Activists, journalists tour Wedgewood, Bellview landfills
- January 31, 2015
- / William Rabb
- / community-dashboard
Pensacola residents who feel like they're surrounded by toxic landfills are not alone.
“It's the same story, different place. It's always low-income and minority neighborhoods that are overburdened with environmental problems,” said Cherri Foytlin, an author and one of the organizers of a Gulf Coast bus tour that stopped outside the Rolling Hills Construction and Demolition Recycling Center and landfill in northwest Pensacola.
“We see it everywhere we go. In this country, money buys voices, so it's easier to push folks around in places where they don't have a lot of money,” said Matt Louis-Rosenberg, a Virginia activist who was one of more than 60 environmentalists and journalists who on Friday talked to nearby residents and looked at troubled sites from Pensacola to Biloxi, including a coal terminal in Mobile and an oil refinery in Pascagoula.
[caption id="attachment_16154" align="alignright" width="364"]
Tour participants disembark from the bus after touring sites in Biloxi, Pascagoula and Mobile. William Rabb/PensacolaToday[/caption]
The group, which included people from all over the country, is part of the Extreme Energy Extraction Collaborative (stopextremeenergy.org), which fights what it calls “any form of energy economy that comes at the expense of a community's health, life or culture.”
The 160-acre Rolling Hills landfill and several other sand pits and debris dumps found just a few miles from the Wedgewood and Bellview communities are part of the problem because they may accept waste that is directly or indirectly related to oil and gas extraction, group members said.
“The connection between landfills and the energy industry is very close because energy extraction generates so much waste,” Louis-Rosenberg said.
In fact, one of the nearby Pensacola landfills acted as a temporary holding area for containers of oil-tainted debris that was washed up on shores after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, according to news reports.
Until recent years, most construction and demolition pits have been largely unregulated in Northwest Florida, and almost all of them are unlined, which can allow pollutants to seep into nearby streams, wetlands and groundwater.
“That's the most shocking thing of all, that these dumps are unlined,” said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association, based in Fort Lauderdale.
In the wake of growing protests from people who live near the landfills, Escambia County officials last year placed a moratorium on new pits, which expires at the end of February, and have proposed new, tougher regulations for future operations.
While more than 300 residents who live near the pits have filed a lawsuit against the Rolling Hills owners, hoping to have it shut down permanently, the complaint only cites air quality and nuisance issues.
Schwartz, whose group has achieved some victories in protecting the Everglades, urged residents and regulators to also concentrate on water degradation resulting from the landfill. A dye test would show if drainage from the pit was reaching waterbodies and sensitive areas downstream, something state agencies should have done long ago, he said.
“Where was the DEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) on this?” Schwartz asked. “Where was the water management district?”
While DEP and local authorities have acted in recent months to cite Rolling Hills for violations and to revoke its permit for accepting unapproved waste and for allowing noxious gases to escape the site, Wedgewood residents have repeatedly said that authorities acted too slowly. Courts are expected to rule on the enforcement actions in the next few months.
[caption id="attachment_16155" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Activists and journalists look at a borrow pit partially filled with water off Longleaf Drive in the Bellview neighborhood. William Rabb/Pensacola Today[/caption]
Operators of the Rolling Hills landfill have said they are working to improve the site, and eventually would like to close it if the county builds a major roadway, known as the Longleaf Corridor, through the pit. On Friday, no odors could be detected at and near the landfill.
Before the bus ride began, the activists and journalists met at the Marie Young-Wedgewood Community Center and heard from several nearby homeowners, who have complained of health problems they say are the result of hydrogen sulfide gas coming off of landfill debris, and from diesel fumes emitted by dump trucks that frequent the residential roads leading to the Rolling Hills site.
The Extreme Energy group, which is working closely with Bridge the Gulf, the Gulf Restoration Network and other advocacy organizations on this issue, plans to publish reports about the landfill saga in coming weeks.
Georgia Sunday, president of the Wedgewood Homeowners Association, explained to the tour group that the residents understand that the landfill is a business that must make a profit to survive.
“But this neighborhood was here first, and we are concerned for our health and safety,” she said.
Others explained that had the landfill stayed within the confines of its permitted activity, and covered the debris properly to prevent gas releases, and kept the height of the debris pile below accepted levels, the residents would be much less concerned.
A number of activists and residents at the tour spoke of the landfills' location and disregard for neighbors as an example of “environmental racism,” because the pits are situated in a historically black part of town.
When it was pointed out that on the south side of some of the landfills is a mostly white community surrounding a golf course, Foytlin said, “that shows that these problems are becoming more widespread, and are now encroaching on the middle class.”
Overall, the scrutiny from the activists can only help the entire community, organizers said.
“I think today was great,” said Gloria Horning, a Pensacola activist who invited the Extreme Energy tour to Pensacola and helped lead the discussion. “A lot of concerned people were here today from all over – Boston, Utah, New Mexico.”
Tour participants disembark from the bus after touring sites in Biloxi, Pascagoula and Mobile. William Rabb/PensacolaToday[/caption]
The group, which included people from all over the country, is part of the Extreme Energy Extraction Collaborative (stopextremeenergy.org), which fights what it calls “any form of energy economy that comes at the expense of a community's health, life or culture.”
The 160-acre Rolling Hills landfill and several other sand pits and debris dumps found just a few miles from the Wedgewood and Bellview communities are part of the problem because they may accept waste that is directly or indirectly related to oil and gas extraction, group members said.
“The connection between landfills and the energy industry is very close because energy extraction generates so much waste,” Louis-Rosenberg said.
In fact, one of the nearby Pensacola landfills acted as a temporary holding area for containers of oil-tainted debris that was washed up on shores after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, according to news reports.
Until recent years, most construction and demolition pits have been largely unregulated in Northwest Florida, and almost all of them are unlined, which can allow pollutants to seep into nearby streams, wetlands and groundwater.
“That's the most shocking thing of all, that these dumps are unlined,” said Matthew Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association, based in Fort Lauderdale.
In the wake of growing protests from people who live near the landfills, Escambia County officials last year placed a moratorium on new pits, which expires at the end of February, and have proposed new, tougher regulations for future operations.
While more than 300 residents who live near the pits have filed a lawsuit against the Rolling Hills owners, hoping to have it shut down permanently, the complaint only cites air quality and nuisance issues.
Schwartz, whose group has achieved some victories in protecting the Everglades, urged residents and regulators to also concentrate on water degradation resulting from the landfill. A dye test would show if drainage from the pit was reaching waterbodies and sensitive areas downstream, something state agencies should have done long ago, he said.
“Where was the DEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) on this?” Schwartz asked. “Where was the water management district?”
While DEP and local authorities have acted in recent months to cite Rolling Hills for violations and to revoke its permit for accepting unapproved waste and for allowing noxious gases to escape the site, Wedgewood residents have repeatedly said that authorities acted too slowly. Courts are expected to rule on the enforcement actions in the next few months.
[caption id="attachment_16155" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Activists and journalists look at a borrow pit partially filled with water off Longleaf Drive in the Bellview neighborhood. William Rabb/Pensacola Today[/caption]
Operators of the Rolling Hills landfill have said they are working to improve the site, and eventually would like to close it if the county builds a major roadway, known as the Longleaf Corridor, through the pit. On Friday, no odors could be detected at and near the landfill.
Before the bus ride began, the activists and journalists met at the Marie Young-Wedgewood Community Center and heard from several nearby homeowners, who have complained of health problems they say are the result of hydrogen sulfide gas coming off of landfill debris, and from diesel fumes emitted by dump trucks that frequent the residential roads leading to the Rolling Hills site.
The Extreme Energy group, which is working closely with Bridge the Gulf, the Gulf Restoration Network and other advocacy organizations on this issue, plans to publish reports about the landfill saga in coming weeks.
Georgia Sunday, president of the Wedgewood Homeowners Association, explained to the tour group that the residents understand that the landfill is a business that must make a profit to survive.
“But this neighborhood was here first, and we are concerned for our health and safety,” she said.
Others explained that had the landfill stayed within the confines of its permitted activity, and covered the debris properly to prevent gas releases, and kept the height of the debris pile below accepted levels, the residents would be much less concerned.
A number of activists and residents at the tour spoke of the landfills' location and disregard for neighbors as an example of “environmental racism,” because the pits are situated in a historically black part of town.
When it was pointed out that on the south side of some of the landfills is a mostly white community surrounding a golf course, Foytlin said, “that shows that these problems are becoming more widespread, and are now encroaching on the middle class.”
Overall, the scrutiny from the activists can only help the entire community, organizers said.
“I think today was great,” said Gloria Horning, a Pensacola activist who invited the Extreme Energy tour to Pensacola and helped lead the discussion. “A lot of concerned people were here today from all over – Boston, Utah, New Mexico.”
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