A closed factory’s lead contamination in Lincoln that went unreported to residents, even though a state environmental agency knew about it for three years prior, simply serves as a sad reminder of what little emphasis Alabama puts on environmental protection.While the state remained mum, it took a federal agency to inform the people of the possible dangers lurking near their homes. The Environmental Protection Agency actually notified residents two weeks ago when its representatives knocked on doors in the Lincoln neighborhood where the foundry operated, asking to test the soil in their yards for possible contamination.
Alabama Department of Environmental Management officials had neglected to tell residents in the predominantly black neighborhood there might be a problem, saying they didn’t have enough information during the three years they kept it a secret.
Unfortunately, it’s not the first case of negligence on ADEM’s part. Similar stories have played out in Talladega, Anniston and elsewhere around the state.
A look at ADEM’s own Web site clearly tells the story of an agency reluctant to make itself accountable to the people it is supposed to be serving.
The site contains a set of strategies designed to make ADEM more effective in its mission to protect the people of this state from environmental threats such as the one in Lincoln. In that proposal was a specific plan for notifying the public when possible threats occurred.
The plan was never adopted.
This week, ADEM has a chance to send a message that it will, in fact, protect the people of this state. But indications from its overseeing commission send a starkly different one.
On June 29, the full ADEM board will have a chance to accept or reject the commission’s recommendation that Alabama turn down a push to lessen the amount of carcinogens allowed in the state’s rivers and streams.
It has a chance to follow the lead of Alabama’s neighboring states and the EPA in strengthening water standards.
In those states, they allow pollutants that have a one in a million chance of causing cancer in an individual. In Alabama, standards allow pollutants that have a one in 100,000 chance of causing cancer, appallingly low in terms of the risks they represent.
It stands alone with Tennessee as the only Southern state that doesn’t comply with the EPA’s recommendation of the one in one million standard, but powerful business interests are cited as the influence in keeping the standards weak and Alabamians at risk.
And that certainly shouldn’t be. This should be an environmental issue, not an economic one, and if 28 other states adopt stronger protections for their constituencies, why shouldn’t Alabama?
A lawyer for environmental groups pushing for more protection for Alabama citizens puts it into proper perspective: “The issue is not how many people have died,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s how many people are at risk of dying.”
On Friday, Alabama finds out what a human life is worth to the agency charged with the responsibility of protecting it. The answer will come when the ADEM board votes ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ on the standards.
We would like to hope otherwise, but given the track record so far, odds are that Alabama’s water standards will stay lower and the health risks higher.
