fccd9748   
   XPost: talk.environment, alt.energy, alt.politics.democrats   
   XPost: alt.health   
   From: kinkysr@yahoo.com   
      
   "Water contaminated by coal ash violated federal drinking water or   
   health standards at at least 197 sites in 37 states, including seven   
   in Virginia and three in Maryland, according to the environmental   
   group Earthjustice."   
      
   "The Moapa River Reservation north of Las Vegas is adjacent to the   
   Reid Gardner Generating Station. Clouds of coal ash sometimes blow   
   over from a landfill next the plant; residents question why 10 of 15   
   children living closest to the station have asthma, and the   
   groundwater has had 136 known drinking water violations since 2010."   
      
   ======================   
      
      
   "Coal ash decision stymied in election year"   
      
   By Juliet Eilperin   
   October 14,  2012   
      
      
      
   IN MARYLAND’s Zekiah Swamp, one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most important   
   tributaries, 8.4 million tons of coal ash in pits from former   
   operations of the Morgantown power plant are leaking into groundwater.   
   Residents on the Moapa River Reservation north of Las Vegas blame a   
   spike in respiratory illnesses on the uncovered ash ponds and ash dump   
   from a generating station nearby.   
      
   The ash left after burning coal includes toxic elements such as   
   arsenic, lead, cadmium, selenium and mercury. Produced by 431 coal-   
   fired power plants, which supply 36 percent of the nation’s   
   electricity, coal ash piles up at the staggering rate of 140 million   
   tons a year.   
      
   More than 40 percent of it is recycled to help make concrete, gypsum   
   wallboard and pavement. But utilities store the rest in landfills,   
   ponds or mines, and evidence has been growing in recent years that   
   leakage is a problem.   
      
   “The time has come for common-sense national protections to assure   
   safe disposal of these materials,” Environmental Protection Agency   
   administrator Lisa P. Jackson said. That was in 2010.   
      
   Despite ongoing controversy — in the last week and a half alone   
   environment groups have sued 14 power plants in North Carolina and   
   four in Illinois over coal ash contamination — no one expects anything   
   more to happen before the election. After that, it depends on the   
   priorities of the party controlling the White House.   
      
   President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney both stress that they   
   support coal operations, and Republicans and Democrats agree that the   
   federal government needs to establish a national standard for managing   
   coal ash, also known as fly ash.   
      
   Water contaminated by coal ash violated federal drinking water or   
   health standards at at least 197 sites in 37 states, including seven   
   in Virginia and three in Maryland, according to the environmental   
   group Earthjustice. The EPA gave 45 ponds at 27 locations in the   
   United States a “high hazard potential rating,” meaning that if the   
   encasing for the ponds break, it would probably result in the loss of   
   human life.   
      
   But should coal ash be labeled a hazardous waste? That determination   
   will give the EPA direct enforcement authority over coal ash, rather   
   than leaving it to the states, and will impose new handling procedures   
   on utilities that will increase their costs. And while EPA and   
   environmentalists say this will heighten the incentive for recycling,   
   given the higher cost of disposal, recycling companies and mining   
   industry officials predict fewer companies will be willing to   
   incorporate coal ash into their products if it’s labeled as hazardous.   
      
   Two and a half years ago Jackson outlined three possible rules for   
   storing and disposing of coal ash, but none have become final. The   
   first would designate it a hazardous waste; the other two would   
   regulate it as a solid waste.   
      
   Any of the options would increase the frequency of pond inspections,   
   impose new health and environmental protection requirements, require   
   controls on dust blowing from the sites and close dumps in sinkholes   
   and other ground that could give way. Declaring it a hazardous waste   
   would ban the construction of any new coal ash ponds and require all   
   existing ponds to be phased out, forcing companies to put it in   
   landfills designed to handle hazardous waste. One of the less   
   stringent options EPA proposed would not require closure of unlined   
   pounds, which have been a major source of contamination.   
      
   House Republicans have passed legislation twice that would give states   
   primary authority over coal ash sites but allow the EPA to step in if   
   it determined state oversight was inadequate; Democrats have blocked   
   the measure on the grounds it is not stringent enough.   
      
   Eric Schaeffer, who directs the Environmental Integrity Project, an   
   advocacy group, said the EPA has delayed issuing a final rule out of   
   fear of angering those who already accuse the administration of   
   unfairly targeting the coal industry by imposing new pollution   
   restrictions on power plants and stricter standards for disposing of   
   mining waste.   
      
   “The reason they’re not acting on the coal ash rule is politics,” he   
   said. “They don’t want any more rules on coal before the election.   
   It’s as simple as that.”   
      
   EPA spokeswoman Alisha Johnson said in an e-mail that the agency “is   
   following long established rulemaking procedures and requirements,”   
   and is reviewing additional technical data along with “more than   
   450,000 comments on the proposed rule, which raised a number of   
   complex issues.”   
      
   Business groups and some Republicans are also frustrated with federal   
   inaction. Kirk Benson, CEO of the nation’s biggest fly ash recycler,   
   HW Headwaters, said it’s challenging to raise capital while EPA delays   
   issuing the rule.   
      
   “They’re between a rock and hard place. So they do nothing,” Benson   
   said in an interview. “Doing nothing is a problem for us.”   
      
   And Rep. David B. McKinley (R-W.Va.), who authored the bill passed by   
   the House on coal ash, said in an interview that Democrats have   
   blocked what would have been “the first national standard we were   
   having for impoundment.”   
      
   The question of how to deal with coal combustion waste has frustrated   
   policymakers for decades. After the EPA proposed in 1978 that coal ash   
   be regulated as a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and   
   Recovery Act, then-Rep. Tom Bevill (D-Ala.) countered with a 1981   
   amendment that exempted it. Nearly two decades later the Clinton   
   administration announced it would designate it a “contingent hazardous   
   waste,” but utilities said such a move would cost billions. Former EPA   
   administrator Carol Browner reversed course and said the agency would   
   classify it as a solid waste, but the issue lay idle during the Bush   
   administration.   
      
   Mining and utility officials, along with coal ash recyclers, back the   
   less stringent options.The hazardous waste designation “would require   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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