"The Alabama Landfill That Brought Noise, Health Woes, and a Lawsuit"

"The mostly working-class, black neighborhood of Uniontown, Ala., claimed a coal ash landfill was ruining their community. They got sued for it."

""My dream," said Ben Eaton, one of the roughly 3,000 people who live in the working-class, mostly African-American hamlet of Uniontown, Alabama, "was to grow up, get married, build my own home, and just live life comfortably."

It all worked out—except for the comfort. That part of his dream, says Eaton, was buried by a landfill. His dream home is now less than three miles from the Arrowhead landfill, which has filled his life with noise, an acrid smell and now, a lawsuit that followed when he complained about it.

Uniontown residents fought the state when it licensed Arrowhead, but they lost. When the landfill started to accept coal ash, their previous complaints about the foul air now focused on the health risks. Residents say a litany of problems—asthma, headaches, rashes, neuropathy, even the death of pets—cropped up. They filed several lawsuits, a Civil Rights complaint and took to Facebook to make those grievances public."

Kendra Pierre-Louis reports for InsideClimate News July 5, 2016.