The story of coal

The story of coal grows dirtier the more you dig into it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing just that by holding upcoming hearings on regulating coal ash waste. As a young girl growing up in a small town in Iowa, I remember my father removing clinkers from the coal furnace. Dad knew the dangers of the toxic fumes, and I can remember his words to stand back as he removed the red embers.

According to the Webster Dictionary, ash is the solid residue left when combustible material is thoroughly burned or is oxidized by chemical means.

Natural gas, which is mostly methane, produces virtually no ash or particulate matter when burned. Coal has a much darker composition. Coal ash, or coal combustion residuals (CCRs), are byproducts of the combustion of coal at power plants and contain contaminants like mercury, cadmium and arsenic; chemicals associated with cancer and other serious health effects.

Coal ash residuals are disposed of either in liquid slurry at large surface impoundments and in solid form at landfills. Coal ash is also recycled into products, like concrete and bricks. Wisconsin ranks 28th in the nation for coal ash generation, producing 1.4 million tons of coal ash per year, according to the EPA.

When our older coal plants were constructed, much of the ash went up the chimney and into the air, coating our Wisconsin cream city brick buildings in a layer of black soot that can still be seen today. Health impacts were severe from airborne pollutants, so we developed technologies to reduce air emissions. That technology filtered out the ash that was “on the fly,” now referred to as fly ash.

Pulling out the old high school science book, we see that matter cannot be created or destroyed. So, the tons of fly ash that once went up the stack join the bottom ash that is stored in ponds and landfills across the country.

In Wisconsin, some of the earliest depositories of ash were old sand and gravel quarries, including the Cedar-Sauk Landfill, which received coal combustion waste from the Port Washington power plant. Despite the toxicity of ash, these sites were mostly unregulated by the states they were sited in and there were no federal safeguards.

Over time, since many ash pits were unlined and uncapped, toxic contaminates in coal ash have leached into ground water and in some cases contaminated well water. In Tennessee, the Kingston impoundment of coal ash slurry broke open and left a path of destruction and contamination along the course of the Emory River.

Recent reports, by the Environmental Integrity Project, documented 70 additional cases of water pollution and ecological damage near coal ash waste sites. The EPA has already acknowledged 67 damage cases in 14 states.

While Wisconsin has taken steps to regulate newer ash disposal sites and clean up some of the worst landfills, we still have contaminated wells that are near coal ash disposal sites. A group of residents in Caledonia are receiving bottled water from WE Energies because their well water is tainted with elevated levels of molybdenum and boron.

The need to transition to a clean energy economy has never been greater, and it is critical to hold our power companies accountable for cleaning up toxic ash sites. Federal safeguards must be put in place to protect our children’s health. Let your voice be heard by submitting comments or attending the EPA hearing Sept. 16 in Chicago.

My dad’s words on the danger of coal still ring true today; toxic gases and particulates that went up the chimney are now contaminating our waters. Just as the Clean Air Act took steps to remove toxic ash from the air we breathe, steps must also be taken to protect the water we drink from those same toxins.