"More than 130 groups across the nation, including some from Indiana and Kentucky, petitioned the federal government yesterday to stop allowing waste ash from coal-fired power plants to be dumped where it can come into contact with drinking water supplies." This was the lead to this story today in the Louisville Courier-Journal. More:
The environmentalists point to 74 cases in 23 states where they believe ash has contaminated drinking water — including Pines in Northern Indiana, where the EPA has connected 130 homes with contaminated drinking water wells to Michigan City waterlines. The agency is seeking to connect about 200 more homes. "They've got to get some legislation to stop this stuff," said Jan Nona, a Pines resident still awaiting city water.This story, headed "Boron prompts EPA emergency response - BEVERLY SHORES, NATIONAL LAKESHORE: Residential and National Lakeshore wells contaminated," appeared in the Munster Times Feb. 3, 2004. Some quotes:Industry representatives have long held that the environmentalists exaggerate the ash threat. "Certainly nobody wants to contaminate somebody's drinking water supply," said Vince Griffin, who follows environmental issues for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. While coal ash contains trace levels of heavy metals, pollutants in most cases don't get into drinking water supplies, Griffin said. * * *
The problem at Pines predates more stringent state rules, said Tim Method, deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. But the issue has been especially controversial in Indiana, where the state allows ash to be placed in strip mines and in contact with ground water. Kentucky's General Assembly banned the practice in the 1990s.
Nat Noland, president of the Indiana Coal Council, said companies are not allowed to pollute their neighbors' drinking water supplies.
The petition also seeks to end power companies' use of unlined settling ponds that spill over into waterways. The practice is common in both states, which rely heavily on coal.
Four contaminated wells in this lakeshore community have prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take emergency response action. EPA sampling of 12 wells last month revealed that three residential wells and one owned by the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore had concentrations of the metal boron above the agency's "removal action level" of 900 parts per billion. * * * The affected wells lie less than 2 miles to the west of Yard 520, the Pines landfill owned by Brown Inc. That landfill has been identified as a source of the town's boron contamination from fly-ash coal combustion waste deposited there by the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. Elevated levels of boron and other contaminants have been recorded in Brown Ditch, which flows east past the landfill and into another ditch emptying into Lake Michigan.And this story today from the Munster Times reports:
Contamination of the groundwater aquifer that supplies The Pines' drinking water has been cited as one of 65 cases nationally of EPA-recognized damage from fuel waste. The EPA has determined that power plant flyash dumped at Yard 520 is a source of the contamination, and the location is an EPA Superfund cleanup site.A story in the Gary Post Tribune Feb. 3 (unfortunately no longer available) reported that "A landfill filled with more than 1 million tons of coal ash — and a 1970s road program that used the ash as a road base — are being blamed" for the Pines problem. Meanwhile, this story from the Terre Haute Tribune Star reports that:
Motorists along U.S. 41 will still see a lot of work continuing this spring on the first phase of the bypass. "We still have dirt fill to put in" between U.S. 41 and Woodsmall Road, said Brad Thompson, area engineer for INDOT's Crawfordsville District. "We have brought the fill up to ground level and have a good base, but we still have fill to put in." In addition, fly ash, a coal byproduct, will be used in a test site on a bridge embankment, he said. [emphasis added][Update 2/11/04] Some quotes from this story today in the Louisville Courier Journal:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is putting off a decision on any new rules for dumping coal ash in old mines for at least 18 months and said states may be doing a sufficient job in regulating ash disposal in landfills and ponds. * * *Posted by Marcia Oddi at February 10, 2004 05:03 PMA statement from the EPA addresses the practice of putting ash in old mines separately from disposing of the material in landfills or sending it to settling ponds. Several southwestern Indiana coal mines accept the ash, while the practice is limited in Kentucky because of more stringent state restrictions aimed at protecting ground water from trace amounts of heavy metals.