ARLINGTON, Va. — Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Jackson registered his complaint against a landfill in Perry County accepting coal ash from an accident at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant’s holding pond nearly two years ago.

“I testified against the coal ash being dumped in the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown,” Jackson said in a brief conversation Tuesday. “I have always stood up against this.”

Jackson’s remarks and others became part of the record as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery held the first of seven public hearings in locations across the United States.

The EPA is proposing to regulate, for the first time, coal ash to address the risks from the disposal of the wastes generated by electric utilities and independent power producers.

The move comes after a rupture in a Tennessee Valley Authority holding pond at Kingston, Tenn., in December 2008 sent nearly 5 million cubic yards of ash onto nearby land and in water surrounding the area.

Trains lugging boxcars filled with the ash from the site roll into Perry County every day, where the residue, which bears heavy metals, such as arsenic, is placed in the Arrowhead Landfill.

The EPA is considering two possible options for the management of coal ash.

Under the first proposal, EPA would list coal ash as special wastes subject to regulation when destined for disposal in landfills or surface impoundments, which are indented areas in the land’s surface, such as a pit, pond or lagoon.

Under the second proposal, EPA would regulate coal ash under the section for non-hazardous wastes.

The agency considers each proposal to have its advantages and disadvantages, and includes benefits, which should be considered in the public comment period.

Tisha Petteway, a spokeswoman for EPA, said there is no way for the public away from the hearings to access them as they are conducted.

“All testimony and comments will be in written form in the docket after the hearing,” she said.

Meanwhile, people in Perry County continue their fight in federal court against the coal ash deposits in the Arrowhead Landfill.

David A. Ludder, of Tallahassee, Fla., one of two attorneys representing 64 Perry County citizens in the lawsuit against the operators of Arrowhead Landfill, said he did not attend the hearing.

The lawsuit was filed in June in U.S. District Court in Mobile against Phill-Con Services and Phillips and Jordan Inc., seeking enforcement of the Federal Clean Air and Waste Disposal Act.

The suit seeks abatement of odors and penalties up to $37,000 per day.

The complaint filed in federal court, which is one side of a legal issue, contends the operators of the landfill have violated the state implementation plan for landfills approved by the EPA; that the operators continue to run an “open dump” in violation of federal law and the complainants want a permanent injunction to have the owners of the landfill, Perry County Associates, from operating Arrowhead in a way that would produce odors injurious to human health.

In a response to the accusations and to have the issue referred to bankruptcy court, attorneys for Phill-Con responded with a brief filed Aug. 27 in federal court, which says, in part, “What the law requires in this case is that Phill-Con operate the landfill in conformity with ADEM Administrative Code provisions and the permit. Any determination of this court that Phill-Con is not doing this (which it is) necessarily modifies and alters the operations and activities allowed under the permit. …”

Presently Perry County Associates LLC, which holds the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s permit to operate the landfill, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in Mobile. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a business to reorganize with no limits on the amount of debt. It is the usual choice for large businesses seeking to restructure their debt.

In his brief on behalf of Phill-Con, attorney Kirkland Reid, argues the permit to operate the landfill is PCA’s sole bankruptcy asset.

The brief states, “…the bankruptcy debtors depend on the income generated by the landfill’s receipt and disposal of coal ash to perform their obligations under the reorganization plan … the success of this bankruptcy will be significantly tied to the success of the ongoing negotiations with the TVA on the granting of additional TVA contracts [and] the continued revenue stream from TVA is an integral part of [PCA’s] reorganization efforts.”