Last night "60 Minutes" aired an in-depth story on the problems with coal ash, a byproduct of the burning of coal at power plants. Leslie Stahl focused on last year's nightmare before Christmas, when an impoundment pond containing 50-year's worth of coal ash waste at a TVA power plant burst in the middle of the night and poured over a billion gallons of toxic sludge into the Emory River and across hundreds of acres in the town of Harriman, Tennessee. Luckily, no one was killed but the property damage was extensive. Residents are now dealing with a huge mess that has ruined their quality of life and continues to threaten their health.
The story then pivoted to alternative disposal methods for the 130 million tons of coal ash produced by the nation's power plants every year. Coal ash contains many toxic metals, including arsenic, which unchecked, can leak into ground water and be extremely hazardous to breathe. But industry touts supposedly "beneficial" uses of it, such as recycling it as fill dirt in construction projects.
In particular, Stahl focused on the case of a Virginia neighborhood dealing with the effects of a golf course constructed with 1.5 million tons of coal ash that they blame for contaminating their water supply. A consultant hired to build the golf course for Dominion Power has accused the company of misleading him about the safety of the ash. (I blogged about this controversy previously.)
All of a sudden the story took on a more personal nature for me when I noticed that one of the neighbors fighting to force the cleanup of the golf course graduated high school with me. I knew her well -- we even double-dated to the Homecoming dance junior year. It was so distressing to see Stacy on television detailing her saga. She lives directly across the street from the golf course and is worried about the health risks posed by the coal ash, especially since her children played outside during construction. Her concerns worsened last year after the city dug into the golf course, did a test and found elevated levels of toxic metals in the water. Dominion still maintains that the site poses no health hazards. In response, Stacy tells Leslie Stahl: "I invite anybody from the companies who have put it over there to come to my house and have dinner. And I will use that tap water."
Click here to watch the video of the segment or to read a transcript.
The "60 Minutes" story does an excellent job on the issue, and serves to reinforce that coal -- whether it's mined, burned or stored -- is dirty and dangerous. It also strengthens NRDC's argument that EPA must regulate coal ash as hazardous waste.
Please take action: Urge EPA to protect us from coal ash: https://secure.nrdconline.org/...