Highly toxic, radioactive, coal ash from the Kingston, Tennessee environmental disaster is being dumped by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in one of the poorest, blackest counties in America.
When TVA’s mountain of dirty coal ash poured out of that holding pond in Kingston, Tennessee into the Emory River three days before Christmas last year, creating the second largest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, the poor people of Alabama’s Black Belt had no idea they would end up on the bad side of the waste stream. Chances are they didn’t hear much about the disaster at all. The news was buried in the Christmas holiday blitz. There’s not even a weekly newspaper to serve the estimated 11,000 people who make their home in Perry County, one of the poorest counties in the country where nearly 70 percent of the population is black — and 19 percent are unemployed.
Rev. James Murdoch, a cancer survivor, and the Concerned Citizens of Perry County thought they were fighting to stop a dump for municipal waste. The dump was licensed to receive garbage from 16 states. Little did they know that the dump, designed for common nontoxic garbage, would be be receiving unregulated radioactive, toxic coal waste from the Kingston Tennessee ash disaster. Because coal ash is legally unregulated, even though it is as hazardous as low level radioactive waste, it can be dumped in landfills designed for common household garbage.
By Glynn Wilson FishOutofWater
Rev. Murdoch and the Concerned Citizens lost their case, and the county commissioners, desperate for income, accepted 3 &1/2 million tons of toxic ash for a paltry 3 &1/2 million dollars. This is one of the dirtiest deals since European settlers bought Manhattan Island for a bobbles, trinkets and beads.
Murdock, a cancer survivor, is anxious about the toxic and radioactive coal ash rolling into town. It contains at least 14 different chemicals and heavy metals, including arsenic and lead. There are ways to recycle some coal ash, like putting it in concrete. But experts say this particular coal ash is some of the most toxic ever generated as a byproduct of burning some of the dirtiest coal to ever be mined for electric power. It has been piling up in East Tennessee since the 1960s. A member of Congress from Huntsville, a doctor, recently testified it was as deadly as nuclear waste.
The spilled coal ash has proven to be highly toxic and highly mobile in the environment. Arsenic and selenium are very mobile in oxygenated waters. (PDF)
Total recoverable metals water testing results from Emory River mile 2.2, where ash clogs the river, revealed arsenic levels were 260 times the allowable amounts in drinking water. Lead measured 16 times higher than the drinking water standard while barium and cadmium were three times higher. Selenium measured 1.9 times higher than the Tennessee acute aquatic life criteria and 7.6 times higher than the Tennessee chronic aquatic life criteria. Water samples taken from six other locations on the Emory, Clinch and Tennessee Rivers did not exceed water quality criteria for any of the seventeen tested elements.
River sediments were also tested for 17 toxic elements with arsenic and selenium found at elevated levels. Arsenic levels at Emory mile 2.2 were 2.86 times the EPA residential removal action limit. Selenium levels in sediment were elevated at all of the locations downstream of the spill: Emory River mile 2.2, 1.6 and 0.1 and Clinch River mile 3.3 and Tennessee River mile 567 (around 6-7 miles downstream). "By sampling in seven different locations," said Dr. Shea Tuberty, "we were able to determine that the most acute impacts to the water itself are occurring in the immediate vicinity of the accumulated ash. It is troubling however, that elevated levels of arsenic and selenium were found downstream in the sediments where they will act as a continuing source of pollution to the aquatic environment until safely removed."
The dump accepting the waste is sited in the Selma chalk, a fine grained carbonate rock formation. It is claimed to be impermeable but, in fact, is not. Clay layers in the in the upper and lower layers of the formation have low permeability but the pure chalk comprising the thick middle layer of the formation is permeable.
By FishOutofWater
Surface outcroppings of the Selma chalk show cracks
By Glynn Wilson FishOutofWater
Plastic liners must stay perfectly intact to stop water from infiltrating. Arsenic is forever but plastic eventually leaks. The legal loophole that treats highly toxic coal ash as nontoxic has allowed this toxic waste to be disposed of at a site that was not designed to accept toxic waste. The Selma chalk has the capability of prevent migration of lead, cadmium and barium leached from coal ash because the carbonate rock tends to "coprecipitate" these elements. However, the chalk lacks the ability to slow the transport in groundwater of dissolved arsenic and selenium. Arsenate and selenate transport in ground water is stopped by chemical reductants such as organic matter or ferrous iron. The white Selma chalk formation lacks reductants that immobilize arsenic tellurium and selenium. (Note, the diarist is a PhD geochemist who managed nuclear waste disposal research.)
Tellurium is a highly toxic element, concentrated in coal and doubly concentrated in coal ash that most people in Perry County would know nothing about. It's one of the nastiest elements in nature for human health.
Tellurium is present in coal at up to 2 ppm. This is probably the major source of this metal, which can be taken by plants from soil. Tellurium in plants can reach level as high as 6 ppm, although few food plants have more than 0.5 ppm and most have less than 0.05 ppm.
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Fortunately, tellurium compounds are encountered rarely by most people. They are teratogenic and should only be handled by competent chemists since ingestion in even small amounts causes dreadful smelling breath and appalling body odour.
Catfish farming is one of the few growing businesses in Perry County. It depends on pure water.
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The people of Uniontown Alabama asked the EPA for help, but under present lax regulations there was nothing the EPA could do. The Perry County DA said he would ensure thatthe EPA enforces all regulations.
But the regulations treat highly toxic coal ash as nontoxic waste.
Please write to the EPA administrator to request that coal ash be regulated as toxic waste.
Honorable Lisa Jackson
Administrator
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Mail Code: 1101A
Washington, DC 20460
In March 109 environmental organizations wrote to request EPA regulation of coal ash. Here's the letter they wrote (PDF). More letters from the public would help end the travesty of dumping toxic coal ash (without adequate environmental assessment) in America's poorest communities.