Three things happened on December 22, 2008 in Kingston, Tennessee. First, a containment pond filled with coal ash slurry at a coal-fired power plant collapsed and created the largest industrial waste spill in United States history. Second, the general public became aware of the mountains of coal ash created by coal-fired power plants. Third, coal ash became a major political issue.
A comment in my previous diary pointed out that technically coal ash is not a hazardous waste. All that means is that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not classified it as a hazardous material. What you need to understand is that this is political calculus rather than environmental science.
The political calculus and the environmental science are worth further examination.
The EPA considered classifying coal ash as a hazardous waste during the Clinton administration, but decided to defer regulatory decisions until further studies were done (after the 2000 election). Studies commissioned by the EPA were completed in 2002, but the report was buried by the Bush EPA. Now it is the Obama EPA's turn with the coal ash football.
The report hidden by the Bush administration
During the Bush Administration, the EPA made a concerted effort to delay the release of this information. A 2002 screening study, the precursor to the EPA‘s 2007 risk assessment, identified the same astronomical cancer risks and dangers to aquatic life from coal ash dumps, but it was not made public until March 4, 2009—seven years after its publication. Freedom of Information Act requests to EPA for the risk assessment data during the Bush Administration were denied or resulted in the production of documents with the cancer and noncancer risk estimates blacked out.
Environmental Integrity Project
Why did the Bush administration hide the 2002 study ("Constituent Screening for Coal Combustion Wastes") conducted by Research Triangle Institute? Simple. It was filled with too many inconvenient truths.
Key findings of the groundwater pathway human health screening analysis include the following:
a. Sixteen chemicals exceed screening criteria for the groundwater-to-drinking water pathway. Most of these chemicals showed exceedances in the 1998 risk analysis as well (cobalt was not evaluated in 1998).
b. Although they exceeded risk criteria in 1998, barium and zinc do not exceed risk criteria in the 2002 screening analysis because of lower waste concentrations in the more comprehensive surface impoundment porewater database.
c. Arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and thallium exceeded risk criteria for both pathways in landfills and surface impoundments.
d. Six chemicals exceeded screening criteria for the groundwater-to-surface-water pathway, with mercury exceeding for this pathway only. Mercury and selenium show higher screening risks for this pathway than for the drinking water pathway because of their tendency to accumulate in fish tissues.
By any reasonable standard, there are high levels of many toxins, including heavy metals, in water exposed to coal ash and other coal combustion products. These toxins in the leachate are likely to contaminate groundwater and ultimately drinking water. To put it less nicely, coal-fired power plants with coal combustion waste ponds and landfills filled with coal ash are likely to poison the wells of their neighbors, particularly if containment areas are unlined or have structural flaws.
In terms of exposure and toxicity levels, the high levels of arsenic in the leachate of coal combustion waste in landfills and power plant impoundment ponds pose significant health risk. Groundwater to drinking water arsenic contamination from coal combustion wastes translated to a lifetime cancer risk of 1 in 500 residents from unlined containment areas and 1 in 1111 residents from lined containments. For sites with mixed coal ash and coal refuse (a common practice), the cancer risk from contaminated drinking water increase to 1 in 50 residents from unlined containment and 1 in 143 residents from lined containment.
The risks documented in the 2002 report are not unexpected. High levels of many of the same toxins were found in the smaller 1998 EPA study. Even the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry advocacy organization, published evidence of high levels of arsenic in coal combustion waste leachate. More extensive data compiled for the 2007 EPA risk assessment further documents the health and ecological risks associated with contamination from coal combustion wastes in impoundments and landfills. Even with sampling from 181 sites, the risks associated with coal ash are likely to be underestimated in the available data. As I documented in a previous diary, the Bush EPA did not let inconvenient truth get in the way of convenient pollution -- they allowed the coal industry to edit and revise policy statements and regulations regarding coal ash and other combustion waste.
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Pigs squeal louder
Now that there is a new sheriff in town at the EPA, the coal industry and their trusty politicians are worried. Here are some pearls of wisdom from West Virginia coal lobbyist Governor Joe Manchin, who also heads the Southern States Energy Board, an organization where officials from 16 states exchange business cards, knowing looks, and favors with energy and utility companies.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to propose new federal rules that would designate coal ash — a byproduct of using coal to generate electricity — as a “hazardous” waste. Such a decision would cause significant economic and environmental damage and I implore the EPA to evaluate the facts about coal ash recycling before making a decision.
[snip}
Jumping to classify coal ash as hazardous waste would neglect many dozens of years of proven beneficial uses of this byproduct. Hastily raising its status to “hazardous” could actually cause more environmental harm and place undue financial burden on countless thousands of Americans.
Gov. Joe Manchin
The deceit in suggesting that regulating a substance associated with heavy metal contamination would "cause significant economic and environment damage" is mind-boggling. Evidence of health and ecological hazards associated with coal ash and other coal combustion waste accumulating from over twenty years hardly qualifies as a hasty decision. Manchin's claims that a hazardous waste classification would prevent the use of coal ash in cement and other building materials is false. On the contrary, hazardous waste classification would primarily give the federal government the ability to regulate and set stricter standards for coal combustion wastes in landfills and impoundments.
Manchin ham-handedly plays the big fat fake fear card in trying to sway public opinion.
According to the Electric Power Research Institute, designating coal ash as hazardous material would shut down 411 coal-based electric generating units in the Midwest and Southeast, costing some regions as much as 14 percent of their generating capacity.
Gov. Joe Manchin
Forcing utility companies to line their coal ash impoundments and prevent dumping in unlined landfills will not force them to shut down power plants.
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Obama's turn to toss the coal ash football
There have been some positive developments from the Obama EPA. Documents related to coal ash safety have been placed in the federal register, including the 2002 study suppressed by the Bush administration. However, most of these documents cannot be found on the EPA site. By contrast, searching the EPA site turns up hundreds of documents touting the secondary uses of coal ash waste. More ominously are the delays in deciding how to regulate coal ash. EPA director Lisa Jackson first promised that a decision on regulating coal ash as a hazardous waste would be made by the end of 2009. As the end of the year approached, Jackson announced another delay.
WASHINGTON - EPA's pending decision on regulating coal ash waste from power plants, expected this month, will be delayed for a short period due to the complexity of the analysis the agency is currently finishing.
EPA Press Release, 12/17/09
Two months later and still no decision from the EPA.