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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Environment - "EPA secrecy on coal-ash list worries lawmakers: Some of 44 'high hazard' sites might be in Kentucky, Indiana"; My thoughts

James S. Bruggers writes today in the Louisville Courier Journal:

The Environmental Protection Agency has identified 44 "high hazard" coal-ash piles across the country but is not letting the public know where they are.

That's prompted calls by U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., to make them public.

"I would want to know if my house and family was near one of these ash piles," said Yarmuth, acknowledging that his district contains two coal-fired power plants that store ash in ponds, one of which was previously identified as "high hazard" by Kentucky officials. "I don't understand what the great national security interest is. If they are worried about potential terrorists, that would seem to be a stretch."

Kentucky and Indiana are leading producers of ash from coal-fired power plants. Both states have numerous ash sites where the waste is stored, often in ponds near power plants.

He said the secrecy troubles him, especially since the Obama administration has promised a more open government.

EPA spokeswoman Adora Andy said the decision to withhold the list came after the agency received a recommendation from the Army Corps of Engineers. * * *

Corps spokesman Gene Pawlik said his agency was consulted because it oversees management of a national dam inventory. He said it did not recommend secrecy, but advocated the information be made public judiciously in each community where the coal-ash piles are located.

"We don't release a consolidated list of information ... as a single document," he said. Instead, he said, the Corps recommends making the information available to emergency responders and local officials, and the public through community meetings.

But Pawlik added that ash ponds could be a target for terrorists.

"A lot of times, when you are talking about those sorts of targets, who knows what is in somebody's mind?"

Coal-ash safety became a national concern in December, after a 5.4 million-cubic-yard ash pile at a Tennessee Valley Authority plant near Knoxville, Tenn., collapsed, covering several hundred acres, damaging numerous homes and properties, and polluting a tributary of the Tennessee River. The cleanup cost is estimated at nearly $1 billion.

Newly appointed EPA administrator Lisa Jackson promised a national survey of ash impoundments and federal regulations to ensure their safety and protection of the environment. The EPA has identified hundreds of places where ash is stored.

Boxer said that this week, EPA began to notify local officials, including first responders, about the "high hazard" sites, and was deploying teams to determine whether there were any imminent dangers.

EPA officials would not say whether any local meetings would be held.

Both Boxer and Yarmuth commended the EPA for its review of the ash impoundments. Yarmuth said the agency's scrutiny could help Louisville residents feel more secure about the local ash impoundments.

Rob Elstrow, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, would not say whether any of the ash piles in Indiana were on the EPA list.

Kentucky environmental regulators have not been made aware of whether any Kentucky sites are on the reported list of 44, said Karen Wilson, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.

My thoughts: The ILB has had a number of entries over the years reporting concerns about coal ash, its disposal, and impoundments and retention ponds. Public concerns have heightened after the massive coal ash spill last December at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in Kingston, Tennessee. (See this entry about the impact of the spill six months later.)

This Jan. 9th ILB entry quoted from an AP analysis showing that Indiana ranks at the top of states storing the most coal ash in ponds. But IDEM has been quoted in a number of stories stating that it does not maintain a comprehensive list of coal ash impoundments. Apparently, no one regulates them.

Now EPA has created a list of "the 44 most 'high hazard' coal-ash piles across the country but is not letting the public know where they are."

Apparently the feds fear these impoundments are so dangerous that terrorists will target them. So they will keep the list of them secret. Pretty incredible. And what about nuclear and chemical plants?

Of course, it is difficult to rally people state-wide, or regionally, to get changes made if the damning information is held "hush hush" and provided only on a "need to know" basis.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 13, 2009 11:45 AM
Posted to Environment