(The following story by Michael Tomberlin appeared on the Birmingham News website on August 16, 2009.)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The old-line industries that helped forge Birmingham into existence are facing fiery opposition as they try to grow in its suburban communities.
Instances of the “Not in my back yard” attitude have popped up in vocal, organized ways in the metro area, even in an economy where new jobs are at a premium.
Consider:
Opponents want to derail Norfolk Southern’s planned $112 million intermodal hub in McCalla that promises up to 600 direct and 8,000 spin-off jobs.
Vincent residents are quarreling over a $100 million limestone quarry that could create 125 jobs.
A coal mining company is taking its lumps in the Blount County town of Rosa, where MCoal Corp. wants to spend an initial $5 million and create 25 jobs with an auger mine.
Such opponents have been labeled NIMBYs because while they are typically not against growth, their opinions change the closer the bulldozers are to their front door.
No Hub 4 McCalla is perhaps the largest and most vocal of the NIMBY groups to emerge this year.
What started with a few residents in the Sadler Ridge subdivision grew to 300 at the last meeting and is likely to have more turn out for a scheduled meeting at the McAdory Elementary School cafeteria Monday.
The group launched www.nohub4mccalla.com and put signs in yards to drum up interest . Norfolk Southern has now entered the Web site war with www.mccallacan.com.
In the Blount County community of Rosa, the group launched www.rosamine.org to share information about the coal mine a Canadian company wants to operate there.
Debbie Murphy, a resident on Berry Hill above the mine was one of the group’s founders.
The group in Rosa is not staunchly opposed to the project, but is more of a watchdog group keeping an eye on MCoal and the process, Murphy said.
“A lot of the families here were coal miners themselves, so we’re not knocking coal mining. We’re just concerned about the whole operation starting all over again and what might come from it,” he said.
Neil MacDonald, president of MCoal, said the company has been pursuing the mine for about a year. The specialty metallurgical coal found in Rosa is top quality and can be used in processes ranging from water purification to carbon-based lubricants to coking operations and to enhance lower quality coals, he said.
MacDonald said past companies bench-mined the coal off the edge of Berry Mountain before the current environmental and reclamation laws were in place. “They left a bit of a mess,” he said of past operators.
MacDonald said he welcomes the watchful eye of the community over their operation in Rosa.
Steve Bradley has worked in public relations for many projects that have faced varying degrees of community opposition.
“There is no question it is a `not in my backyard’ issue,” Bradley said. “I have seen it over the years with projects I have been involved with. Those who live nearer the project are the ones that have the most concern. As you move farther away, people are able to step back and take a look at the real benefits to the community.”
Bradley is the spokesman for the White Quarries project in Vincent. He said the NIMBY phenomenon is certainly growing in Alabama, mostly due to the state’s own successes.
Bradley said in some cases, residents have come to equate economic development with big-name companies and sometimes look down on the old industries that are still important.
“There is a disingenuous kind of disconnect there,” he said. “We want the Mercedes-Benzes and the Hondas and the Hyundais of the world and even the steel plants with our history here, but we don’t want the quarries that produce the products that are essential to producing the steel for the automotive industry.”
The other factor that is being overlooked, according to Bradley, is that these industries don’t have the luxury of picking a site just anywhere for their project.
“A coal mine has to go where the coal is, a limestone project has to go where the minerals are and even the railroad is limited to where it can go by being able to connect to the rail line,” he said.
Jo Mudd, who helped organize the opposition to the Vincent limestone quarry, doesn’t buy that argument.
“Alabama is full of limestone. They can go somewhere else,” she said. “No one wants stuff like that in their backyard or right by their house. I don’t think we need to consider the folks who live nearby as collateral damage.”
Norfolk Southern has had more than its share of varying NIMBY reactions, according to spokesman Rudy Husband.
He said the company last week announced an intermodal facility in Newcastle, Penn., and was welcomed with open arms.
“People there have fully embraced the project,” Husband said. “That’s one end of the spectrum and what we’re going through in McCalla is the other end of the spectrum.”
Husband said the company is used to communities initially being afraid of the unknown, but then recognizing their worst concerns will not become a reality. Getting to that point in McCalla is proving difficult.
“The size of the opposition in McCalla is somewhat unique,” Husband said. “There is a certain element in the opposition in McCalla that just do not want the terminal under any circumstance. No matter what we say, it does not seem to have any effect. It certainly is not persuading them that the terminal is not going to be as bad as what they think.”
Terry Finch, one of the organizers of No Hub 4 McCalla, said Norfolk Southern has offered concessions such as adding sound walls and other measures. But rather than viewing that as cooperation, Finch said the railroad is trying to pay off its own guilt.
“It’s still a matter of being railroaded, as they say,” Finch said. “They feel the need to offer penance on what it’s going to cost in property values, in the safety of the children at the school and the way it’s going to disrupt the school and the lives of people who live here.”
That level of distrust is hard to overcome, Husband said. He said the railroad will keep drumming the facts of the project and after the hub is built people will realize they were telling the truth.
“Hopefully, as we get more factual information out there to counter a lot of the misinformation and the distortion of information, people will see that this project is really good for Alabama, really good for Jefferson County, and it will create the jobs we expect it to create,” Husband said. “By the same token, for the people who live right there near the terminal, they’re going to see the impact on their property values and quality of life are really non-issues.”
MCoal’s MacDonald said his company has also made concessions to the community group. He, too, is struck by the poor reception many seem to be giving his company’s good intentions.
“People obviously care about what business is doing in their backyard, as they should,” he said. “The part of it that’s a little bit surprising is just the fact that it doesn’t appear people are taking the time to truly learn our business and our plan.”
Mudd said regardless of what happens with the quarry, the NIMBY movement has had a positive impact on Vincent.
“It has definitely brought our community together – and when I say community, I mean blacks, whites, everybody,” she said.
In all three cases, environmental concerns have been among those raised. Air and water pollution are concerns cited in Rosa, Vincent and McCalla.
Bradley said the fact that the environmental movement has grown with the NIMBY movement is not a coincidence.
“There is another factor and that is the much more organized and energetic community of environmental activists than there used to be years ago,” he said. “Some of those are not as concerned with the potential impact to the environment as they are with stopping growth. They use the environment as a tool to try to stop projects.”
Despite all of the opposition, the companies behind the projects remain committed to making them happen.
“We have every intention of building the project in McCalla,” Husband said.