Timeline

1880s

• 1881: The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was extended from Richmond to Newport News to transport coal mined in West Virginia to reach the harbor of Hampton Roads.
• 1883: The first railcar loaded with bituminous coal arrived in Norfolk via the Norfolk & Western Railway (now Norfolk Southern).
• 1886: The train tracks were extended to the coal piers near Lambert's Point.

1920s

• 1927: The Newport News Daily Press describes the use of sprinklers to "minimize damage and discomfort arising from large quantities of coal dust in the air."

1950s

• 1954: The Garden-Shores Civic League write a letter to the City of Newport News complaining about coal dust pollution believed to be "uncombusted coal blown from the railways' two coal dumping piers."
• 1956: The City of Newport News hires a chemical engineering firm to measure the amount of coal in airborne particles, who find that at least in one location 45% of airborne dust was coal.
• 1956: This air monitoring study prompts the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad Company to install equipment to create a water fog over the coal piers to suppress dust and led the Newport News City Council to pass an air pollution ordinance.

1970s

• Jessie Rattley, the first Black mayor of Newport News, and other local leaders have discussions around coal dust mitigation.
• Linwood DeBrew and community members begin organizing around coal dust pollution issues.

1980s

• The City of Newport News overturns its air pollution ordinance.

  

  Daily Press: A leading activist for coal dust mitigation in the 1980s, Mrs. Louise Bazemore is photographed displaying the coal dust she cleaned from inside her Ridley Circle home.

• The first recorded complaint from Lambert's Point, Norfolk.
• Community activism in Southeast Newport News and residents' complaints to Virginia Air Pollution Control Board (APCB) led the APCB to conduct additional research on the factors that influenced coal dust emissions and develop a wet suppression approach that was more effective.
• 1987: This research was published in the report: Control of Fugitive Emissions from Open Coal Storage in Newport News, Virginia.

1990s

• 1990: The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ) is formally established, with coal dust regulation becoming a priority issue.
• Representative Dick Cranwell sponsors a bill requiring Norfolk Southern to report air quality and coal dust emissions.
• The 1993 RISE, Inc. v. Kay lawsuit challenges a landfill siting in King and Queen County citing environmental racism, further shaping the conversation around environmental justice in Virginia.

2000s

• The Southeast Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Coalition, then led by Dr. Erica Holloman, Linwood DeBrew, and Angela Harris, intensifies organizing efforts around coal dust pollution and environmental racism in Southeast Newport News.
• In 2002, the Southeast CARE Coalition formally pushes for investigations into the health impacts of coal dust, collaborating with the U.S. EPA.

2010s

• The Southeast CARE Coalition and U.S. EPA report is released: A Collaborative Effort to Assess Environmental Health in Newport News, Virginia
• Increased activism in Lambert's Point under the slogan Cover the Coal, led by New Virginia Majority and the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, and supported by academic researchers like Dr. Anna Jeng from Old Dominion University, highlights the need for stronger air quality monitoring and regulatory measures.
• Planning grants are secured to explore coal dust solutions; coal dust-related petitions are circulated.

2020s

• In 2020, the Virginia Environmental Justice Act is passed, with the state government committing to integrate environmental justice principles into decision-making.
• The VA DEQ secures funding for the Tidewater Air Monitoring Evaluation (TAME) to track coal dust levels in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point in 2020, with data collection yet to start.
• The Repair Lab Coal Dust Kills effort begins interviewing residents affected by coal dust pollution in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point, monitoring ambient dust concentrations, and sampling dust inside residents home to identify evidence of coal dust exposure.
• In 2024, Adrian Wood releases Crosswinds, a multi-episode podcast exploring the coal dust issues through the friendship of local activists, Lathaniel Kirts and Malcolm Jones.
• The Repair Lab and African American History Society of Newport News begin work on a digital archive documenting decades of coal dust activism and environmental justice efforts in Virginia.