![](\"http:\/\/www.valdostanaacp.com\/uploads\/2\/8\/1\/0\/2810183\/8844924.jpg\")
<\/a>\nBrad Lofton says\n<\/a>\nBrad Lofton says\n\n“all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.”<\/a>\nI guess he hasn’t looked at the local NAACP’s\n\nfront page on the web.<\/a>\n\nValdosta NAACP Claims Environmental Racism<\/H3>\nThe Valdosta-Lowndes branch of the NAACP unanimously passed a resolution\nof Environmental Racism concerning the siting of Sterling Planet’s\nWiregrass Power, LLC, Biomass Incinerator, slated for construction in\nValdosta, Georgia, next to the Mud Creek wastewater treatment plant.\nThis incinerator is sited in a predominantly black community: within 2\nmiles of the incinerator are 2 predominantly black elementary schools,\nJ.L. Lomax with 607 students and Southeast with 304 students, and\none predominantly white elementary school, Moulton-Branch with over\n500 students. The “Little Blue School” Head Start program serves over\n165 children ages 3-5. There are 7 large black churches including\nValdosta’s largest African-American church, New Life Ministries,\npastored by Dr. Angela Manning, who has organized one Town Hall against\nthe Biomass incinerator. Other churches include the Church at Pine\nHill, Morning Star Baptist, Evangel Temple, Church of God of Prophecy,\nand others, with congregations numbering hundreds. In the area is\nSands-Horizon assisted living facility which serves over 60 families,\n2 large apartment complexes, Brittany Woods and Park Chase, as well as\nValdosta’s largest and most affuent black residential community.\n
\nExecutive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority,\nBrad Lofton, rejects the claim of environmental racism, and at the\nSeptember 27, 2010, Valdosta Board of Education meeting called Valdosta\nNAACP President Touchton “irresponsible” for making the public claim.\nHe says there are seven times more white people who live around the\nproposed plant. He did not address the fact that school children and\nchurch members do not show up on census forms.\n
\nThe incinerator will emit 87-89 tons per year of tiny particulate\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
\nmatter smaller than 10 microns in size, the most dangerous particulate\npollution because it lodges permanently in people’s lungs. According to\nthe American Cancer Society, the community can expect a rise of 4% in\nall-cause cancer for every 10 microgram per cubic meter rise in this\npollutant. According to the American Cancer Society,cardiopulmonary\ndisease will increase by 6% or more, and lung cancer will increase by 8%\nor more. The people most likely to be affected are the people who live,\nwork, worship, go to school nearest the plant.\n\nVLCIA Executive Director Brad Lofton claims the incinerator will bring\n25 jobs and tax revenue to our local schools.\n
\nMore than 50 semi-trucks per day will travel to and from the incinerator.\nThe American Lung Association has documented the rise in asthma, missed\nschool days, hospital emergency room visits for school children exposed\nto diesel fumes if they attend schools near highways. The diesel truck\ntraffic will increase by a 50 trucks per day, 365 days per year, which\nwill exacerbate the exposure of these children to diesel fumes.\n
\nVLCIA Executive Director Brad Lofton claims the incinerator will bring\n25 jobs and tax revenue to our local schools.\n
\nThe incinerator will burn more than 640,000 tons of wood every year.\nAccording to the American Lung Association, “Burning biomass could lead\nto significant increases in emissions of nitrogen oxides, particulate\nmatter and sulfur dioxide and have severe impacts on the health of\nchildren, older adults, and people with lung disease.” According to\nthe ALA, there is NO SAFE LIMIT for particulate matter below 10 microns\nin size, death can result on one day of exposure to this type\nof particulate matter.<\/strong>\n
\nVLCIA Executive Director Brad Lofton says this incinerator will bring\n25 jobs and provide tax revenue to the local schools.\n
\nThe North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians reports that “Biomass\nburning ..of wood waste creates emissions of particulate matter\nthat…increase the risk of..asthma, chronic bronchitis, and heart\ndisease.” Other pollutants include nitrogen oxides, volatile organic\ncompounds which increase smog and ozone, which are known to increase\nlung disease and mortality; as well as sulfur dioxides which contribute\nto respiratory disease.\n
\nVLCIA Executive Director Brad Lofton says this incinerator will bring\n25 jobs and provide tax revenue to the local schools.\n
\nThe smokestack from this facility will reach 150 feet skyward. According\nto Allan Ricketts of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority,\nthe community was slated to get a smokestack 175 feet high but since they\naren’t going to pollute quite as much as they previously estimated the\nEPD allowed them to lower it to a “mere” 150 feet and the smokestack\nwill be aesthetically landscaped by pine trees, which reach about 75\nfeet high. They showed the Valdosta Board of Education an artist’s\nrendition of a smokestack painted royal blue and white towering over the\nlocal skyline and described how well it would fit into its surroundings.\nLocal Valdosta State University professor Dr. Gretchen Bielmyer reports\nthat mercury from the burning of wood and sewage sludge from the\nso-called aesthetic smokestack will travel 50 kilometers as a result.\nMercury accumulates in the food chain, it is toxic in low levels and can\ncause brain damage, especially for unborn babies, infants, and children.\nPregnant and nursing mothers pass it on to their babies.\n
\nVLCIA Executive Director Brad Lofton says the incinerator will provide\n25 jobs and tax revenue to the local schools. VLCIA employee Allan\nRicketts says it will be nicely landscaped.\n
\nMore than 45 of these kinds of incinerators have been built and SHUT\nDOWN around the country. More than 50 are currently proposed and\nalmost unanimously have engendered strong local opposition from Florida\nto Indiana to Massachusetts to Vermont to Texas. More than 10 have\nbeen proposed in Georgia, and some have been swiftly opposed and run\nout of town, most recently in Hartwell, Georgia. In Massachusetts,\nmore than 120,000 citizens petitioned to have a voter referendum on\nthe ballot this November to permanently ban them. As a result of the\nsignatures and citizen opposition, the Massachusetts legislature took\naway biomass incinerator tax credits, effectively eliminating them as\ncommercial enterprises, permanently. When the companies are run out of\none town or state, they move to places like Georgia, where environmental\nregulations are lax and businesses are given huge tax incentives to build\nthese kinds of incinerators, and investors count on the local population\nbeing uninformed and apathetic.\n
\nIn Georgia, asthma deaths among African American males are three times\ngreater than among Caucasian males (4.3% to 1.4%), and deaths among\nAfrican American females are 2.2 times greater (4% to 1.8%) than in\nCaucasian females. African American children are five times more likely\nto die from asthma than white children.\n
\nTallahassee NAACP Legal Redress Chair sent this letter.\nTallahassee Biomass incinerator owners subsequently left town.\n\nhttp:\/\/nobiomassburning.org\/docs\/FDEP_Civil_Rights_Letter.pdf<\/a>\n