Coal Dust Kills
Overview and Activities
Developed by Repair Lab Practitioners in Residence, Lathaniel Kirts and Malcolm Jones, Coal Dust Kills is a campaign focused on driving policy change and community-supported solutions to coal dust pollution in Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point.[1] As part of Coal Dust Kills, the Repair Lab and partners, especially Yugonda Sample-Jones of EmPower All, and now the East End Civic Association, have been involved in a range of activities to research potential local and state policies pathways to address coal dust pollution, collect dust data inside residents' home to document indoor air quality and nuisance concerns, monitor outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and course particulate matter (PM10) concentrations known as the VOICES Network, interview residents and archive local knowledge on coal dust impacts, host community meetings, and develop Voices in the Dust.
As part of Coal Dust Kills, the Repair Lab interviewed organizers and advocates working in other locations facing coal dust pollution, including Curtis Bay in Baltimore, Maryland, Richmond and Oakland, California, and Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, with those conversations archived on Voices in the Dust. The Repair Lab also released the report, Coal Dust in Southeast Newport News Is a Nuisance and There Are Solutions.
Repair Lab Multimedia Producer Adrian Wood produced and released Crosswinds. Crosswinds a five-episode podcast connecting listeners to the coal dust problem through fact-based reporting, emotive scenes, and interviews with residents, weaving together audio documentary, journalism, and sound art methods. The podcast begins by rooting listeners in the lifelong friendship of the PIRs. Crosswinds explores the mixed blessings of recent development in both Southeast Newport News and Lambert's Point and how gentrification has the potential to influence the coal dust issue. Listeners are transported along the train tracks built by convict laborers, connecting the mountains of West Virginia to the coal export terminals in Curtis Bay, Southeast Newport News, and Lambert's Point, following the coal dust into the air, homes, and lungs of residents. Crosswinds surveys the science of airborne coal dust and the burden of proof placed on communities to demonstrate harm for protection through the regulatory and political process. Finally, Crosswinds features a sermon by Kirts, a pastor in Southeast Newport News, asking what it takes to keep going in the long struggle for environmental justice.
Coal Dust Kills has worked to focus media and political attention on the coal dust issue by hosting community events that attract journalists and politicians, publishing opinion particles in local newspapers,[2] and encouraging residents to express their experiences and calls for action to the Newport News City Council.[3][4] This has been driven by the goal of making coal dust impacts on residents highly visible, including providing residents with yards signs. Coast Dust Kills yard signs can be seen throughout Southeast Newport News. The organization received a private complaint from Newport News City Council member Tina Vick, who felt the signs brought negative attention to the neighborhood.
Addressing Coal Dust through Local Ordinance
Coal Dust Kills and the Repair Lab have raised the issue of forcing Dominion Terminal Associates and Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals to pay for and install additional dust mitigation infrastructure in the form of a wind fence or dome[6] through a local ordinance.
Coal Dust Kills has emphasized the nuisance-related impacts of coal dust. This is not because the group believes the health impacts of coal dust are not important or prevalent, but because nuisance issues are harder for Dominion Terminal Associates and Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals to dismiss and dodge. Additionally, nuisance issues are also within the authority of municipal governments in Virginia.
A high hurdle encountered by Coal Dust Kills has been that coal dust is framed by local officials and regulators specifically as an air quality issue. Because of Virginia's Dillion Rule, localities cannot regulate air quality because that is regulated by the state and any ordinance would require approval from the Virginia Air Pollution Control Board (APCB). However, most coal dust is larger than particulate matter with a diameter of 10 micrometers (PM10), and, therefore, not covered by the PM10 National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS). At the same time, municipal governments like the City of Newport News regulate a wide range of other nuisance issues using local ordinances.
Interactions with City of Newport News Officials and Terminals
City of Newport News officials, including Mayor Phillip Jones and Council Member Tina Vick, have attended Coal Dust Kills events and used the media attention generated by Coal Dust Kills to publicly support action on coal dust pollution. However, it is the perspective of the Repair Lab that city officials have not only failed to meaningfully back their efforts, they have attempted to co-opt and even undermine Coal Dust Kills' efforts.
For example, City Manager Alan Archer passed a hardcopy of a letter claiming the city cannot address coal dust pollution through a local ordinance. The letter was without City of Newport News letterhead or the signature of the City Attorney and handed to a Repair Lab team member to dissuade the group's efforts to compel the Newport News City Council to explore an ordinance as a solution to the coal dust pollution. The delivery of this letter was accompanied by an invitation to join the city in a grant planning meeting for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Community Change Grant program with a small number of invited community members and city officials run by a consulting firm. The meeting was not publicly advertised. City Manager Archer was at this meeting and repeatedly steered the group away from requiring Dominion Terminal Associates and Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals to install physical infrastructure like a wind fence or dome. In the end, the final version of the proposal was not shared publicly, or even with all attendees, and there is no way to know if the city requested any funding for new infrastructure for coal dust mitigation. Mayor Jones made a point of taking a photograph with some Repair Lab team members in attendance and posting that photograph on social media as evidence of a collaboration between the Repair Lab and city that did not exist.
Repair Lab team members have been contacted on one occasion by an employee of Dominion Terminal Associates. The employee offered to provide the group with a tour of the facility. The Repair Lab believed this was an attempt to photograph members of the group with Dominion Terminal Associates representatives, which would then be used undermine the Repair Lab's credibility with residents. That said, the Dominion Terminal Associates employee never responded to a follow-up correspondence from the Repair Lab.
Documents
Event-Related Materials and Templates
- Coal Dust Kills Kick Off, Sign in Sheet Template, January 27, 2024
- Coal Dust Kills Kick Off, Email Invitation Template, January 27, 2024
- Coal Dust Kills Kick Off, Event Agenda, January 27, 2024
- Request for People to Speak at the Newport News City Council Meeting, January 23, 2024
- Take Action to Reduce Coal Dust in Your Community, 2024
- New Virginia Majority and Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, Tell Your Story: Coal Dust Community Impacts, 2024
- Coal Dust Kills, Tell Your Story: Coal Dust, 2024
Media
- Kirts, Opinion: A Pastor's Plea to Combat Coal Dust in Newport News and Norfolk, Virginian Pilot, November 11, 2023
- Hollingsworth, Newport News Residents Voice Concerns about Coal Pollution, 3WTKR, January 23, 2024
- Janney, A Dome in Newport News? Residents Ask City to Consider Barriers for Coal Dust, Daily Press, January 24, 2024
- Hafner, Stricter Federal Air Pollution Standards Likely Won't Help Hampton Roads Communities Plagued by Coal Dust, WHRO, March 22, 2024
- Saitta, Newport News Residents Say Coal Dust is the Source of Some Health Problems, WTKR, April 20, 2024
Other Documents
- Repair Lab, Coal Dust in Southeast Newport News is a Nuisance and There Are Solution (Corrected), August 2024
- Letter from Newport News City Manager Alan Archer to Repair Lab Team Member, August 2024
- Repair Lab Coal Dust Kills Local Ordinance Campaign Slides
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Coal Dust Kills Property Values -
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Coal Dust Kills Peace of Mind -
Virginia Is for Lovers but Coal Dust Kills
References
- ↑ Fields et al., Practicing Repair: Advancing Community-Based Solutions on Coal Dust Pollution in Hampton Roads, Virginia through a Practitioner-in-Residence Program, Environmental Justice, 2024.
- ↑ Kirts, Opinion: A Pastor's Plea to Combat Coal Dust in Newport News and Norfolk, Virginian Pilot, November 11, 2023.
- ↑ Hollingsworth, Newport News Residents Voice Concerns about Coal Pollution, 3WTKR, January 23, 2024.
- ↑ Janney, A Dome in Newport News? Residents Ask City to Consider Barriers for Coal Dust, Daily Press, January 24, 2024
- ↑ Coal Dust Kills, Undated.
- ↑ Repair Lab, Coal Dust in Southeast Newport News is a Nuisance and There Are Solution (Corrected), August 2024.