Coal ash is the primary waste product of burning coal to produce electricity at facilities like this one in Jefferson County, Alabama. (Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News)
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When the wind blows the wrong direction, Esther Calhoun can smell it.
Calhoun’s home is often downwind from the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown, Alabama, a site that accepted toxic coal ash in the wake of an environmental disaster in neighboring Tennessee.
Calhoun spoke out against the landfill at the time, a move that landed her in court, a defendant in a $30 million lawsuit accusing her and other residents of libel and slander against the company that owned the landfill. That suit is over now, settled in the community’s favor, but the impacts of the coal ash Calhoun decried are still simmering.