EPA relents, discloses list of high risk coal ash sites

EPA relents, discloses list of high risk coal ash sites (KansasCity.com)

It is great to see that the EPA changed course on their very dangerous decision to hide/keep the information from those who most needed to know … the people living near these hazardous coal ash sites.

Tennessee Valley Coal Ash Spill Buries 400 Acres - image courtesy of NBC New York

Many may remember the story that came out just a few days before Christmas 2008 – just 6 months ago – when a dam/retaining wall ruptured (that was supposed to keep the hazardous toxic materials contained). The flash flood covered well over 300 ACRES with these hazardous materials. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Great Christmas present for those who live/lived in the area and lost so much in this toxic disaster.

From the link #6 above at AppVoices.org:

Though the T.V.A. told residents of Harriman, TN that their drinking water was safe following the December 22nd spill, and backed up their claim with the results of water quality testing conducted at the Kingston water facility intake (a site six miles from the spill site, and approximately half a mile upstream of the ash flow on the Tennessee River), the results of preliminary tests conducted by the Upper Watauga Riverkeeper and partners from Appalachian State University indicate TVA’s data does not tell the whole story.

United Mountain Defense volunteers, who have been working with affected community members since the disaster occurred, have reported talking with several people who have become ill since the spill. Many residents reportedly drank potentially contaminated groundwater out of wells and springs for days following the spill.

This was not the first, and likely not the last time that these types of disasters will happen; both at coal plants like the one above, and in Mountain Top Removal areas – see my blog posting here and ILoveMountains.org for more information on the other end of this disastrous puzzle – Mountain Top Removal.

The 44 hazardous sites at Coal Plants that the EPA has finally disclosed? Here are just a few:

• 10 Duke Energy ponds at plants in Spencer, Eden, Terrell, Belmont, Walnut Cove and Mount Holly, N.C.
• 2 Progress Energy Carolinas ponds in Arden, N.C.
• 2 Kentucky Utilities ponds near Harrodsburg, Ky
• 3 Ghent, Ky.
• Louisville Gas & Electric pond in Louisville, Ky
• Georgia Power facility in Milledgeville, Ga.
• The large Little Blue Run Dam pond that holds waste from the First Energy Generation plant at Shippingport, Pa.
• Addiional: impoundments in Arizona, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Ohio and Montana.
• More on the list

From the “EPA relents, discloses list of high-risk coal ash sites” article;

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday released a list of 44 coal-fired power plant waste sites in 10 states with a high hazard potential, including 12 sites in North Carolina, seven in Kentucky and a large storage pond in Pennsylvania.

…

The EPA initially refused to disclose the location of the high-hazard sites to the public, saying it would share the information only with members of Congress and their staffs. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, pressed the agency to release the list, saying the public had a right to know.

Much more in the article and a link to the entire list of the 44 hazardous coal ash sites is on the EPA.gov site here: Fact Sheet: Coal Combustion Residues (CCR) – Surface Impoundments with High Hazard Potential Ratings.

Now, tell me again why we should want ODEC to build a major 1,500MW Coal Fired Baseload Power Plant in Dendron, VA … VERY close to the water supply and residents of Dendron? When things like this can and do happen:

Torrential rains from Hurricane Floyd have resulted in widespread flooding in southeast Virginia. Flooding along the Blackwater River in Southampton County is extensive, and river stage is still rising at the streamgage operated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) near the town of Franklin. The current river level exceeds the peak of record at the gage, which has been in operation for 55 years. Local residents note that the current flooding exceeds that of the large 1940 flood. Current discharge (streamflow) of the Blackwater River is estimated to be in excess of a 100-year flood (a discharge that has a 1 percent chance of occurring any year).

When Hurricane Floyd brought record flooding to southeast Virginia, the Blackwater River and Cypress Creek Swamp overflowed their banks with rushing water backed up from the Dismal Swamp. In Dendron, we were stuck and could not leave town for days because Rt 31 crosses the Cypress Creek Swamp on one end of town and the Blackwater River on the other end of town. Now just think about what could have potentially happened during that event if ODEC’s 1,500 MW coal fired baseload power plant had been in place during that time — with 1-2 Fly Ash landfills so close to Dendron residents’ homes and the town’s water supply.

Nor’easters like the one in October 2006 can also bring flooding to the region as noted in the Wikipedia article on the Blackwater River.

That’s two major flooding incidents along the Blackwater River in just 7 years including the 1999 Hurricane Floyd when Franklin was submerged under as much as 12 feet of water as the Blackwater River swelled to a new historical crest at 26.4 feet — during the same time that we were locked within the Town of Dendron for days due to the same flooding with no electricity and couldn’t drink our water and FEMA/Red Cross came in after the water receded to help our town by supplying water, ice, meals and other foodstuffs to get us by while we waited for electricity and our water supply to be deemed drinkable again.

Thanks Betsy for making me aware of the article on the EPA relenting and releasing the information on the high risk coal ash/fly ash sites.