The Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice say they have identified 31 additional coal-ash contamination sites in 14 states, which, when
added to the 70 noted by the US Environmental Protection Agency, brings
the total of coal-fired power plant waste storage sites with poisoned
water to 101.
In releasing a new report, the groups urge the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to stop sitting on a delayed EPA rule addressing coal-ash site contamination.
With data showing arsenic and other toxic metal levels in contaminated water at some coal-ash disposal sites at up to 145 times federally permissible levels, the EIP/Earthjustice report identifies 31 coal-ash waste sites where groundwater, wetlands, creeks, or rivers have been polluted with "wastes (that) contain some of the earth’s most deadly pollutants, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, selenium, and other toxic metals that can cause cancer and neurological harm (in humans) or poison fish."
The 31 sites are located in the following 14 states: Delaware (1); Florida (3); Illinois (1); Indiana (2); Maryland (1); Michigan (1); Montana (1); Nevada (1); New Mexico (1); North Carolina (6); Pennsylvania (6); South Carolina (3); Tennessee (2); and West Virginia (2).
U.S. coal-fired power plants generate nearly 140 million tons of fly ash, scrubber sludge, and other combustion wastes every year. The EPA has indicated that coal ash dumps significantly increase risks to both people and wildlife. For example, EPA’s 2007 risk assessment estimated that up to one in 50 residents living near certain wet ash ponds could get cancer due to arsenic contamination of drinking water.
Highlights of the EIP/Earthjustice report include:
- Arsenic, a potent human carcinogen, has been found at 19 of 31 sites at extremely high levels, with one site found at nearly 150 times the federal water standard. Arsenic causes multiple forms of cancer, including cancer of the liver, kidney, lung, bladder, and skin. Offsite arsenic levels in ash-contaminated groundwater from the Reid Gardner plant (Nevada) have been measured at 31 times the EPA drinking water standard of 10 micrograms per liter.
- At least 26 of these 31 sites report contamination that exceeds one or more primary drinking water standards.
- 25 out of the 31 sites are still active disposal sites.
- The damage is not limited to "wet" ash ponds that received extensive attention after the disastrous ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant in December 2008. No fewer than 13 of the contaminated sites documented in the EIP/Earthjustice report involved so-called "dry" disposal, including two "structural fills" that were advertised as "beneficial reuse" of coal ash.
- Examples cited in the report include: a boron- and sulfate-contaminated drinking water supply that sickened people in Montana and had to be abandoned; major arsenic pollution from a coal ash dump that contributed to a Great Lake Bay becoming an "International Area of Concern"; a mile-long plume of contamination in Florida; mercury contamination of residential wells in Tennessee; and selenium levels in West Virginia surface waters at 4-5 times what is permitted under federal law.
- The poisoned water damage could easily have been prevented with available safeguards, such as phasing out leak-prone ash ponds and requiring the use of synthetic liners and leachate collection systems. As the report notes: "Incredibly, ash and other coal combustion wastes are not subject to any federal regulations. The EPA promised to close this loophole by proposing new standards before the end of 2009. Instead, EPA’s draft rule is stalled at the Office of Management and Budget, where an avalanche of lobbyists hope it will stay buried."
Jeff Stant, director, Coal Combustion Waste Initiative, Environmental Integrity Project, said: "While the catastrophic spill at TVA’s Kingston plant has become the poster child for the damage that coal ash can wreak, there are hundreds of leaking sites throughout the United States where the damage is deadly, but far less conspicuous. This problem needs an immediate national solution–in the form of federally enforceable standards that protect every community near coal ash dump sites. Water sources contaminated by coal ash may eventually be cleaned up, but only at great expense over long periods of time. Injury to human health or wildlife, however, cannot always be reversed. The data are overwhelming, and these 31 sites sound a clear warning that the EPA must heed before much more damage is done."
OTHER KEY STUDY FINDINGS
— Low-income communities shoulder a disproportionate share of the health risks from disposal of coal combustion waste. A majority of the 31 sites in this report are located in communities that that are above the national median for percent of low-income families. Similar high poverty rates are found in 118 of the 120 coal-producing counties, where coal combustion wastes increasingly are being disposed in unlined, under-regulated mines, often in direct contact with groundwater.
— Monitoring data for 15 of the disposal sites identified in the report show significant offsite pollution. At least 8 coal ash dump sites contaminated groundwater beyond site boundaries: Big Bend Station (Florida), Gibson Power Plant (Indiana), Karn and Weadock Generating Facility (Michigan), Colstrip Power Plant (Montana), Swift Creek Landfill (North Carolina), Reid Gardner Generating Facility (Nevada), Phillips Orion (Pennsylvania), and Trans Ash, Inc. (Tennessee).
— At least eight coal ash dumps cited in this report polluted wetlands, creeks and rivers. According to publicly available monitoring data, offsite contaminant levels at six sites were above federal or state water quality criteria: Indian River Power Plant (Delaware), Brandywine Landfill (Maryland), Four Corners Power Plant (New Mexico), and Seward Generating Station (Pennsylvania), and the Mitchell Generating Station and John Amos Power Plant ash sites in West Virginia. For example, groundwater from the Brandywine Landfill in Maryland discharges to adjacent Mattaponi Creek, and cadmium levels frequently exceed thresholds established to protect aquatic life. An onsite well at the landfill recorded cadmium concentrations up to 100 times the drinking water standard. At the Four Corners Power Plant, boron and selenium concentrations downstream from the plant’s coal ash ponds are much higher than upstream levels and approximately twice the levels established to protect aquatic life.
— From the Karn Weadock ash disposal site in Michigan, groundwater heavily laden with arsenic flows to Saginaw Bay at a level that contributed to the designation of part of Lake Huron as an "International Area of Concern." Data indicate that high levels of arsenic are also found in drainage from the Wateree site in South Carolina, as documented in onsite groundwater wells and in arsenic-filled catfish in the adjacent Wateree River.
For a copy of the full EIP/Earthjustice report, click here
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