But I’m sure Gov. Corbett would never do anything that might put people at risk, right? Ha ha, just kidding!
A report released by human rights groups in Pennsylvania on Tuesday questions whether cancer rates and other serious health ailments among inmates at a maximum security state prison are connected to an adjacent coal waste dump. If so, the breach of environmental justice could necessitate shutting down the prison, they say.
The State Correctional Institution-Fayette is located in LaBelle, a rural Pennsylvania town that is also home to a 506-acre coal ash dump that contains about 40 million tons of waste, two coal slurry ponds, and millions of cubic yards of coal combustion waste, owned and operated by Matt Canestrale Contracting. The Canestrale facility receives coal ash waste — known to contain mercury, lead, arsenic, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, boron, and thallium — from coal-fired plants throughout the region.
The investigation, “No Escape: Exposure to Toxic Coal Waste at State Correctional Institution Fayette” (pdf), documents health problems — respiratory, throat, and sinus conditions; skin irritation, rashes, and hives; gastrointestinal problems; and cancers — among inmates at SCI-Fayette. In interviews and correspondence with researchers, over 80 percent of prisoners reported respiratory, throat, or sinus issues, such as nose bleeds, shortness of breath, and lung infections; 68 percent reported gastrointestinal problems; and more than half described skin conditions like rashes or hives. Between January 2010 and December 2013, 17 prisoners died while at SCI-Fayette; 11 of those deaths were due to cancer.
The report states that Matt Canestrale Contracting, which has owned and operated the dump since 1997, is in “perpetual violation” of the Air Pollution Control Act: “Ash is regularly seen blowing off the site or out of haul trucks and collecting on the houses of local residents as well as the prison grounds at SCI-Fayette.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not currently classify coal ash as hazardous waste.
