The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination on the basis of color, religion, national origin and gender. The text of the law is thematically organized into eleven sections, Title I to Title XI. Title VI is of particular significance.
What is Title VI?
What does Title VI have to do with environmental and health protections?
Does filing a Title VI complaint automatically stop a discriminating action?
Why is Title VI so important?
The Civil Rights Act is already law. Why is this still an issue?
How has the EPA responded to Title VI complaints?
Is the EPA improving its response to Title VI complaints?
What is Earthjustice doing?
From The Frontlines Spotlight on a Title VI Complaint
Uniontown, Alabama, is one of hundreds of communities that has filed a Title VI complaint.
Six years ago, Uniontown inherited the worst coal ash disaster in U.S. history. One billion gallons of toxic coal ash—laced with heavy metal and chemicals such as arsenic, mercury and lead—had burst through a dam at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee, destroying dozens of homes.
Train cars filled with the toxic waste began arriving at Arrowhead Landfill near Uniontown. When the coal ash left Tennessee, it was regarded as hazardous and treated as hazardous. But when it was unloaded from the train cars in Alabama, the coal ash was no longer treated as hazardous.
Earthjustice is representing residents in their Title VI complaint against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for reissuing and modifying the Arrowhead Landfill’s permit without proper and readily enforceable protections of public health. The EPA began its Title VI investigation on August 12, 2014, two years after the original complaint was filed. It is unclear, at this point, what the EPA will do.
Uniontown is not just a town. It is a homeland. The community is committed to protecting their families, their future—and the way of life they are not willing to surrender.
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Chris Jordan-Bloch / EarthjusticeAnnette Gibbs and her husband William stand in their front yard, which is near the Arrowhead Landfill. -
Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice“If that’s what [coal ash] is doing to my truck, imagine what it’s doing to me,” said Gibbs.
William Gibbs
“I wanted to move away from the noise and the hardness of the city. So I came here for some peace and quiet in the country. I wanted to hunt and fish and enjoy the weather in this beautiful place.
“And now, they've pushed this thing right on top of us."
A few months after the coal ash began arriving in Uniontown, Gibbs started seeing the paint peel off his truck.
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Chris Jordan-Bloch / EarthjusticeEsther Calhoun at her church near Uniontown, AL. Calhoun drove through coal ash dust storms on her way to service every Sunday and Friday. -
Chris Jordan-Bloch / EarthjusticeCalhoun, head of the community group Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice, speaks with Ben Eaton (right) and Barbara Evans (foreground).
Esther Calhoun
“We got our property from our parents, or we worked hard to buy that property. And that means a whole lot. And [now] what do I get? Coal ash.
“But the thing is, we’re never gonna stop fighting. Because it doesn’t make any sense that every time they want to put a dumping ground, it’s in a black residence.
“We have to stick together. Then we have power. What we want is simple. We expect justice.”
Mary Leila Schaeffer
“We had the waste of about a third of the population of the country [dumped at the landfill]. The county commission did not let us know. The mayor did not let us know. We had no voice in it, no concept of it.
“We found out when it was already a done deal.”
The landfill receives industrial and municipal waste from 33 states. Schaeffer, Long, Calhoun and other residents formed the community group Black Belt Citizens for Health and Justice to fight the coal ash.
Norma Jean Harris
Harris lives about a quarter mile from the landfill. After the coal ash arrived, her water began to smell and taste strange. Now, she uses bottled water for cooking and drinking.
Many people in close proximity to the landfill have experienced problems with their water and are also using bottled water.
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Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice -
Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice
Booker P. Gibson
Gibson lives across the street from the landfill and saw discharges coming off the landfill onto his property. Later, some of Booker's animals became sick and died after being exposed to the liquid.
Timothy Moore, Jr.
The hill behind Timothy Moore, Jr., in this photo is actually a mountain of toxic coal ash in Arrowhead Landfill. The area used to be a flat field.
When dumped into unlined ponds or mines, the toxins from coal ash readily leach into drinking water supplies. Hundreds of coal ash dump sites across the country are known to have contaminated groundwater, wetlands, creeks and rivers. Find out where.
In addition to representing residents of Uniontown, Earthjustice is also fighting on behalf of five communities in a federal court case involving Title VI complaints stalled at the EPA for a decade or more. The EPA accepted the complaints about permits for a wood-incinerator power station in Flint, Mich., two gas-fired power plants in Pittsburg, Calif., a landfill in Tallassee, Ala., a hazardous waste facility in Chaves County, N.M., and an oil-refinery expansion along the Texas Gulf Coast. These permits are for facilities in predominantly low-income African-American or Latino neighborhoods.
We are also supporting residents in eastern North Carolina in a Title VI complaint alleging that the state’s lax regulation of hog waste disposal discriminates against communities of color.
Our bodies should not be the dumping ground for dirty industries.
