Summary
During the 2000s, residents of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, a small borough located in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region of the Appalachian Mountains, organized to oppose the commercial dumping of sewage sludge (containing many toxic chemicals) into gigantic pits leftover from past mining activity. As studies showed that high incidences of cancer and other serious illnesses were linked to exposure to industrial toxins, a local grassroots group of citizens called The Army For A Clean Environment formed to fight the dumping and promote a safe environment. With the help of lawyers from CELDF, and the support of Mayor Chris Morrison, they drafted a ballot initiative which passed in 2006, producing an ordinance banning corporations from disposing of sewage sludge, recognizing “natural communities” and ecosystems as legal persons with rights, and authorizing any resident of the Borough to seek relief for damages caused to natural communities and ecosystems. The ordinance was adopted in 2006.