Coal Ash Chronicles - Spread Awareness - Serious Issue! It is time to pay attention and take action!
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"Coal ash regulation is a hot topic in Washington D.C. and in the communities it effects across the nation, but has anyone connected all of the dots and told the whole story? Not until now.
What is coal ash?
Coal ash is what remains after coal is burned to generate electricity, but it’s so much more than that for many people and businesses.
Why should you care about coal ash? It could be in your water.
Coal ash is full of heavy, often toxic metals like arsenic, hexavalent chromium, selenium and more. It's often stored in slurry ponds that contaminate groundwater and drain into rivers and lakes that often serve as drinking water sources for large populations.
It's jokingly regulated federally and only barely by some states, and it's a favorite play thing for Congress and lobbyists who are actively working to prevent regulation. (The U.S. House of Representatives has passed more than one bill that would prevent the EPA from regulating coal ash, and though they stall in the Senate the House keeps trying despite the fact that the Congressional Research Service released a report stating that Congress' bills won't do enough to protect people and the environment and the EPA estimates appropriate regulation could save the country $290 billion annually in healthcare costs.)
The ponds that hold coal ash can collapse, leak, breech and contaminate the groundwater beneath them. See the Tennessee Valley Authority spill of Dec. 2008, the breech in Wilmington, N.C., in 2009, the Lake Michigan spill of 2011, and the Little Blue Run leak that's happening now. And let's never forget the totally preventable Dan River spill of 2014. ... and there are more.
But, those aren't the only issues with coal ash. The biggest issues are the constant and invisible water contamination it causes and the power behind the push to keep it unregulated.
Why is it a big deal?
After a Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash basin burst days before Christmas in 2008, spilling nearly a billion gallons of coal ash slurry over about 300 acres in Kingston, Tenn. the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, vowed that the agency would regulate coal ash — something it’s tried to do for decades — by December 2009. That didn’t happen, and when it finally did happen in Dec. 2014 regulation was effectively left up to the states.
But, even before the massive coal ash disaster in Tennessee, Scientific American reported in 2007 that it's more radioactive than nuclear waste. It can contain quite a list of radioactive elements, that's for sure, and there is evidence from some communities that radiation levels are elevated in common areas.
In 2010, the EPA released two regulatory options and held a series of public hearings. Nearly half a million public comments were submitted.
Meanwhile, most of the coal ash from the TVA spill was hauled to a dump in Perry County, Ala., studies have determined that coal ash does contaminate ground and surface water and the industries that create and use coal ash have expressed concerns about regulation stigmatizing their businesses, the cost of complying with regulation, and warnings about job losses. And several environmental groups and citizens have sued the EPA, some states, and energy companies.
But it's not all bad news. One study projected an approximate 28,000 job gain should coal ash be regulated and, as stated before, the federal government estimates that $290 billion in healthcare costs could be saved if coal ash is regulated.
And, there is a huge movement to re-use certain types of coal ash waste in "beneficial" ways. For example, coal ash can be used as an ingredient in concrete, and actually makes for a stronger, harder (i.e. more durable) product. The EPA encourages that type of reuse of coal ash waste -- the industry likes to call it "recycling" -- since it is encapsulated and elements like the wind and air can't carry it off.
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Should coal ash be regulated, or not?
Good questions. That is exactly what we're trying to figure out with this transmedia project and documentary film.
Got a story?
Contact Rhiannon Fionn via rhi@coalashchronicles.com"
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Basically, the Scientific American 2007 article concluded that the radioactivity of coal itself is negligible, but the ash it produces is hundreds of times more concentrated, especially when stored in wet ponds. Dry or wet, they say the radiation is higher than in the air emitted by nuclear power plants, and could be inhaled or consumed in drinking water, increasing the possibility of many forms of cancer. Only a situation like Fukushima, where highly-radioactive waste and fuel rods were exposed to the air, would be considered a worse-case scenario.
ReplyDeleteFly ash makes up about 50-60% of coal ash, and can be encapsulated in concrete to make it stronger, in a ratio of 1-1 with cement. Radioactivity has not been an issue, since the heavier coal ash itself has the higher concentration. However, more than 3/4 of fly ash is never reclaimed in the U.S., going instead into ponds or the air. This is due partly to local antiquated restrictions, and partly to builders' not wanting to wait while fly ash concrete takes longer to set (and become stronger!), costing them time and money.