Ash Site Annex: The Ecology Of Waste & Race, a Parial Timeline
This timeline presents some significant events in the history of waste incineration and environmental justice. The stories excavated from within the Ash Site Annex are not unlike stories that can be found underneath many communities across the United States.
1800s
1874: In Nottingham, England, a new technology called “the destructor” provides the first systematic incineration of municipal solid waste.
The first garbage incinerator in the United States is built on Governor’s Island, New York in 1885.
1900
Early 1900s: Growth of urban areas spurs growth of incinerator usage across the country and throughout the early 20th century. More than 700 functioning incinerators in the US by the 1930s.
1928-29: Planning document produced under then Jacksonville (FL) Mayor John Alsop divides the city into six districts, locating “colored districts adjacent to incinerators.”
1940s: Three incinerators in Northwest
Jacksonville that would become part of the Jacksonville Ash Sites open.
Dumping of burned solid waste begins on 50 acres that would later be called
Brown’s Dump at 4300 Pearce St.
1950
1950s: Many urban areas use close-in, open-burning dumps because they reduce the volume of refuse and extend the usability of the site. But by the end of the decade, open burning of refuse will be prohibited in many areas.
1955: Site of Brown’s Dump is acquired by the County Board of Public Instruction and the Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School is built on 14 acres of the central dump site.
1960s: Incinerators in Northwest Jacksonville that would become part of the Jacksonville Ash Sites shut down. Emmett C. Reed Community Center becomes one of the first public spaces built on these sites.
1970
1970: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is created by President Nixon.
The emergence of sanitary landfills and the Clean Air Act leads to the closure of many incinerators.
1980: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) passed, enabling the US EPA to respond di- rectly to releases of hazardous substances at unregulated or abandoned sites, as well as to clean up these sites or require private parties responsible for the contamination to do so.
1986: The infamous barge Khian Sea, carrying over 14,000 tons of incinerator ash leaves Philadelphia. After leaving 4,000 tons on a beach in Haiti, illegally dumping the remaining 10,000 in the Indian Ocean, 3,000 tons of the ash would eventually be returned to be landfilled outside Philadelphia 16 years later.
1987: United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice releases report titled “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States” that finds race to be the single most reliable statistic for predicting the location of waste disposal sites.
1990
1994: Executive Order 12898 issued by President Bill Clinton, creating an Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice. Forest Street Incinerator site investigated by Florida Dept of Environmental Protection.
1995: Lonnie C. Miller Sr. Park opened on land off of Moncrief Rd. formerly used as an incinerator ash dump from the 1940s - 1960s.
1996: FDEP worker finds clinker ash material covering a large portion of Lonnie C Miller Sr. Park.
1999: Forest Park Head Start school opens on the grounds of the Forest Street Incinerator site.
US EPA sends Special Notice Letters to the City of Jacksonville identifying it as a “Potentially Responsible Party” to the Jacksonville Ash Site.
2000
2001: Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary School, is closed, after more than 40 years of operation on a toxic dump.
2005: 3,000 residents accept $75 million settlement from the City of Jacksonville related to the Jacksonville Ash Site.
The late Jacksonville activist Jackie Brown arrested for trespassing after locking herself to a fence at the Forest Park Head Start school in protest of its contamination. The school is eventually closed and its students relocated.
2007: United Church of Christ commissions 20-year follow up to 1987 report, finding that little has changed regarding the relationship between the geography of race and toxic waste.
Center for Public Integrity releases report that outlines the disinvestment of the US EPA’s Superfund program, with funding decreasing by 35 percent from its inception.
2008: Incinerator ash found on nearby campus of Darnell-Cookman Middle School. City of Jacksonville agrees to $94 million clean up of the Jacksonville Ash and Brown’s Dump Sites.
2011: When the Jacksonville Ash Sites and Brown’s Dump are expected to be remediated at a cost to the City of Jacksonville of $98.4 million.
Sources
H. Lanier Hickman, Jr., A Brief History of Solid Waste Management During
the Last 50 Years, www.forster.net (accessed 6/2/08)
US EPA, "Milestones in Garbage", www.epa.gov (accessed 6/2/08)
EPA CERCLA and NPL data for Jacksonville Ash site, Brown's Dump and Pickettville
Landfill history
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Firstcoastnews.com (all accessed 6/2/08) see:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=18294
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021908/met_248852749.shtml
http://www.news4jax.com/news/15621995/detail.html
http://www.click2houston.com/news/4827090/detail.html