Coal Ash Chronicles

Posts by award-winning indie journalist Rhiannon Fionn. She's working on a transmedia project about coal ash and its effect on citizens, business, the environment and government. CoalAshChronicles.com About.me Twitter: @coal_ash Facebook Google+ Flickr YouTube Donate

[coalashchronicles]

Geographic cancer clusters are rampant but impossible to prove

Despite their best efforts, scientists can't prove the connection between industrial plants emitting noxious chemicals and geographical outliers in cancer numbers.

Excerpt:

Critics say there was a key flaw in the registry’s study: It looked at county-wide numbers, a data set large enough to subsume and hide the high number of cancer-stricken residents living right near the coal ash pond. This deficiency is representative of a larger problem that characterizes most attempts to uncover what’s behind suspected but unconfirmed geographical cancer clusters: Often, researchers can’t get the granular data they need forproof. “With environmental exposures, it’s much more difficult to measure at the individual level,” says Hal Morgenstern, a University of Michigan epidemiologist who studies cancer clusters. “Even with people living in the same neighborhoods, some may be exposed while others aren’t.”

[coalashchronicles]

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Coal ash is now layered in one more controversy: whether the toxins pollute the ground water and whether it is a violation of the Clean Water Act. A federal judge in Virginia is deciding this issue.

[coalashchronicles]

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Third, cleaning up coal ash would generate at least a billion dollars in new spending right here in Virginia and clean our environment. If the average coal ash job pays $50,000/year, $1 billion in coal ash remediation spending equates to at least 20,000 new jobs and would cost the average rate payer about $1 per month.”

[coalashchronicles]

Tweets for change: Group snaps photos as it campaigns for coal ash cleanup in NC

ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- An environmental group wanted more than just signatures during their protest in downtown Asheville.They were working on a photo petition to be Tweeted to Governor Pat McCrory, to urge him to clean up the statewide coal ash problem.

Excerpt:

"We hope that the governor sees our tweets," Curelop says. "He may not tweet us back, but he'll definitely see it."

[coalashchronicles]

How ‘harmless’ is coal ash?

Duke Energy promotes article saying coal ash harmless, but scientist cited in report won’t stand by its claims. Writer won’t answer questions.

Excerpt:

Coal ash isn’t toxic, in fact it’s harmless, according a new report that Duke Energy has been disseminating this week.

But a Carolina Public Press investigation has found serious doubts about the credibility of the report that relies heavily on the statements of one scientist who may have been misquoted or taken out of context.

[coalashchronicles]

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality has made a video to explain the state’s new coal ash bill, signed by Gov. Pat McCrory on Fri., July 15.

Thoughts?

[coalashchronicles]

Arsenic detected at Georgia Power plant in Effingham County

Ground water testing at Georgia Power's Plant McIntosh near Rincon has some people concerned about the future of coal energy in the area.

Excerpt:

According to the company, although the arsenic level was triple the standard, they say the leak was contained to their property and did not spread beyond that. Plus, they told me this chemical leak was only detected at one of the eleven test wells at the site.

[coalashchronicles]

Coal ash bill doesn't stop legal fight

An environmental group plans to continue legal efforts to make Duke Energy move coal ash from seven sites near rivers into lined landfills, its lawyer said Wednesday.

Excerpt:

Frank Holleman, the senior lawyer at the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the bill just requires Duke Energy to clean up sites that they had either agreed to or been ordered by a court to clean up. He called it a bailout bill for the company.

"This act is nothing more than proof positive that when Duke Energy says, 'Jump,' the legislature says, 'How high?'" he said. "The legislature will do whatever Duke Energy wants it to do."

Jeff Brooks, a spokesman for Duke Energy, said the legislation was a collaborative effort between lawmakers and the governor to find a sensible solution to closing the coal ash sites.

[coalashchronicles]

Our View: Half a coal-ash cleanup just isn't enough

Excerpt:

Regulators and Gov. Pat McCrory have been all over the map since the spill, first downplaying its importance, and then gradually increasing their apparent concern - some of which was prodded by lawsuits filed by environmental groups. The hard line for regulation reached its zenith in May, when the Department of Environmental Quality proposed that the ash at all 14 Duke Energy sites around the state be excavated and transported to safer storage, like the lined abandoned clay mines in Chatham and Lee counties that will be filled with millions of tons of ash.

[coalashchronicles]

What to do in your garden this week.

It's interesting to see advice like this in gardening articles, "Coal ash should not be used on the garden." I say that because I have documentation from the 1950s where states encouraged people to use coal ash on their gardens.

[coalashchronicles]

TVA coal ash plan draws ire from environmental groups

TVA says covering old ash impoundments is the best solution; environmental groups want the substances removed.

Excerpt:

TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the utility determined that draining and covering the ash ponds was the "preferred alternative" to removing the coal ash, both from a financial and an environmental standpoint.

"EPA's general guidance is that either option could be just as environmentally safe if done properly," Brooks said.

[coalashchronicles]

DinkNeSmith.com: Meet the wizard behind the No Ash At All website

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Leslie doesn’t consider herself an activist ... “When you see something that is wrong, you just have to fight,” she says.  “Putting toxic and carcinogenic materials over a watershed is just wrong.  I had to get involved.”

[coalashchronicles]

Not In My Landfill: Georgia Residents Fight Plan To Store Toxic Coal Ash

In 2014, after disastrous spills and opposition from environmentalists, the Environmental Protection Agency imposed new rules on the storage of coal ash. Now utilities are planning to close down the ponds that hold the toxic ash, but it has to go somewhere. Environmentalists say the safest place for it is in securely lined landfills, such as the municipal landfill in Wayne County, Ga. Locals are fighting the plan, but there's not much they can do.

[coalashchronicles]

Please don’t pollute our Potomac

The coal ash fight is far from over.

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The same laboratory at Virginia Tech that analyzed the water in many Flint, Mich., homes also looked at West’s drinking water. The results? West’s water showed lead levels between four and 10 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s “action level” for lead. Samples collected from West’s drinking water and some of his neighbors’ wells have revealed hexavalent chromium, arsenic, cobalt, aluminum, barium, copper, magnesium, manganese, nickel, zinc, vanadium, boron and strontium — many of which are carcinogenic, and all of which are found in coal ash. West and many of his neighbors believe millions of tons of toxic coal ash Dominion stored next to his property in unlined pits for the last few decades have contaminated their drinking wells.

[coalashchronicles]

North Carolina’s ‘leadership’ on coal ash pales compared to its neighbor

Gov. Pat McCrory claims his state is the national leader when it comes to coal-ash management when it isn't.

Excerpt:

“No. No, North Carolina is not a leader on coal ash,” said Xavier Boatright of Clean Water for North Carolina. “One of the main things it wants to do involves the cheaper options, like cap-in-place or the controversial act of mine reclamation. And until Duke Energy starts its beneficial reuse projects, South Carolina companies are supplying North Carolina concrete companies with ash. As is Asia. In North Carolina, where we have significantly more coal ash, our only coal-ash export is to landfills in communities in other states.”

[coalashchronicles]

ANGUL: PANIC spread in Talcher on Sunday morning when ash slurry leaked out of the pipeline of Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS), a unit of NTPC, at Central...

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PANIC spread in Talcher on Sunday  morning when ash slurry leaked out of the pipeline of Talcher Thermal Power Station (TTPS), a unit of NTPC, at Central Colony on Balanda road. Sources said the leakage started at 6 am and continued till 8 am. It was stopped by TTPS officials who rushed to the spot after a road blockade was staged by locals. However, the cause of leakage is yet to be ascertained. The ash slurry has inundated large  parts of the area and damaged a road side hotel. The locals alleged that the pipeline was damaged and failed to resist pressure.

[coalashchronicles]

Texas Mineral Resources to make scandium a lesser pain in the ash

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Texas Mineral Resources Corp. (OTCQX: TMRC)announced that is has signed a MOU with a privately held well-established Pennsylvania coal company to recover and produce scandium and rare earth byproducts from coal ash and coal overburden. The name of the coal company is undisclosed.