SUN EDITORIAL:

Cleaning up a mess

EPA has much left to do to protect the water supply, environment from coal ash

Saturday, July 4, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

The Environmental Protection Agency this week released a list of 44 coal ash dumps that pose a potential risk to the environment.

The EPA list came in response to last year’s disastrous spill in Tennessee of more than a billion gallons of coal ash, the toxic byproduct of coal-fired power plants.

In that spill the dam of a storage pond failed, releasing the ash into nearby rivers and homes.

According to The New York Times, the list identifies sites in 10 states as having a “high hazard potential,” meaning a spill would most likely result in the loss of human life. However, environmentalists are questioning the validity of the report. Instead of conducting an independent review, the EPA sent power companies a questionnaire and asked them to evaluate their dump sites.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, which owns the pond that failed, did not rank any of its storage facilities as having a “high hazard potential,” said Lisa Evans, a lawyer for Earthjustice.

The questionnaire failed to ask about the integrity of the storage ponds or the likelihood of their failure. It also didn’t ask about whether waste ponds were lined to protect against heavy metals leaching into the soil, a common source of contamination. The EPA should know better. Two years ago the agency reported contamination at 63 coal ash dump sites across the country because of leaching.

Given the magnitude of the problem with the Tennessee spill, this is unacceptable, if not surprising. For years the EPA has failed to properly oversee or regulate coal ash, and this list does little to give us confidence that the agency is on the right track.

The Obama administration has promised to take more aggressive action on coal ash. We hope to see that soon.

Discussion: 3 comments so far…

By Future

7/4/09 at 5:32 a.m.

Suggest removal

The EPA "didn't ask about whether waste ponds were lined to protect against heavy metals leaching into the soil, a common source of contamination...."

"Two years ago the agency reported contamination at 63 coal ash dump sites across the country because of leaching."

The EPA has been approving and permitting the coal plants for decades. Why don't they use the permit information they have and the annual operations reports they get and evaluated them.

The EPA has the information.

Obama needs to tell them to stop asking questions and just do their job.
By mred

7/4/09 at 10:15 p.m.

Suggest removal

fly ash can be used for other industrial uses.
By uddeboda

7/5/09 at 2:03 a.m.

Suggest removal

Its not only these dumps of coal ash and other toxic wastes that are threatening the country, dont forget the vast numbers of landfill sites spread across the whole of the USA, which are in fact even more threatening than the coal ash dumpsites.
Landfill sites are taking in everything from household trash, building waste, industrial waste, electronic waste, all of which eventually leach out toxic waste into the ground waters and rivers, which together with the methane gases that are released from these sites, are a huge threat to the country and to the health of the people.