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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Environment - "Experts weigh toxic threat from coal ash: New regulations may consider it hazardous waste"

James Bruggers of the Louisville Courier Journal has this story today, that begins:

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A senior U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official told utility industry officials and academic researchers yesterday that national regulations on handling ash from coal-fired power plants are coming -- and they may include classifying the material as hazardous waste.

"That issue is squarely on the table," said Matt Hale, director of the EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response -- due in part to the massive coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee last December, which spread 5.4 million cubic feet of ash sludge from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant across 300 acres.

"The catastrophe at TVA changed the discussion and focused the discussion," Hale said, adding that it raised issues of ash impoundment stability for the first time within EPA, and renewed concerns over the toxic constituents of ash, such as arsenic and other heavy metals.

Hale's comments came at the start of the 2009 World of Coal Ash conference, organized by the American Coal Ash Association and the University of Kentucky's Center for Applied Energy Research.

The conference has drawn more than 500 people from 21 countries to discuss the management of a voluminous and global stream of waste -- more than 125 million tons annually in the United States alone.

It's an issue of huge importance in Kentucky and Indiana, which are more than 90 percent dependent on coal for electricity, and ranked first and third in production of such wastes in a 2006 federal study.

Industry officials have argued against a hazardous waste classification, saying it would greatly increase the costs of disposal to companies and customers and place a stigma on growing efforts to find commercial uses for ash, such as in concrete.

Here is a long list of earlier ILB entries about coal ash.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 6, 2009 10:06 AM
Posted to Environment