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Writer's pictureQueen Shabazz

Update

HOW will your group ACTIVELY OPPOSE this horrible proposal that violates reasonable expectations of environmental justice? and offends moral expectations of racial justice?


"Green Ridge will operate six days a week, and serve as a solid waste management facility for Central Virginia. Most of the waste will come from County Waste of Virginia customers. Green Ridge will accept between 3,500 and 5,000 tons per day. The facility will not accept any toxic or hazardous materials, nuclear waste, wastewater treatment sludge, fly ash or processed construction debris, such as sheet rock. Green Ridge will take non-hazardous household waste, construction and demolition debris and approved industrial waste. Green Ridge will service Cumberland County and other municipalities within a 500-mile aerial radial distance from the facility, excluding waste from New York and New Jersey, with a vast majority of the waste it receives coming from Central and Southwest Virginia."


Here is one commentary from an environmental justice perspective:


By ROBERT "J.R." GURLEY AND CHUCK SMITH, published in Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month) " ... Our elected officials must consider environmental justice as a key criterion when evaluating the Green Ridge mega-landfill during its technical review process. At the public meeting in March, DEQ officials stated that the technical review for the proposal will focus on “hydrogeology and geology of the site, seismic impact zones, VDOT adequacy, impacts to parks and recreation” and other environmental factors of the mega-landfill. However, there was not enough emphasis on the human impact of the proposal and whether this project aligns with the definitions of “fair treatment” and “environmental justice” in the Virginia Environmental Justice Act. The technical review should not be a purely scientific process; it must recognize that there are lives of real people and communities at stake...."

Gurley is president of the Virginia chapter of the Frederick Douglass Foundation. Smith is a lawyer and former Marine from North Carolina.

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