Editorial: The Coal Ash Case
Published January 19, 2010, The New York Times

Just more than a year ago, one billion tons of toxic coal sludge broke loose from a containment pond belonging to the Tennessee Valley Authority, burying hundreds of acres of Roane County in eastern Tennessee and threatening local water supplies and air quality. The Environmental Protection Agency immediately promised new national standards governing the disposal of coal ash to replace a patchwork of uneven — and in many cases weak — state regulations.

The agency’s recommendations, which have not been made public, are now the focus of a huge dispute inside the Obama administration, with industry lobbying hard for changes that would essentially preserve the status quo. The dispute should be resolved in favor of the environment and public safety.

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.

One internal E.P.A. proposal suggested reclassifying coal ash as a hazardous material subject to federal regulation. It also recommended national standards requiring safe, sturdy disposal facilities. Industry counterattacked, arguing that the hazardous designation would ruin the recycling market and could trigger burdensome new investments. It also argued for continued state control, with the federal government providing “guidance.”

These arguments do not hold up. The recycling market will not disappear. Materials that are responsibly recycled are not, typically, designated as hazardous. The real problem is the 60 percent or so of the coal ash that winds up in porous landfills. Evidence suggests that tough but carefully tailored rules could encourage even more recycling, protecting the environment while yielding income to help pay for more secure landfills.

This debate is being conducted behind closed doors, mainly at the Office of Management and Budget, where industry usually takes its complaints and horror stories. A better course would be to let the E.P.A. draft a proposal, get it out in the open and offer it for comment from all sides. The Obama administration promised that transparency and good science would govern decisions like these.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › EPA’s recommendations on coal ash the focus of dispute

The spill, which piled as high as nine feet in some areas, knocked houses off their foundations, blanketed yards, and poured into the Emory River. Coal ash is laden with toxins such as arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, which have been linked to serious health problems such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications. It’s also “notoriously difficult to clean up,” Schaeffer says. The TVA is making efforts, though, spending as much as three years and upwards of a billion dollars to clean up the land and waterways.

Despite its dangerous and toxic contents, coal ash is not classified as a hazardous material and does not fall under government regulations. That is expected to change soon, as over the past year the Environmental Protection Agency has been charged with inspecting all coal-firing plants in the country and developing safety and storage guidelines. Those guidelines were promised before the end of the year, but late last month the agency said it would need more time to issue guidelines, saying it hopes to have a proposal ready in the first few weeks of 2010.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Coal ash spill worse than originally thought

Barbara Martocci, TVA spokeswoman, said the Dam Safety Group will take over the inspection of all the utility’s impoundments in 2011. And the utility is also taking steps to eliminate wet ash storage facilities at all its power plant locations.

Coal ash storage ponds have come under scrutiny since December 2008, when a coal ash impoundment pond at the TVA Kingston plant breached, sending a wave of toxic material on to a neighboring rural community.

Despite containing heavy metals that have been linked to serious health problems, coal ash isn’t classified as a hazardous material. Thus, facilities that store coal ash weren’t regulated by the federal government. Critics say that if the plants had been properly regulated and inspected, perhaps the massive spill that blanked an east Tennessee community with toxic material may not have happened in the first place.

The TVA, meanwhile, is involved in a years-long, multi-million dollar cleanup of the land and is facing a mountain of lawsuits from people who were harmed or lost property in the coal ash disaster. The customers of the nation’s largest utility will soon feel the pain, too, as that hefty expense is likely to translate into higher residential utility bills.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Advisory board recommends tougher controls over coal ash storage

Several years ago coal ash from power plants was given a non-hazardous rating. Since then, technology has improved the quality of the smoke released into the air from coal-firing plants. The toxins that used to escape into the air are now kept in the ash left behind. Tests have shown that coal ash contains dangerous toxins such as arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, which have been linked to serious health conditions such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications.

Environmentalists have tried over the years to have coal ash reclassified as a hazardous material, but little was done to push that effort until last year when a coal impoundment pond in east Tennessee breached, sending a massive wave of coal ash on to a neighboring community. The 1.1 billion gallons that spilled out toppled houses, destroyed property and contaminated the nearby Emory River. Several residents were displaced, but it is the health risk that concerns many of the people affected by the spill. Some have reported respiratory problems and heightened anxiety. Others, including a young child, have tested positive for heavy metal in their bloodstream.

Environmentalists and activists are urging the EPA to carefully consider how it will categorize both wet and dry coal ash impoundments. “Both pose a threat to human health and the environment so it doesn’t make sense to create that dichotomy (between wet and dry ash storage regulation),” said Lisa Evans, an attorney with Earthjustice, in an interview with the Tennessean.“We would not think that would be a protective scheme, with the many cases where dry disposal has caused contamination of groundwater and surface water.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › EPA considers hazardous material classification of coal ash

Indiana

An investigation into the cause of the TVA spill has sent a ripple of new standards for coal ash impoundments throughout the country, including a survey conducted by the EPA of all electric utilities. The EPA found nearly 600 ash ponds. The most ponds were found in Indiana, with 53 ponds. Kentucky came in close second with 44 ponds. The survey also found significant deficiencies in the way some of the impoundment ponds have been inspected, though which ponds and where were not disclosed.

In 2000, the EPA deemed coal ash a nonhazardous material, and thus it did not fall under federal inspections. Inspections are left up to state regulators. Since 2000, improved pollution controls keep more and more toxins from leaving smokestack, thus increasing the amount of toxins in the coal ash. Coal ash contains arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, all of which have been shown to contribute to serious health conditions such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications.

The Obama administration has promised to adopt national standards for the handling of coal combustion wastes including coal ash ponds, though no time line has yet been set. The EPA says it will analyze the findings of the survey. A report will be made public by the first of next year.

Source: Courier-Journal

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Some of nation’s coal ash ponds have significant deficiencies