “pushover, lacking community organization, environmental consciousness, and having a strong and blind pro-jobs stance” (Bullard, 1990). Communities like Emelle were exploited for these reasons and also because the residents of such impoverished areas wereintimidated by big corporations and deserted by local politicians (Bullard, 1990).In 1977 a small company called Resource Industries Inc. purchased a 300-acre tract of land just outside of Emelle in Sumter County. It seems that political ties allowed ResourceIndustries Inc. to turn the 300 acres into a landfill. One of the original owners, James Parsons, is the son in law of the Governor, George Wallace. The political connections enabled the company to obtain the necessary permits to operate the dump from the Health Department. In light of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 1974 decision to nominateSumter County as a possible hazardous waste landfill site, Chemical Waste Management, asubsidiary of Waste Management Inc. bought the permit from Resource Industries Inc. andexpanded its operation to consume 2700 acres (Alley, 1995). Incidentally in 1996, Resource Industries sued Chemical Waste Management for fraud and misrepresentation and the Wallace crowd received $91 million while the community received nothing (case No. 93-2343-H/V Mark Gregory, et al., Plaintiffs, vs. Chemical Waste Management, Inc.). Under no legal obligation to inform the public about the arrivalof the hazardous waste industry, the two companies did not do so. This being the case, local residents of Emelle and Sumter County didn’t have a chance to mobilize and protest against such a facility. The local residents didn’t realize the nature of the facility until it was already operating. Additionally, Chemical Waste Management is supported by key local leaders including locally elected officials whose county commission, school board, and municipal budgets were greatly increased by the company’s monthly payments of $5.00 for every ton of waste buried in the county. These user fee payments totaled approximately $20 million between 1978 and 1995 for the county. Needless to say, the local government bodies havebecome dependent on this money and officials responsible for making budgets are not willing to criticize or challenge the company’s policies (Alley, 1995). Residents, not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them, were thus placed in a position where health risks came second to jobs and government and business elites became the only players affecting land-use decisions. Since the opening of the facility in Emelle and prior to 1991, the dump has received between 5 and 6 million tons of hazardous waste, according to activist Kaye Kiker. At its peak, the company received almost 800,000 tons of waste per year. Most of the waste came from 42 other states and military bases over seas. The company has had on-site fires, off-site water contamination, federal penalties for environmental violations, reports of dumping of radioactive wastes without permits and the unauthorized acceptance of dioxins (Cray, 1991). Workers at the facility, including at least one technical manager resigned because