Contributors

Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Alabama Inundanted by Excrement and Greed

The consequences of greed and lax environmental regulation are coming home to roost in Alabama:
A stinking trainload of human waste from New York City is stranded in a tiny Alabama town, spreading a stench like a giant backed-up toilet — and the "poop train" is just the latest example of the South being used as a dumping ground for other states' waste.

In Parrish, Alabama, population 982, the sludge-hauling train cars have sat idle near the little league ball fields for more than two months, Mayor Heather Hall said. The smell is unbearable, especially around dusk after the atmosphere has become heated, she said.
One woman complained, "Would New York City like for us to send all our poop up there forever?" she said. "They don't want to dump it in their rivers, but I think each state should take care of their own waste."

Hey, lady. If you don't like this, stop voting for Republicans who let businesses get away with literally any shit.

Other towns sued to prevent the waste from landing on their doorsteps: her mayor needs to get on the ball. The legislature of Alabama and other southern states need to take action to stop their countryside becoming a toxic dump. Just say no to the greedy companies that are importing this crap into your state.

New York used to dump this crap into the Atlantic Ocean, but the federal government banned the practice (for good cause) in the 1980s. The question then becomes, what should be done with all this human waste?

Many localities just burn it outdoors, producing air pollution and a horrific stench. In recent years many waste treatment plants have turned their waste incinerators into power plants, like the Twin Cities' Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant.

But there are even better ways of dealing with waste: converting it to natural gas (methane) in giant digesters. There have been numerous pilot projects for this concept, and it is technically feasible. The problem is that as long as cities can find places to dump their crap more cheaply than turning it into natural gas, they will continue to do so.

So, Alabama, please help yourselves and your environment by banning the importation of toxic waste like human excrement and coal ash. Make other states dispose of their waste safely, or stop producing it altogether by shutting down coal plants.

This points out, yet again, the fatal flaw in the conservative dogma of laissez-faire capitalism: it doesn't scale.

Conservatives always think in terms of one guy, or one small town, or one small state. With so few people and so much land their lax attitude toward guns, zoning regulations and environmental protection will have relatively few downsides.

But when nine million people live in one city, you can't just dump your excrement in the river or in the back 40. And you don't have to be as big as New York City to feel these effects.

See my next post for another example.

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