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7

[update] Eight dumping sites in Ohio could be TN coal ash disaster waiting to happen


From the Salem-News.com article, “Tennessee Coal Spill: 13 States Have 3 or More Comparable Toxic Coal Dump Sites”:

Nearly 100 largely unregulated “wet dumps” across the United States that are comparable to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s breached site in Harriman, Tennessee for the storage of toxic pollution from coal-fired power plants have a place on one or more of the “worst site” lists for six toxic metals, including arsenic and lead, according to a new data analysis from the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project [EIP].

…

Using industry-reported data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxic Reporting Inventory (TRI) data system for 2000-2006 (the latter being the most recent year for which complete data is available), EIP looked at the presence of arsenic, chromium, lead, nickel, selenium and thallium in the waste at Tennessee-style pollution dumping sites across the nation. The EPA has determined that these “surface impoundment” ponds (also known as “wet dumps”) are the most likely storage sites to leak pollution into groundwater and surface water, even without a catastrophic failure such as the one before Christmas at the TVA’s Kingston Steam Plant coal ash retention pond, which burst and covered the nearby area with more than a billion gallons of toxic-laden sludge.

The EIP analysis shows that a total of 13 states were found to have at least three coal-fired power plant “surface impoundment” dumping sites on the six 50-worst toxic chemical lists: Indiana, 11 dumps; Ohio, eight dumps; Kentucky, seven dumps; Alabama, seven dumps; Georgia, six dumps; North Carolina, six dumps; West Virginia, four dumps; Tennessee, four dumps; Illinois, three dumps; Michigan, three dumps; Pennsylvania, three dumps; Florida, three dumps; and Wyoming, three dumps.

And look at what we’re tops in when it comes to toxic chemical lists:

* Chromium. The #1 spot on the list goes to the J.M. Stuart Station, Manchester, OH. The Stanton Energy Center in Orlando (#3) and the Duke Energy Corp Gibson Generating Station (#4) follow closely behind it. A total of 16 facilities reported disposing of more chromium in surface impoundments than Kingston.

* Selenium. The top three spots on this list are as follows: First Energy Bruce Mansfield Power Plant, Shippingport, PA.; J.M. Stuart Station, Manchester, Ohio; and the Barry Steam Plant, Bucks, AL. A total of 15 facilities report releases of selenium between 2006 and 2006 that exceed the Kingston reports.

Just a note to the Ohio MSM: I’ve got google alerts set to any number of permutations of words and phrases connected to Harriman, TN and the Kingston coal ash disaster.  So far, not a one of you has done a damn thing along these lines re: what the hell is the exposure to the residents of Ohio? What should we be doing about it? What if anything are we doing about it? What is our governor going to do about it? When are the clean coal proponents going to address this?

Don’t we have enough problems in Ohio?  This problem is energy & environment but it’s also food supply, water supply and, saddest of all – socioeconomic and political.

Ohio politicians and news outlets – you should be ashamed of every day you aren’t doing something to address what is clearly a known possibility.

UPDATE: The Akron Beacon Journal published this article yesterday regarding the status of Ohio’s wet dumps and other coal waste storage facilities. The information is based primarily on the same report linked to below.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:32 pm January 7th, 2009 in Business, Economy, Energy, Environment, Law, Media, Midwest, Ohio, Politics, Resources, Science, Tech, Ted Strickland, activism, coal, leadership 

Comments

One Response to “[update] Eight dumping sites in Ohio could be TN coal ash disaster waiting to happen”

  1. 1 cleancoaltech123 on January 8th, 2009 6:55 am

    When are the clean coal proponents going to address this?..this is a commonly raising question..There is a problem with energy & environment…

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