Community survey says wood pellet pollution affects public health
Nobody knows or defends the remote pockets of the South better than the people who live there. For this community survey project, teams of impacted residents, environmental advocates, students, and SELC staff across the region went door-to-door collecting neighbors’ concerns about living near wood pellet pollution, a byproduct of making dirty biomass energy. The movement to protect Southern people and places by stopping biomass production is still heating up, but the data Dr. Martin recorded supports years of anecdotal evidence from community residents.
Dr. Krystal Nicole Martin
Gloster, Mississippi
Folks who are familiar with Dr. Krystal Nicole Martin will tell you that helping others is her passion and priority. But in a recent moment of clarity, she reveals beginning to recognize it as something even bigger: her purpose.
She spun growing up in southwest Mississippi without access to supplemental resources into starting a nonprofit, KMartin Group, through which she dedicates her personal time, talent, and resources to making sure today’s young people are able to explore new opportunities. She didn’t hesitate to pack up her professional life as a college administrator when called to assist her mom and community.
Multiple hospital visits to treat her mom’s unfounded respiratory issues would prompt the mother and daughter duo to do their own digging for insight. This search eventually turned up local newspaper coverage on harmfulimpacts of living near wood pellet facilities. “Had it not been for my mom reading the article and sharing it with me in that moment, we wouldn’t have known,” Dr. Martin says, “And we probably wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Her contributions to the community prove repeatedly that the accumulation of small steps forward is what makes big change. Like a magnet drawn to metal, her instinct and dedication to helping is what pulled her into the pellet mill survey project.
We deserve the right to know the air we’re breathing in Gloster is as safe as other parts of the country.
Dr. Krystal Martin
“It’s disheartening to see that in a small community like mine, we have so many people experiencing health issues with no explanation,” she says. “And it’s been hard to convey to people that their illnesses could be from air pollution since it’s something you can’t even see.”
There are so many better things Dr. Martin envisions for her community than being Drax Amite’s dumping ground — and so many better ways she could spend her time as a public servant than fighting for something as simple as clean air.
“My wish is for a greater, greener Gloster to include clean air and water, but also a public school, a state-of-the-art library, a multi-purpose facility with indoor walking trail and basketball, better housing, a local dentist and medical doctor, community garden, food-pantry and after-school programs,” she says, sharing only a few of the ways she has identified improving her homeplace where almost 40 percent of the population lives under the poverty line.
Gloster also needs new or remodeled places for people to put their minds together to solve the local environmental issues playing out now, Dr. Martin adds.
Also high on her list? A fun and safe place to play when her three granddaughters visit from Alabama. But it’s not lost on Dr. Martin that getting outside to enjoy nature with family should not be a privilege.
“I’m doing this work because of my mom, my son, the children, and the many people who call Gloster home,” she says. “We deserve the right to know the air we’re breathing in Gloster is as safe as the air in Madison, and other parts of the country. We can’t let southwest Mississippi stay forgotten.”