"EPA will review coal ash disposal: Southwest Indiana residents ask agency to rule on putting waste back into mines," is the headline to this front-page story this morning in the Indianapolis Star. The lead:
Trucks rolling through the hills of southwest Indiana are hauling more than just coal from strip mines to power plants. They're also returning with the ash left after the coal is burned, dumping it into the deep pits that pockmark the landscape.The story reports that EPA says that right now "there's no proof that coal ash dumped in mines has polluted groundwater that then migrated offsite in Indiana or elsewhere" and a study is needed. More:It's a practice gaining popularity across the country as a way to dispose of millions of tons of waste generated by power plants. And it's at the heart of a dispute that's been simmering in Indiana for 16 years.
Environmentalists and residents fear heavy metals -- including arsenic, lead and cadmium -- that concentrate in the ash eventually will pollute drinking-water supplies. That is because minefill areas lack the same safeguards as landfills, such as liners and long-term groundwater monitoring. * * *
Mine and utility owners and some state officials say coal ash is safe when put in mines, and helps refill and speed mines' restoration, allowing them to be returned to wildlife areas and cropland. In Indiana, the Department of Environmental Management regulates landfills, but a 1988 Indiana law says the agency cannot adopt environmental rules for mines. Instead, mines are regulated by the Department of Natural Resources.
And the difference in standards adopted by the agencies creates unequal protection for residents, said Brian Wright, coal policy advisor at the Hoosier Environmental Council.
"We want the same standards (for mines as) you'd find at a municipal waste site," Wright said. "There is a different standard for (protecting) southwest Indiana citizens' water."
That's why federal regulations are needed, Wright and others say.
But activists say there is plenty of proof that it has polluted groundwater inside the mines -- which means it eventually could move and contaminate drinking water outside of the mine boundaries. They also say there is proof that groundwater contaminated by coal ash is bubbling up into rivers and streams.This past Thursday the Indiana Law Blog posted an entry on the Town of Pines groundwater contamination. Access it here, or simply scroll down.One case in Indiana in which water was tainted by coal ash did not involve a mine, but a landfill near Lake Michigan. Hundreds of residents in Town of Pines in northwest Indiana were connected to water lines run from Michigan City after their wells were contaminated by compounds linked to an old coal ash landfill.
Today's Star article on SW Indiana concludes:
But even regulators and industry officials say they are ready for the federal agency to make a decision.[Update 4/26/04] The Evansville Courier-Press reported yesterday here that: "State officials are defending Indiana's policies for protecting the environment and public health from the contamination of buried waste from power plants." Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 25, 2004 08:17 AM"I'm not a proponent that they [US EPA] do rules or don't do rules; I'm asking them to make some decision," said Nathan Noland, president of the Indiana Coal Council. "We have neighbors around our mines that have been scared half to death by some in the environmental community, and they deserve an answer from the EPA."