A federal ruling involving the collapse of a dam holding tons of coal ash has come smack dab in the middle of a heated presidential campaign that is focusing heavily on coal’s future. The court decision, which says that the nation’s largest federal wholesaler of electricity was negligent, is expected to have long-lasting implications for those utilities that store such byproducts of burning coal.
At issue, generally, is how those companies with coal-based operations will protect their citizens from coal ash that is now being walled off. While the Environmental Protection Agency would prefer to regulate the byproduct that contains arsenic, mercury and lead under stricter federal hazardous waste laws, the utility sector wants it to remain classified as a solid waste that the states now oversee.
The topic may foment now that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee has said that the Tennessee Valley Authority could have prevented the spilling of 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash into local communities there. Experts had testified that the federal utility failed to monitor and control water quality pressure in the dikes that constrained the material. The case is moving into its second phase to determine if TVA is liable for damages beyond the actual clean up.
Right now, coal combustion byproducts are categorized as a solid waste. That has allowed those byproducts to participate in a secondary market whereby they can be recycled and used for such things as cement and dry wall. But if the material is reclassified as a hazardous waste, coal groups say that coal ash would be irreversibly stigmatized and any ancillary use of it would evaporate.
The investigations into coal ash have been ongoing ever since a retention wall owned and controlled by the TVA broke in December 2008. So, after examining the issue, President Obama’s EPA would likely modify the rules — not overhaul them — noting that increasing evidence exists to suggest that mercury-and arsenic-laden coal ash adversely affects human health and the environment.
Coal ash is disposed of either as a liquid that goes into large surface impoundments or as a solid that is placed into landfills. TVA, which had used the liquid disposal method at its failed Kingston Fossil Plant, now says that it will stop impounding “wet ash.” Instead, it will convert it to dry ash and bury it in places with liners while also monitoring the ground water — something to which the EPA says would become mandatory for all such sites.
“Since the spill in December 2008, TVA’s commitment has not wavered – to clean up the spill, protect the public health and safety, restore the area, and, where justified, fairly compensate people who were directly impacted,” says TVA, in a formal statement. “TVA remains committed to the full restoration of the community directly impacted by the spill, while being mindful of our responsibility to manage ratepayer dollars,” it adds, emphasizing that it takes full responsibility for what happened.
EPA says that power plants create annually 136 million tons of coal ash. That number, though, is expected to rise to 175 million tons by 2015. The regulator previously released a report saying that 49 coal ash sites were considered a “high hazard,” meaning that if an accident occurred it could result in deaths. It identified another 71 sites that it says are responsible for the leakage of heavy metals into ground water.
Environmental groups are now suing the agency and trying to force it to draft tougher regs. They are saying that there are more than 1,100 coal ponds that are “unlined,” which they argue is placing drinking water supplies at risk. Earth Justice and the Sierra Club are blaming House Republicans for maintaining the status quo that they say is helping to keep EPA in check.
“The increased danger posed by coal ash dumps underscores the need for EPA to act,” says Lisa Evans, attorney for Earth Justice. “Congressional attempts to cater to the polluters and deny the EPA the authority to protect millions of Americans living near these sites are dangerous and misguided.”
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