Take on wood pellet pollution with Dr. Ruby Bell
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. Bell recorded supports years of anecdotal evidence from community residents.
Dr. Ruby Bell
Faison, North Carolina
“Relentless,” is the word Dr. Ruby Bell uses to describe the fight for clean air in her rural North Carolina community.
Her home is less than five miles away from the Enviva Sampson pellet mill, and conveniently situated down the road from her husband’s barber shop. Forty years ago, her decision to settle here in his hometown of Sampson County was to benefit his small business.
As an associate professor at The University of Mt. Olive, the now-retired educator would pass the plumes of smoke billowing from the facility’s stacks on her drive to and from campus. At first, she didn’t consider how that pollution might affect people’s health or the environment. But clean air and water are critical for this farming community of Faison, where if you can name a type of produce, Dr. Bell says, “We probably grow it.”
Sitting in a driveway across the street from one of the many facilities Enviva operates in the Southeast, Dr. Bell talked with a Sampson County homeowner who worried pollution from the pellet mill was seeping into his well. Until this point, the amount of time she was spending on gathering information and addressing community concerns was strictly voluntary.
“There’s a job out there and somebody’s got to do it,” says Dr. Bell. “I believe Black women stand up because we’re nurturers…but it’s not a fight that we can win all by ourselves.”
Twenty minutes of breathing in the nearby dust and particles was all it took for her to step into an official community organizing role with the nonprofit Dogwood Alliance.
My eyes and nose started running and burning. I was sniffling and coughing.
Dr. Ruby Bell
Dr. Bell says, “If I experienced that after just 20 minutes, think about what it’s like if your home is in the area. You can’t get in your car and drive away from it as I did.”
Subsidization at all levels of government has helped companies like Enviva keep their lights on, so a major goal for clean air advocates is putting an end to all subsidies. Representing Dogwood Alliance, Dr. Bell was among a group of concerned citizens who dropped by the North Carolina legislature to make their request face to face.
“Enviva is not sustainable without those handouts,” she says. And in the spirit of relentlessness, she adds, “We just had to make sure they heard us.”
