DEMAND TRANSPARENCY FROM TVA
PASS THE RESOLUTION
On May 24th, the Memphis City Council is scheduled to vote on a resolution that demands that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to address the site-specific impacts of transporting and permanently disposing of toxic coal ash in Shelby County.
Click the button below to tell Memphis City Council members to vote “YES” on May 24th!
Don’t forget to personalize the email with your name in the signature!
The TVA HAS NOT BEEN TRANSPARENT OR TRUTHFUL ABOUT THEIR PLANS TO HAUL AND STORE TOXIC COAL ASH IN SOUTH MEMPHIS.
They made their decision 6 MONTHS before they decided to inform the community affected by their decision or the Memphis City Council of their plans. The article below includes internal TVA documents revealing that they knowingly carried out this unjust act.
HERE IS THE PROOF
Here is the proposed resolution (read here).
Click the button below to tell Memphis City Council members to vote “YES” on May 24th!
Don’t forget to personalize the email with your name in the signature!
TVA landfill trucking routes taken through South Memphis more than 200 times daily dumping toxic coal ash
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) knowingly hid its intentions from Memphians, specifically residents of 38109, when deciding to haul upwards of 240 truckloads of toxic coal ash daily through the neighborhoods of South Memphis to the South Shelby Landfill. Not only was this decision made without allowing public discourse, but it was also done in secret to avoid the affected communities in Boxtown and Westwood from having their voices and concerns heard.
HERE IS THE PROOF
Our communities deserve to have their voices heard!
Click the button below to tell Memphis City Council members to vote “YES” on May 24th because Memphians deserve transparency from TVA and clean drinking water.
What is TVA Doing?
• For nearly sixty years the Allen Fossil Plant burned coal in Southwest Memphis—up to fourteen million pounds every day.
• Over three million tons of leftover ash are now sitting in leaking, unlined pits at Allen.
• The toxic ash is leaching arsenic and other coal pollutants into shallow groundwater and poses a risk to the Memphis Sand Aquifer—our drinking water source.
• TVA is required to take the toxic ash out of the leaking pits to protect the Memphis Sand Aquifer.
• TVA is now hauling the ash in trucks through South Memphis to the South Shelby Landfill.
• To fill in the empty pits, TVA is also trucking in dirt from other sites in South Memphis.
How Could This Affect My Community?
• The communities along TVA’s routes will see increased traffic, increased traffic noise, more dust, and more exhaust fumes. Those impacts will go on for over eight years in areas that already bear more than their fair share of industrial facilities and air pollution.
• Moving the ash will take TVA’s trucks 240 truck trips each day through South Memphis.
• Along the main landfill route, there are over 1,500 single-family residential parcels and over 200 apartment complexes within a quarter-mile (1,320 feet) of the road.
• Another 230 trips, every day, will bring in the dirt, or “borrow” material, to fill in the emptying pits.
Why Didn’t I hear About This Before?
• In its environmental review process, TVA didn’t say where it was planning to put the ash, or even whether it would move the ash by truck or train.
• Instead of looking at the impacts its decision would have on South Memphis, TVA looked at a hypothetical, generic “environmental justice population” and limited meaningful community input.
• South Memphis communities haven’t yet gotten an opportunity to provide meaningful input on the plan.
That’s why we’re demanding a supplemental environmental impact statement. There has to be a better way to move the ash than hundreds of trucks driving dozens of miles through South Memphis every day for more than eight years, and we want to help TVA find it.
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