West Virginia Highlands Voice

…It just goes somewhere else

By Cindy Rank

The question-answer above is often repeated in coal activist circles. But it rarely rings as true as it did this holiday season when just three days before Christmas an ash disposal site at a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power plant failed, unleashing a flood of fly ash from a 40 acre 55 foot deep ash containment area.

While articles in The Highlands Voice have focused mainly on the disposal of waste rock from huge strip mines these past 10 years, the incident in Tennessee prompts a brief introductory look at how WV is disposing waste that results when coal is washed and burned. Where does the “dirty” from our coal burning power plants go? Where does the “dirty” from our coal preparation plants go?

TENNESSEE DISASTER
Kathy Selvage of SAMS (Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards) referred to the ash disaster in eastern Tennessee as a case study of what happens to the “dirty” once it’s removed from coal.

TVA estimated 5.4 million cubic yards of waste broke loose. Other estimates are much higher, but all put this event right up there with the Exxon Valdez spill and the failed Martin County KY sludge impoundment in 2000.

When the sodden ash broke out of the retaining area it oozed its way down two valleys, destroying several homes, damaging dozens more, entering waterways and covering an estimated 300 acres of land.

Personal and property damages are yet to be fully assessed; cleanup may take months if not years, and long-term pollution to soils, wells, ground and surface waters will no doubt be monumental.

The ash is laden with heavy and toxic metals harmful to humans if ingested – by eating, drinking or breathing the dust once the sludge dries – and warnings have been issued to avoid contact. Results of TVA, EPA and TN DEP water tests are slow to be released, but preliminary results of sampling by those agencies and environmental advocacy groups report high levels of arsenic, lead, chromium and other heavy metals.

I’ll not repeat all the details that continue to be compiled in a multitude of media outlets and online postings, but the figures and pictures are astounding. For anyone interested in more of these details, I recommend Antrim Caskey’s photos at http://pa.photoshelter.com/gallery-show/G0000TKIBm80gDNE and www.ilovemountains.org/tvaspill/ for other photos as well as a compilation of news reports and videos.

WEST VIRGINIA POWER PLANT WASTE
So, what about West Virginia? For starters we have numerous fly ash containment facilities at coal fired power plants through out West Virginia. Some are lined monofills some perhaps not. We also do underground injection into abandoned deepmine voids and use ash as an addition to backfill at acid prone strip mine sites. Others in industry and academia experiment with recycling the ash into usable products, etc. …

I can’t claim to know the full story about ash/coal combustion waste disposal activities, but I can offer a few random observations that give me pause and raise questions about our current practices.

INJECTION. In the early 1980’s WV Highlands Conservancy members and others in the Morgantown area objected to permits for the Omega deep mine. As luck would have it – or rather, as brave citizens like Joan Sims, Richard diPretoro, the 4-H Road group and others predicted, Omega became one of the states biggest money sinks. Even today the Special Reclamation Fund spends hundreds of thousands each year to keep Omega’s acid mine drainage from polluting Morgantown’s water supply. At one point the Abandoned Mine Land Fund was also used to pay for injecting ash waste into the mine void to seal off and isolate acid producing rock and hopefully to neutralize or inhibit the production of acid in the first place. Though successful in some respects, the efforts have failed to halt the flow of acid. Even as recently as early 2008 sludge from acid mine drainage treatment at the Omega site was being trucked to another Special Reclamation site in Preston County (F&M) for disposal.

BACKFILL MATERIAL. Years ago the WV Highlands Conservancy challenged ANKER Coal’s proposal to incorporate flyash as part of backfilling in new strip mining at the notorious acid producing Tenmile site on the Buckhannon River in Upshur County. A couple of reports since that time indicate that our concerns may well have been more than just frivolous fears.

- In 2005 the Morgantown based Downstream Strategies issued a report entitled Water Quality Impacts of Coal Combustion Waste (CCW) Disposal in Two West Virginia Coal Mines. The report focused on the Stacks Run and Albright sites in Preston County. An analysis of monitoring reports for both Stacks Run (a disposal site for coal refuse and power plant ash) and Albright which was reclaimed with the use of CCW in the backfill showed very high levels of several toxic metals downgradient in surface and groundwater. The report concluded that ash disposal at mine sites does not appear to keep metals out of nearby waters.

In 2007 Earthjustice and the Clean Air Task Force issued a report about 15 coal mines in Pennsylvania where coal ash was utilized according to the PA DEP Coal Ash Beneficial Use Program which encourages the placement of coal combustion waste in active and abandoned mines. The study concluded that Pennsylvania’s plan to improve the environmental condition of mines by adding massive quantities of CCW is failing. At 10 of the 15 sites examined, monitoring data indicated the coal ash contaminated groundwater or streams.

MONITORING. In 2005 a former DEP permit reviewer commented on the inadequate requirements for metals testing and monitoring in a NPDES water discharge permit for Allegheny Energy at its power plant and accompanying storage and disposal site on the West Fork River. This lack of sufficient testing and monitoring for contaminants known to exist in coal ash has been ignored for at least the past two decades.

IMPOUNDMENTS. Amazing as it seems to me the WV DEP issued a public notice this past month to allow the addition of sulfuric acid to the discharge from an ash containment site in Marshall County. The December 2008 DEP public notice is for a modification to the NPDES water discharge permit for the Conner Run fly ash impoundment along the Ohio River. The Conner Run site receives fly ash mixed with miscellaneous plant wastewaters from both the Mitchell and Kammer power plants. The area also “receives and provides treatment for coal preparation wash waters and treated acid mine drainage from Consolidated Coal”. Recently the resulting toxic stew has become too alkaline so now they’re adding sulfuric acid (from what sounds like a floating platform dispenser and tubing) to a point upstreamapproximately 7 to 8 million gallons/day. Already notorious for selenium and now apparently too alkaline, the Conner Run ash site appears even more sinister in light of the TVA event. And in an area rife with acid mine drainage it’s really strange to think we need to add more acid. —— What a world of hurt we’re in !

RECYCLING. As mentioned above, there are those in industry and academia who search for ways to recycle/reuse the ash waste. The national center of the Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium (CBRC) is located at West Virginia University. With Regional Directors and a national board CBRC coordinated efforts to identify “beneficial” applications for the more than 120 million tons of CCB’s (Coal Combustion Byproducts – or CCW’s as in Coal Combustion Wastes) produced by U.S. utilities every year.

As far as I know federal funding for the Consortium has dried up, but experimentation continues. With increased use of high sulfur coal and tougher requirements for additional scrubbing at power plants, the amounts of coal combustion waste will increase. One can only hope that the benefits of recycling even a small portion of this waste into usable products will outweigh any potential hazards posed by use of those products in homes and hearths across the country.

REGULATION of these various activities is like a free-for-all where each state does its own thing absent federal regulation. After decades of discussion and prompting by Congress to decide whether power plant waste should be considered “hazardous waste” and subject to the requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), in 2000 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed that the disposal of CCW should be more strictly regulated.

With a new administration in Washington, nothing was done to write those new rules. Furthermore, despite the fact that EPA admits this waste poses high human and ecological risk in landfills and surface impoundments, the agency hasn’t addressed the use of fly ash as backfill for at mine sites. Nor has it discussed the possible threats posed by the use of ash in wallboard, cement, tiles, bricks, countertops, siding, road base and other products. The National Research Council arm of the National Academy of Sciences released a study in 2006 entitled Managing Coal Combustion Residues in Mines. The study suggested several regulatory options and emphasized the need for greater cooperation and coordination between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Surface Mining.

In February 2008 WV Highlands Conservancy joined with more than 60 other groups in calling for federal CCW regulations, emphasizing to the Environmental Protection Agency that its own recognition that power plant waste must be considered “hazardous” and subject to the requirements of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). And that open dumping such as using ash in mine backfills should not be permitted.

Despite the more than 10,000 other individual and group comments that were received by EPA at that time and an impressive Congressional hearing in June 2008, still at the 11th hour of the Bush administration OSM proposed it’s own regressive proposal for “minefilling” with CCW. Sadly ironic is the fact that many of us sent a letter to the new Obama administration just a day before the Tennessee TVA ash disaster once again alerted the nation to the potential hazards of fly ash.

WEST VIRGINIA PREPARATION PLANT WASTE
Just as the recent TVA incident shines a bright light on the disposal of coal combustion waste, the 2000 Martin County KY sludge impoundment disaster heightened awareness about sludge dams such as Brushy Fork and Marsh Fork in Boone and Raleigh Counties. And just as concerns about fly ash disposal prompted an extensive study by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), so too did the Martin County breakout. The National Research Council’s 2002 study titled Coal Waste Impoundments – Risks, Responses, and Alternatives prompted the formation of the Coal Impoundment Project at Wheeling Jesuit University. The project maintains an interactive website (www.coalimpoundment.org) which provides a location and information system available to interested individuals and communities near the hundreds of impoundments in KY, PA, OH and WV. Beyond that, little was done to carry out the recommendations contained in the report.

Though different in many respects from coal combustion waste, the “dirty” remnants of coal and chemicals used in the washing process at coal preparation plants pose some of the same questions and raise similar concerns about the disposal of those wastes. According to the National Research Council report between 20 and 50 percent of the material delivered to coal preparation plants may be rejected and stored in impoundments. These impoundments contain coarse and fine refuse or slurry along with any chemical used to wash and treat the coal before shipping it on as processed coal.

Some Mingo county residents believe their water has been poisoned and health affected due to leakage from nearby sludge dams and people in and around Prenter have reason to believe their health and water problems started when underground injection of coal waste began several years ago.

Testimony at hearings and meetings with WV legislators prompted an ongoing agency study of the potential pollution from coal sludge disposal. Results of the study are due to be released soon.

Unlike coal combustion waste, federal standards do exist for the stability of sludge dams and impoundments. Whether or not the safety aspects of those regulations are effective or adequately enforced is subject to debate, but the unlined disposal areas lead many to doubt there is adequate protection of water supplies.

Underground injection requirements also differ from state to state, and residents of Prenter WV believe WV’s program is not adequate to protect nearby water supplies. Whole communities of people have been forced to obtain water barrels to store trucked in fresh water for drinking, cooking and bathing. People in the communities are working tirelessly for a more permanent solution, but extending public water systems is costly and residents can’t help but wonder if it will ever become a reality.

FEDERAL STANDARDS AND STRONGER ENFORCEMENT NEEDED
Several things are clear. The gaps in oversight and lack of adequate regulation must be addressed. New federal standards are needed for coal combustion waste disposal and any other coal waste disposal where water sources are not protected and long-term monitoring for the appropriate contaminants is not now required. However, the creation of federal standards alone will not be sufficient.

Those new standards – as well as current requirements for all coal waste disposal regulated by the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the Environmental Protection Agency – must be fully and effectively enforced.

The bottom line? …. “Dirty” doesn’t disappear. It just goes someplace else.