Toxic Coal Ash: Not Just An Appalachian Problem Anymore

By Beth Buczynski on March 12, 2010 From Restoration campaign

According to a federal survey, waste from coal-fired power plants is being stored in nearly 600 sites in more than 30 U.S. states, which means that these toxic leftovers might be a lot closer to your home and water supply than you think. The survey is the most comprehensive list to date of coal ash storage sites and includes information submitted by 219 facilities.

Problems with coal waste disposal have received much more media and federal government scrutiny since the TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant spilled into the Emory River in Tennessee in December 2008 (see accompanying story). But so far, even that $1.2 billion burden to the taxpayers hasn’t proved enough motivation to get the EPA to regulate this toxic mess.


The aftermath of the Kingston spill in Tennessee (photo © Jerry D. Greer)

Their mess, your problem

If you live in the Southeast, the Midwest, or Texas, you’re in prime position to be affected by a coal ash spill in the near future. The EPA’s study showed that the highest concentration of coal ash storage sites were in Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Georgia. But that doesn’t mean you’re safe just because you don’t call these states home. There are also sites in places like Los Angeles and the Four Corners in Arizona.

“America’s power plants produce 130 million tons of coal ash a year, enough to fill a train of boxcars stretching from the District of Columbia to Australia. Some of this is usefully, safely and profitably recycled to make concrete and other construction materials. Much of it winds up in lightly regulated landfills, some as big as 1,500 acres, where toxic pollutants like arsenic and lead can leach into the water table” (The New York Times).

Even worse, in many heavily populated areas, coal ash impoundments can no longer contain the amount of waste that is being produced, so coal companies are shipping the toxic sludge to other parts of the country, where it becomes someone else’s problem.

Poor, rural communities in the South are especially susceptible to this practice, because coal companies tempt them into being “hosts” to the waste by offering to pay storage fees that add millions to their county budgets.

The New York Times reported on Uniontown, Alabama, a community divided over its role as a host for thousands of tons of dirty coal ash spilled in the TVA catastrophe. Although the process created more than 30 jobs for local residents in a county where a third of all households are below the poverty line, and the per-ton “host fee” paid to the county will add more than $3 million to the county’s budget of about $4.5 million, many residents feel that something more important than money was at stake.

“Money ain’t worth everything,” Mary Gibson Holley, 74, a retired teacher in Uniontown told the NY Times. “In the long run, they ain’t looking about what this could do to the community if something goes wrong.”

Are you at risk?

The EPA has reported that people who live near the most problematic coal ash disposal sites have as much as a 1-in-50 chance of getting cancer from drinking water contaminated by arsenic. It was also reported that the ash ponds produced an increased risk of damage to the liver and other organs from exposure to such metals as cadmium, cobalt and lead, and other pollutants.

In Iowa, there are four coal ash dump sites, all of which are unmonitored and unlined containment facilities. These “safe storage facilities”, which are basically just holes in the ground, drastically increase the cancer risk for any resident that consumes well water. Arizona is home to nine of the 44 coal ash deposit sites deemed to be the “highest risk” for spills that would be fatal to nearby residents.

Check out this Google Maps tool, which allows to you see the location of these high risk sites, and see how close they are to you and your water supply.
Demographic research by the Sierra Club revealed that 20 of the coal ash storage sites are in areas where high percentages of people live below the poverty line (some sites have more than one pond).

Time To Take Action

Next month, the EPA will announce its decision of whether or not to classify coal ash as a hazardous waste. The strictest regulation reform would be to regulate coal combustion residuals (CCRs) as a hazardous waste under Subtitle C, reports DailyKos. This would require cradle-to-grave monitoring of wastes, and the EPA would be responsible for issuing permits for waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities. The more likely hybrid approach would designate CCRs as hazardous waste but stipulate safe secondary uses and provide guidance to states for regulating storage and disposal.

The coal ash lobby is powerful - but the voices of millions of united Americans can be even stronger. If you find it hard to believe that anyone would oppose classifying this toxic sludge as hazardous waste, here’s a list of members of the House and Senate that are doing just that.

Join thousands of other concerned citizens that have already taken action by signing this EarthJustice petition and making a phone call or sending a fax to the White House to insist on federal protections against coal ash ponds and landfills.

This was Toxic Coal Ash: Not Just An Appalachian Problem Anymore, an entry in our Restoration Campaign from March 12, 2010. It was filed under Mining

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