Kayana Szymczak

Beneath the Plume

As the global climate change debate intensifies around the world, living in close proximity to coal burning power plants is a daily reality for many communities in the rural United States.

The town of Racine, Ohio, population 750, is within a 10-mile radius of four coal burning power plants. Two of these plants are less than one mile from the town’s elementary and high school. In addition, a new underground coal mine was just opened in the spring of 2009. Racine is now situated literally within the cycle of coal development, from extraction to production.

The residents of Cheshire, Ohio filed a lawsuit against AEP in 2002 after suffering health impacts caused by sulfuric acid emissions from the Gavin power plant, which is literally located in the middle of town. In an unprecedented move, AEP bought out the entire community – paying long time residents to leave, and sign a contract agreeing not to sue AEP for any future health problems linked to the power plant emissions. Many took the buyout - but some residents refused to leave, and are currently living in a partial ghost town, trying to maintain the semblance of a normal life.

American Electric Power (AEP) own and operate the four coal-burning power plants in Meigs County. AEP is the largest electricity generator in the U.S., and the single biggest greenhouse gas polluter, dumping 163 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. It is also America’s biggest emitter of toxic mercury and directly responsible for every body of water in Ohio being under a health advisory due to high levels of mercury found in the fish. Meigs County, Ohio currently has the highest lung cancer death rate in the state, the second highest combined cancer death rate, the shortest life expectancy, and the highest asthma rate in the state. The air quality in the schools was ranked by USA Today as being in the top third percentile for the worst air quality in the nation. In the 1940s and ‘50s, the residents of Meigs County were promised jobs and economic prosperity in exchange for the first two large coal-fired power plants. Sixty years later, the county is one of the poorest in Ohio.

This essay explores these two small towns in Meigs County, Ohio, and the intimate yet complex connection they have with an industry that is both a lifeline to their livelihood, and a threat to the larger global climate.

   
A local man smokes a cigarette and drinks a beer while looking out of the window of his trailer
   
Inside AEP’s Mountaineer coal burning power plant.
     
  
   
Riding through a puddle in the halfpipe at the local park in Racine. Kids from Meigs County hang out at the park after school and on the weekends.
   
     
  
Racine residents spend a Sunday afternoon watching the Nascar races.
   
Workers make their way through the Mountaineer power plant.
   
     
  
The Philip Sporn power plant, owned by American Electric Power, situated directly across the riverfrom Racine, Ohio. Built in 1950, it was the first power plant to be installed in the area.
   
  
Inside the Mountaineer power plant.
     
  
   
  
A local boy plays on the purple dinosaur at the Star Mill Park.