Our Planet needs us! Mother Nature needs us!! Be active in your community! Get Involved! Reduce, Recycle, Reuse! Pick up litter! Sign Environmental Petitions, ect! Every little bit helps!! Nature deserves respect! We need to help our dear Mother Earth and show her how much we appreciate everything that she has given us!!! She gives us life!! Get the word out and inspire and motivate people to help the planet as well, and maybe even form their own groups, organizations, blogs, ect!
Tell Governor Wolf to Close Pollution Loopholes For Dirty Coal!
Close the loophole that exempts the Brunner Island Power Plant from Pennsylvania's proposed smog rule.
Why This Matters
The Brunner Island power plant is the only large coal plant in the
state without modern pollution controls. In fact, this plant alone is
responsible for almost one-third of all smog-causing NOx pollution from
stationary sources in southeastern Pennsylvania, and it would be allowed
to continue to pollute downwind areas that already violate federal
safeguards for smog levels.
About two-thirds of Pennsylvanians
live in areas with unsafe levels of smog pollution. The loophole
exempting Brunner Island from the state's plan to reduce pollution needs
to be closed to protect the health of millions of Pennsylvanians.
"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"
