The Tennessee Valley Authority is trucking millions of tons of contaminated coal ash through south Memphis to dump it in a landfill. It's another example of how industries work to fight their way into communities of color already teeming with pollution.
— It’s rare for a Black community to notch a win against a large industrial polluter, but that’s what happened on this city’s south side.
Residents, conservationists and local politicians who oppose the plan say that the TVA — the nation’s largest public utility — failed to consult them adequately or seriously consider less harmful alternatives. “Even when the windows are closed, I can still smell exhaust in my den,” said Kimberley Davis, a 46-year-old Internal Revenue Service employee who lives in the community of Whitehaven near I-55.
Although studies showed that the water is safe to drink, the TVA agreed to haul away and bury the coal ash at a cost of $300 million. The utility closed the Allen Fossil Plant and worked on alternative plans to get rid of the coal ash. At a community meeting in early 2020, a land agent contracted by the companies explained why they selected their neighborhood: “We took, basically, a point of least resistance.” His remarks were recorded and published on a podcast,As residents reportedly stared at each other in disbelief, the land agent added: “We encountered [other] communities that were newly being built, and we rerouted around them.
Pearson co-founded Memphis Community Against the Pipeline with other neighborhood activists and ultimately became its voice. The activists galvanized citywide opposition to the project by showing that it was a potential threat to the sand aquifer and its prized drinking water. The TVA emailed a statement to The Washington Post saying it held two public hearings in 2019 at a community center and library to discuss its plans. The statement said officials also met with leaders of the Sierra Club and a group called Protect Our Aquifer.
The roads from downtown into the heart of south Memphis led to Stax Records, the famous music label of hitmakers Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and Al Green, the love song crooner turned preacher. City officials made promises to modernize Boxtown but did not deliver on them for decades. As Boxtown waited for a connection to the modern world, a story familiar to nearly every Black urban area in the country played out: White flight to the suburbs with the assistance of favorable federal government home mortgage loans.
But when her throat hurt and she started learning about pollution through activist groups, Davis figured that her health was far more important than history and the trappings of a middle-class district. The environmental analysis is also deceptive, the Southern Environmental Law Center said, arguing that it ignores entire housing subdivisions that sit behind the road facing structures the TVA identified.
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