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Monday, May 04, 2009
Environment - "Pollutants Scrubbed From Smokestacks Are Being Diverted Into Waterways"
Juliet Eilperin reports today in the Washington Post, in a story that begins:
Faced with new evidence that utilities across the country are dumping toxic sludge into waterways, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving to impose new restrictions on the level of contaminants power plants can discharge.Plants in Florida, Pennsylvania and several other states have flushed wastewater with levels of selenium and other toxins that far exceed the EPA's freshwater and saltwater standards aimed at protecting aquatic life, according to data the agency has collected over the past few years. While selenium can be beneficial in tiny amounts, elevated levels damage not only fish but also birds and people who consume contaminated fish.
But the reason more selenium and metals such as arsenic are now entering U.S. waterways is because the federal government has pressed utilities to install pollution-control "scrubbing" technology that captures contaminants headed for smokestacks and stores them as coal ash or sludge. The EPA estimates that these two types of coal combustion residue -- often kept in outdoor pools or flushed into nearby rivers and streams -- amount to roughly 130,000 tons per year and will climb to an estimated 175,000 tons by 2015.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 4, 2009 09:36 AM
Posted to Environment