Residents of Centerville, Virginia have sued Dominion Virginia Power to the tune of $1 billion for supplying 1.5 million tons of toxic fly ash to fill the hills of a nearby golf course.
The attorneys representing 400 Centerville residents claim that Dominion knew that the substance they supplied to the Battlefield Golf Club would eventually seep into the water supply. The suit also names the golf course’s developer and Dominion’s ‘coal-ash management consultant.’
The suit makes some lengthy demands of the company, including the “removal of all fly ash from the site; installation of public water and sewer service; the cleaning of the aquifer under the course; compensation for lost property values and personal injury; and the establishment of a fund for medical monitoring and treatment costs.”
Dominion already knows of the problem and offered to pay $6 million to extend city water supply to residents near the golf course, but the offer was rejected. Instead, residents want the company to pay to clean up their mess.
Fly ash, the substance that spilled in the Tennessee Valley Authority disaster just months ago, contains arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxic metals that can pollute the air and water.
“Dominion has the fly ash – they knew what it was capable of doing,” said Robyn Pierce, an affected resident. “They paid people to take it from them, dig up the sand, the good land that we had over there. The developers sold the sand, took the fly ash that Dominion was paying them for and put it in our backyard.”
[Via PilotOnline]
Photo Credit: respres on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
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Alex Felsinger
Alex is primarily concerned with animal welfare, wildlife conservation, and environmental justice. As a freelance writer in San Francisco, he leads a deliberately simplistic and thrifty lifestyle, yet still can’t help gawking at the newest green gadgets and zero-emission concept cars.
One Response to Residents Sue Over Coal Ash Dump Disguised as Golf Course
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That is criminal and should be punished accordingly. We need tough new laws and tough new enforcement.