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 order overrides a district judge’s 2005 ruling, which dismissed the cases, saying the lower court was wrong to throw out the complaints against the utilities. The utilities had claimed that if the court ordered a reduction in emissions, the move would interfere with the President’s efforts to persuade other nations to reduce their emissions. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska dismissed the cases on the grounds that reducing carbon dioxide emissions was a matter to be dealt with by Congress, not the court system.

The utilities involved include the TVA, American Electric Power, Southern Co., Xcel Energy and Cinergy, now owned by Duke Energy. Plaintiffs in the lawsuits include New York, Connecticut, California, Iowa, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, New York City and land trusts Open Space Institute, Open Space Conservancy and the Audubon Society of New Hampshire.

“This is a game-changing decision for New York and other states, reaffirming our right to take direct action against global warming pollution from power plants,” said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. “Today’s decision allows us to press this crucial case forward and address the dangers posed by these coal-burning power plants. My office will continue to be a leader in the fight to tackle the risks global warming poses to our environment, public health and economy.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › TVA facing lawsuit that seeks to enforce emission reduction

Last fall, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal-firing plant in Kingston, Tenn., was far from the minds of Roane County residents. The community welcomed long-time rural residents, retirees and those with second homes that looked out on the Emory River and Watts Bar Lake, and offered pleasant fishing and water recreation. However, that all changed on December 22, 2008, when a coal ash impoundment pond at the TVA plant failed, sending more than a billion gallons of coal ash tumbling on to 300 acres of a nearby community. The wave of toxic material, piled as high as nine feet in some areas, knocked homes from their foundations, damaged property, and tainted the Emory and other waterways downstream.

Coal ash contains dangerous toxins including arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium, which have been associated with serious health conditions such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications, to name a few. Several residents in the area have complained of respiratory problems and heightened anxiety following the spill. Some residents, including a young child, have tested positive for heavy metals in their blood.

The TVA is undergoing what is expected to be a near-$1 billion cleanup of the property it contaminated. That cleanup includes recovering the fallen ash and storing it in landfills in other states, including the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown, Ala., in Perry County.

The expensive cleanup did little to improve the TVA’s reputation on a national scale, and worse yet, the spill severely impacted the public image of the town it damaged. In an effort to right itself, the TVA announced last week that it would give Roane County $43 million for improvements. The first projects announced by county officials include doubling the size of Kingston’s wastewater treatment plant, converting an old theater to a regional arts education center, and paving the entrance to the county industrial park. The county’s plan also includes a pricey public relations campaign headed by a Tennessee firm.

Some environmentalists say covering the tainted land with new projects and improvements will only mask what’s really underneath, dangerous toxins now buried deep in the ground that can wreak havoc on plant life, wildlife and even human life.

And what about the thousands of tons of coal ash recovered from the spill site and transported across state lines to Perry County? Some say it is a blessing in disguise. Perry County is predominately black and has one of the highest poverty rates in the state. The storage agreement with the TVA will translate into 30 new jobs for local residents and more than $3 million for the impoverished county.

The Environmental Protection Agency is supporting the relocation of coal ash to Alabama, saying the Arrowhead site is the “Cadillac” of landfills, specially lined to prevent leaching into soil and groundwater and with strength to hold up over time.

But residents of Perry County remain skeptical. “Money isn’t worth everything,” resident Mary Gibson Holley told the New York Times earlier this month. “In the long run they ain’t looking about what this could do to the community if something goes wrong.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Toxic coal ash generates income, jobs – but at what price?

The spill, one of the largest environmental disasters in our country’s history, knocked houses from their foundations, damaged property, and contaminated nearby waterways, hindering water recreation activities in the area and diminishing nearby property values. While the TVA is engaged in what will amount to a near-$1 billion cleanup of the damaged land, plus a litany of lawsuits related to the spill, Roane County officials say that the city’s public image has also been scarred and the TVA needs to pony up the funds to help restore it.

The TVA had said it would help compensate the city and county and considered two different proposals submitted by local governments. One proposal asked for $40 million to cover upgrades to water lines, sewer lines and schools as well as the construction of nature trails and a hefty public relations campaign.

“That bell has been rung and you can’t unring it,” said Mayor Troy Beets of Kingston to the New York Times. “We can’t unring the fact that we had the ash spill on Dec. 22; we can’t unring all the negative publicity that came out about it. You try to ring some more bells, just as loudly, that are positive.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › TVA to spend $43 million to improve county where coal ash spill occurred

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

When the coal ash spill occurred in east Tennessee last December, it knocked houses from their foundations, destroyed land, and contaminated nearby waterways. People living near the spill have reported heightened anxiety and respiratory problems. Even a young child was tested positive for heavy metals in his blood. Coal ash contains dangerous toxins such as arsenic, lead, barium, chromium and manganese which have been linked to serious health conditions such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications, to name a few.

It is estimated that the TVA will spend close to $1 billion before its cleanup effort in east Tennessee is complete. That cleanup includes relocating the recovered coal ash to landfills in other states, including the Arrowhead Landfill in Uniontown, Ala.

Arrowhead is getting about 8,500 tons of recovered coal ash. The deal, arranged by the TVA and state and county officials, has brought 30 new jobs to the area and will bring in more than $3 million in “host fees.” The benefits sound like a great deal for the very poor and mostly black county. And even some environmentalists say storage at the Arrowhead site is ideal, with dry storage dug into a nearly impermeable bed about 600 feet above the water table.

But lack of trust runs high in Perry County, where residents fear environmental hazards, such as tornadoes and flooding, not to mention equipment failures, might cause another spill like that in east Tennessee.

“We’ve been taken advantage of by several groups of powers that be,” said Robert Bamberg, a catfish farmer and organizer of Concerned Citizens of Perry County, a group of landfill opponents. “There’s a sense among the population that we’ve been thrown under the bus.”

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Uniontown residents concerned about shipments of coal ash

Environmentalists criticized the EPA for allowing the TVA to rate its own facilities. Two weeks after the protests, the TVA raised the hazard level of two coal ash storage ponds in Tennessee and two in Alabama. In a letter to the EPA, the TVA defended the move, saying it changed the ratings “in the interest of taking a conservative, self-critical approach.” The ratings do not gauge the likelihood of dam failure, rather the potential damage that could occur if the dam fails.

Last December, a coal ash storage pond at the TVA’s Kingston, Tennessee facility failed, spilling more than a billion gallons of coal ash on to more than 300 acres of a neighboring community. The spill damaged homes and destroyed property, contaminated local waterways, and has made residents in the area ill. The TVA is currently involved in a massive cleanup of the area, which is expected to cost nearly $1 billion before it is complete.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › TVA rates coal ash dumps in Alabama, Tennessee as ‘high hazard’

Perry County is populated by predominantly blacks and is one of the poorest counties in the state where more than 30 percent of families live in poverty. Residents there will benefit from the plan, gaining about 50 jobs and earning millions off dumping fees. However, opponents say the plan is unjust.

More than a billion gallons of coal ash poured on Kingston, Tennessee, last December after a TVA coal ash impoundment breached. The massive wave of coal ash toppled houses, destroyed property and contaminated nearby waterways.

Coal ash contains dangerous toxins that have been associated with serious health concerns such as cancer and liver damage. Those living in and around Kingston, Tennessee, where the coal ash spilled, have reported more respiratory problems and heightened anxiety. Some, including a toddler, have already tested positive for heavy metals in their blood.

“As if the initial spread of sludge from the TVA was not bad enough, shipping that much coal ash to Perry County, Alabama, seems very short sighted,” says Rhon Jones, Toxic Torts Section Head with Beasley Allen Law Firm. “I feel certain that many residents of Perry County share our concern that this plan is not in the best interest of Perry County citizens.”

Source: New York Times

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › EPA approves TVA’s bid to store recovered coal ash in Alabama

This hidden layer of ash, called “slime” by AECOM engineer Bill Walton, was made up of fly ash, water and sediment and, though less than six inches thick, created instability in the pond. As it eluded detection by TVA engineer over the years, its “creep failure” of slimes and liquefaction triggered the massive spill.

These four factors worked together to create what Walton said acted almost like “a perfect storm.” Residents would likely call it a perfect disaster. The massive wave of coal ash that tumbled from the breached pond dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash on to a neighboring community, knocking homes off their foundation and pouring into the Emory River. Coal ash contains dangers toxins that have been linked to serious health concerns. Already, some residents in the area, including a young child, have tested positive for heavy metals in their blood.

The findings from AECOM will be reviewed by an advisory group made up of personnel from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the University of Tennessee, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and geotechnical consultants from Science Applications International Corporation.

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, offers this perspective: “One would think that TVA, with its vast engineering experience, would have known to look for this material.”

Sources:
New York Times
Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Four factors worked like ‘perfect storm’ to cause coal ash spill

The Obama administration backed up the promise by vowing to propose new regulations governing coal combustion waste by the end of the year and acting immediately to ensure more dangerous spills do not happen again, according to the New York Times.

The EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery is deciding now whether to regulate the waste as hazardous or nonhazardous. In 2000, the material was classified as nonhazardous, but because of better pollution controls, the ash has become more dangerous. Coal ash contains toxins such as arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese and barium. Those materials can lead to serious health problems such as cancer, liver damage and neurological complications.

Residents who live hear the Kingston, Tennessee plant have already complained of breathing problems and some have even tested positive for high levels heavy metal.

TVA is undergoing a million-dollar-a-day cleanup program that is expected to total between $525 million and $825 before it is restored.

The coal industry has long opposed regulation, saying the move will cost billions each year. Activist groups say regulation is necessary to ensure the safety of those living near the plants. EPA has raised concerns from improved tests that show more toxins than previously thought leaching from the ash into groundwater, according to the report.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Obama administration vows to propose regulations for coal ash

The Duke tests revealed high amounts of arsenic and radioactive radium in the toxic sludge at the spill site, findings that throw up red flags about the “safety of storing ash” and emphasize the need for caution in the cleanup process.

According to the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke, water near the site tested fairly clean, with only trace amounts of arsenic present in samples taken two miles downstream from the spill. The sludge and ash, however, contain two radioactive forms of radium, which is highly carcinogenic to humans.

“As the sludge dries out, the ash picked up by the wind as dust will be carried into the atmosphere. Once there, this dust can be inhaled by people, where it can be deposited on the linings of their lungs giving them unwelcome doses of radioactivity and toxic metals,” writes Bill Chameides, Dean of the Nicholas School at Duke.

The possibility of airborne particulates of radium and other toxic substances arising from the sludge is why the cleanup must be conducted with extreme care. It’s also why the presence of some 1,300 coal ash dump sites throughout the country is so dangerous.

Chameides says that the spill and the cleanup effort are “something for the folks in Roane County to think about.” Even more alarming, however, is how the Kingston spill highlights a much broader concern about the safety of coal. These concerns “go well beyond the Kingston plant to all the coal-fired power plants and their coal ash dumping sites throughout the United States,” Chameides writes.

“Is dangerous particulate matter being liberated from them regularly? And if so, what risks might they pose to the people living near these plants?”

A recent article in the New York Times reported that of the 1,300 coal ash dump sites in the U.S., more than 60 had leakage and contaminated the surrounding water.

The government, however, seems to be downplaying the concerns that the Duke scientists raise.

Avner Vengosh, associate professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke, and graduate student Laura Ruhl collected ash and water samples from part of the Emory River three weeks after the spill occurred.

Their tests of the solid ash samples found significantly higher levels of radium-228 and radium-226 than the EPA reported to have found: 8 picocuries per gram compared with an average of 5-6 picocuries per gram reported by the EPA.

Vengosh and Ruhl also found 95 parts per billion of arsenic in the inlet tested, but lower concentrations downstream. Ten parts per billion is the EPA standard for safe drinking water.

TVA acknowledged the difference between Duke’s radiation and arsenic levels and those recorded by the TVA.

“We still take the Duke report very seriously and will have the site rechecked,” a TVA spokesperson told WSMV of Nashville.

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Duke study of coal ash spill raises serious concerns

A coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee that experts were already calling the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the United States is more than three times as large as initially estimated, according to an updated survey by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Officials at the authority initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, gave way on Monday. But on Thursday they released the results of an aerial survey that showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.

The amount now said to have been spilled is larger than the amount the authority initially said was in the pond, 2.6 million cubic yards.

A test of river water near the spill showed elevated levels of lead and thallium, which can cause birth defects and nervous and reproductive system disorders, said John Moulton, a spokesman for the T.V.A., which owns the electrical generating plant, one of the authority’s largest.

Mr. Moulton said Friday that the levels exceeded safety limits for drinking water, but that both metals were filtered out by water treatment processes.

Mercury and arsenic, he said, were “barely detectable” in the samples.

The ash pond was adjacent to the Emory River and near a residential area, where three houses were destroyed by the tide of muddy ash. Water sampled several miles downstream from the spill was safe to drink, but its iron and manganese content exceeded the secondary drinking water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency, which govern taste and odor but not potential health effects, Mr. Moulton said.

Neither the authority nor the E.P.A. has released the results of tests of soil or the ash itself. Authority officials have said that the ash is not harmful, and the authority has not warned residents of potential dangers, though federal studies show that coal ash can contain dangerous levels of heavy metals and carcinogens.

“You’re not going to be endangered by touching the ash material,” said Barbara Martocci, a spokeswoman for the T.V.A. “You’d have to eat it. You have to get it in your body.”

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation also released a statement saying there was no indication of risk unless the ash was ingested.

But residents like Deanna Copeland were thinking further into the future.

“Our concern is, what happens if this liquid dries out?” Ms. Copeland said. “There are huge health concerns. It’s going to get in our house. We’re going to breathe it in. It would be like walking through a dust bowl, and we don’t know what’s in the dust.”

A round-the-clock cleanup effort continued on Friday, much of it clearing roads and railway tracks that were blocked by the sludge. Several booms, or skimmers, were installed on nearby rivers to catch floating cenospheres, a valuable component of the ash used to make bowling balls and other manufactured goods. A weir, or underwater dam, that would keep settled ash from moving downstream was about one-fifth completed, T.V.A. officials said.

Some nearby residents said that the authority had done little to address their concerns.

“We’re terribly frustrated,” said Donald Smith, 58, a laboratory facilities manager who lives in the affected area. “It seems like T.V.A. is just throwing darts at the problem, and they don’t have a clue how to really fix it.

“It was nice that they came by to talk to us. They’re making an effort. But what upsets me is they didn’t have a plan in place. Why hadn’t anybody thought, ‘What happens if this thing bursts?’ ”

Residents said they were stunned by the new figure for the size of the spill.

“That’s scary to know that they can be off by that much,” said Angela Spurgeon, whose dock and yard are swamped with ash. “I don’t think it was intentional, but it upsets me to know that a number was given of what the pond could hold, and the number now is more than double.”

Authority officials offered little explanation for the discrepancy, saying the initial number was an estimate based on their information at the time.

Ms. Spurgeon said the scope of the disaster was difficult to fathom, even from photos.

“This is not a thin coating of ash,” she said. “These are boulders. There’s one in our cove that’s probably the size of our home.”

The spill has reignited a debate over whether coal ash should be federally regulated as a hazardous material.

Environmentalists have long argued that coal ash, which can contaminate groundwater and poison aquatic environments, should be stored in lined landfills. The ash ponds at Kingston were separated from the river only by earthen dikes. Coal plants around the country, most near rivers that supply the water they need to operate, store coal ash in unlined embankments and ponds, and in some areas coal ash is recycled as fill material.

The T.V.A. is still investigating the cause of the breach, but officials have suggested that unusually heavy rain and freezing temperatures may have been factors.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

SOURCE: Coal Ash Spill › Tennessee Ash Flood Larger Than Initial Estimate