DECEPTION, MYTH, AND REALITY

[Editor's note: These are recent comments made by George M. Jervey, M.D. Dr. Jervey is one of the brave warriors at the forefront of the fight to stop possibly one of the largest environmental atrocities in rural America.His comments were made to the Conecuh County Commission. At the meeting Dr. Jervey had supporting material to back up his presentation. I have omitted them in this blog for the sake of brevity. Communicate with me if you need clarification on any of the points and I will contact Dr. Jervey.]


Good afternoon.

Friends and neighbors, thank you for coming to this meeting. I hope to share with you some information on the proposed dump in Conecuh County. I have been fairly verbal in my opposition, and I will not burden you by repeating what you have already read and heard. I have copies of previous letters and comments if you care to review them. I will broadly cover their content by saying that through the research I have done, I have become more steadfast in my beliefs. The threats to the surface and ground water, to our health, to the environment, to our way of life, to the endangered wildlife, and to the County and State as a whole are real and potentially severe.

Today I would like to take a different approach. First, I will discuss the question of infrastructure. I want to discuss an aspect of the infrastructure that we seldom think about. That is fire and fire control. There are an average of 8300 dump fires per year in the United States. Admittedly, this includes all dumps and all kinds of fires. My point being that it is not an uncommon event. When these fires occur in refuse dumps, they are difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to extinguish. They frequently burn for months below ground. The bigger the dump, the more difficult the problem. It requires large amounts of water so heavy equipment can dig the fire out and spread it out over the surface of the ground to extinguish it. At a dump fire in Vancouver, Canada it required 520,800 gallons of water over two days just to gain control to begin digging out the fire. At another dump, a construction waste dump, they attacked the fire with water pumps at a rate of 22,280 gallons / minute. This reveals several problems. A class A fire truck is required to pump 500 gallons / minute. It would appear that one could hook up four or five class A fire trucks to achieve these volumes, but even so they would not be able to achieve this volume. The Hamden Ridge Water System’s main supply line along US Hwy. 41 is six inches in diameter and under a resident pressure of 50 to60 pounds /sq. in. The maximum amount of water that can flow through the system is 555 gallons / minute. It makes no difference how many trucks you employ; there is not enough water available through the system. The amount available, 555 gallons / minute is woefully insufficient to control a fire of any significant magnitude. The Hamden Ridge Water System’s capacity is 350,000 gallons. It is re-supplied at a rate of 200 gallons / minute. One truck pumping at 500 gallons / minute results in a net loss to the system of 300 gallons / minute. In 19 hours and 27 minutes the system will be empty. Total volume pumped will be approximately 580,000 gallons. The Repton Water System has a similar size system and an 80 pound/ sq. inch resident pressure, but only a 50,000 gallon capacity. Initially it could pump a little more water per minute, but would be empty in 2 hours and 47 minutes. These figures and calculations are based on optimal conditions, no loss of pressure in the system, no other water loss from the system, and no consideration for loss of pressure or flow secondary to bends in the pipe, elbows, or other friction in the system.

The bottom line, we do not have the capacity to handle a refuse fire of any significant size.

Secondly, the potential threat to our water sources is much greater and potentially more far reaching than I initially presumed. There are five aquifers in the immediate area. Three traverse the area in question and the other two are immediately near by. Should they become contaminated the threat far exceeds the confines of Conecuh County. I am not a hydro geologist, but I do know these aquifers are refurbished by rivers, streams and ground water in general, and tend to flow slowly mostly in eddies, but water will always obey the first law of hydrodynamics. It will seek the lowest level; consequently, if one end of the aquifer is in a drought and not being replenished and/ or one end is in plentiful supply, then the over all flow will be to the lowest end.

I want to spend some time on the tactics and ploys being used against us. These gentlemen present a picture of large numbers attempting to lure us into believing it will improve the wealth of Conecuh County and suggest we might spend this money on our school system. They know these numbers are overwhelming to people who deal in electricity bills of couple of hundred dollars per month, house payments of $500 to $ 600 dollars per month, and every 5 to 6 years , maybe, $40,000 for a new vehicle, which we convert to $300 to $500 a month payments. They want us to concentrate on grasping what these big numbers really mean so we don’t really hear how they plan to rape Conecuh County. They want to reduce everything to a dollar value. The only thing to compare in dollars is relative amounts. It attempts to reduce our choices to “either/or”. It ignores the intangibles of principal, integrity, our way of life, and “doing what is right”.

Let me give you some figures to boggle your mind! They tell us the County will receive some 250 million dollars from this dump. When you consider the duration of its lifespan of 60 to 80 years, it doesn’t seem like very much money after all. There are those in the “waste management business” that say these sites should be managed for 500 years and then the money becomes more like a drop in the bucket. There are environmentalists that say they should be managed for 1000 years, and then the money becomes more like a drop in the ocean. Conecuh Woods has said that before they receive the first load of garbage they will have a 25 million investment. They anticipate receiving 10,000 tons of garbage per day. At $34.00 per ton this amounts to $340,000.00 per day and if they operate 350 days a year that amounts to $119,000,000.00 per year. This is 4.75 times initial investment in one year.

All these numbers are presented as fact, when in fact, they are imaginary. They are based on presumption, estimations, and projections. They are not real. They are imaginary. If you add a column of imaginary numbers you get an imaginary total. Its not something you can see, hear, feel, smell or taste. I have something for you that is real. These are pictures of a stream north of Fob Mountain [Timberlands Landfill in Escambia County, Alabama], and this is water taken from that stream. This is real. This is what you can expect for all the imaginary money.

They have suggested these imaginary numbers could be used to bolster our school system. They would have you believe that if we build a Taj Mahal of education and supply every student with a multi-gigabit computer that it will solve all our school problems. That, however, is far from the truth. There is nothing wrong with our school system that we can’t fix without this money. Our school system is the way it is because the Board of Education consolidated the schools of Conecuh County. As a result many of the students had long transient times to and from school, and their parents took them out of the Conecuh schools and put them in the schools of the neighboring counties.

The physical plant, aside from providing creature comforts, contributes very little to a students learning ability. I want to divert for a moment. Take a look at Abraham Lincoln. His TajMahal was a log cabin. He didn’t have electricity to drive a computer. His energy source was fire light and candle light. I don’t believe he have much money either, but he learned how to be one or our most beloved Presidents. Look at Luther Burbank. He was born on a small farm in Lancaster, Massachusetts, grew up in his mother’s garden, never got a college education, but it didn’t stop him from becoming the father of modern day scientific horticulture. Let me not forget Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, both born into slavery. There were no schools for slaves. Booker T. Washington’s first experience with school was to carry books for his master’s daughter, but he went on to found the Tuskegee Institute, just up the road. What do we owe Mr. Carver for teaching us bout crop rotation, or what we could do the lowly peanut, the soy bean, and the sweet potato? These men had two things in common. None had a good material base for education, but they overcame that problem because of the second thing in common, motivation. Motivation is intangible. It is inherent to the individual, influenced by parents, family, friends, peers, and teachers. It can not be measured or bought with dollars. We do not need to build a monument to education, and if we do, it will be built to our own ignorance and stupidity. What we need to build is the intangible, motivation. It can’t be bought with money.

Conecuh Woods has presented aerial photographs of a number of dumpsites. In these they point out multimillion dollar industrial sites, housing developments, and recreational sites all near by the dump. Friends, bear in mind these dump sites are near large metropolitan area in the state of Florida with well developed municipal water systems so ground water contamination is of relatively little concern. Not so for us. Also Florida has one of the more aggressive solid waste management plans. They also have well developed infrastructures. What they don’t tell you is that these dumps have associated recycling centers and/or “waste to energy” facilities that process the garbage before it reaches the dump. In fact St. Petersburg boasts that only 15% of the garbage picked up reaches the dump. They are showing us one thing, but giving us another. It sort of comes across as a bait and switch tactic.

The dump locations close to large metropolitan areas are well placed for this kind of development. Not so for Range, Alabama. If we had the infrastructure to attract industry we would not be targeted to become the “Dump Capital of Alabama”. In a video of a dumpsite in Riverview, Michigan, they discuss the development of a ski slope on a closed dump slope. Perhaps a good choice if you have a million people next door in Detroit. We don’t have that asset in Range, AL. In large congested and densely populated areas land for expansion is at a premium. No wonder they claim land values improve. When all the most desire able land is taken, you take what you can get.

They also discussed in detail the construction of the multi layered liner to protect and prevent external contamination as if it were a hermetically sealed container, but when questioned further gave just as elaborate description of how to make repairs when leaks occurred. If these liners were as good as they try to portray them, why would repairs be necessary? Sounds like a concession that failure is expected. Well at least they are in good company because the EPA also concedes they will fail.

And speaking of the EPA, do we really want to trust our lives to them after their recent demonstration of “anal-cerebral’ thinking concerning the hazardous material in McIntosh, Alabama. It’s been considered contaminated for years. Now they say because it was produces prior the EPA regulations that EPA regulations don’t apply. Good rational for non prosecution, but dumb is respect to public safety and public health. They approved transport of this material to a dump not designed for toxic waste, instead to Emelle, Alabama, one of the most toxic sites in the North America. Making two for one may be a good move in the financial market, but a poor investment for the people they supposed to protect. Past performance usually predicts future behavior. Now you know what to expect in Conecuh County.

I also want to mention something else this dump will do for us. We will lose a renewable resource for many years. It also precludes the use of the land for any other uses for many years. We all know there are scattered pockets of oil in South Alabama. In fact, I believe, the County is receiving income from the operation in Brooklyn, Alabama. I am also told by a reliable source there are two favorable sites east of US Highway 41 currently under study for possible drill sites in the immediate future. If we obstruct exploration and drilling, these companies might just abandon Conecuh County entirely.

When this subject of a dump in Conecuh County, was initially discussed at the Conecuh County Commissioners’ meeting, Mr. Slevin said in his closing remarks that within the past two years he had purchased a piece of property in Jefferson County, Florida, a county that didn’t have a stoplight, and built a house a mile from a dump and that his property value had increased by 15%. What Mr. Slevin didn’t tell you was the dump he referred to is really a garbage collection site operated by Jefferson County and manned several hours in the morning and afternoon. Jefferson County has 12 to 15 such sites instead of garbage truck routes.( produces pictures of site) It is a collection of dumpsters that are periodically emptied or removed. It is a far cry from what he proposes for Conecuh County. His use of the word dump implies a connotation that doesn’t portray the whole truth.

In summary we have outlined the lack of infrastructure to support a dump of this size. The potential long reaching effects of aquifer contamination, some the gimmicks, ploys, and tactics by which these gentlemen are trying to persuade us to accept - something we know in our hearts to be bad for us, our county, our State, and the environment. Also the potential lost of income from other land uses. They have not lied to us, but they have used tactics to lead us to assumptions they want us to draw without telling us the whole truth. If we believe any thing these “gentlemen” have said to us, we will become the biggest collections of fools this side of the Mississippi.

We think we have presented strong factual grounds supporting our fears and concerns this dump will have on our way of life, our water, our health, our environment, our wildlife, and other potential land use. We strongly urge, plead, and beg the Commission to reject any dump in Conecuh County except for our immediate local needs.

To the gentlemen of Conecuh Woods, we humbly ask you to abandon your project of a dump in Conecuh County, and leave us as you found us, happy in our way of life and content in where we are,

Thank you.

George M. Jervey, M. D.