EPA investigating discrimination complaint lodged against ADEM | al.com

EPA investigating discrimination complaint lodged against ADEM | al.com: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will investigate a complaint that the Alabama Department of Environmental Management discriminated against black residents of Perry County by granting permits to operate and expand the Arrowhead landfill in Uniontown.
The landfill, which opened in 2007, is authorized to accept waste from 33 states. The complaint points out that the racial composition of that service area is predominantly white, but the portions of Perry County receiving the waste are 87 to 100 percent black.
Located in one of Alabama's poorest counties, Arrowhead's creation originally was championed by the majority-black Perry County Commission as a jobs generator.
But the landfill has been the subject of a steady barrage of complaints from neighbors who say offensive odors, heavy traffic, noise and dust is harming their health and decreasing their property values.