>Wednesday October 25 >Dump Along Historic Ala. Trail OK'd > >By BILL POOVEY, Associated Press Writer > >MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A garbage company longing to put a dump >along the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights trail has been given a final, >unanimous green light by Alabama environmental officials. > >The Environmental Management Commission on Tuesday rejected further delay >of the landfill planned along the >U.S. 80 route where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led a successful 1965 >march for suffrage. > >The commission also rejected the extension of hearings, where opponents >have called the Lowndesboro landfill >proposal an example of ``environmental racism'' since 75 percent of the >town's 13,100 residents are black. > >The commission's vote cleared the way for construction on the 600-acre site >to begin - and for the case to be >heard in court. > >Prior to Tuesday's vote, Lowndesboro Mayor John Nichols had been optimistic >that a glitch in the permit >would halt the project. After Tuesday's defeat, he pledged to challenge the >project in court. > >The glitch Nichols had been counting on occurred in July, when Alabama >Disposal Solutions was issued a >permit based on a request by co-owner Lanny Young. At the time he was not a >managing partner, entitled to >apply on the company's behalf, as he is now, Young admits. > >Alabama's Environmental Management Department, in an Oct. 23 letter, gave >the company until Friday to >prove Young had been entitled at the time he applied, under threat of >having the permit revoked. > >Environmental officials declined comment. > >Opponents maintain that dump trucks would desecrate the 50-mile stretch of >U.S. 80. In 1965, Voting rights >marchers took that route to Montgomery following ``Bloody Sunday'' in >Selma, where Alabama troopers had >beaten an earlier group. > >Young has said the landfill won't be seen from the highway.
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