Coal ash is damaging water, health in 34 states, groups say

[IDemo]

By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — People in 34 states who live near 210 coal ash lagoons or landfills with inadequate lining have a higher risk of cancer and other diseases from contaminants in their drinking water, two environmental groups reported on Thursday.

Twenty-one states have five or more of the high-risk disposal sites near coal-fired power plants. The groups -- the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice -- said that a 2002 Environmental Protection Agency document that the agency didn't release until March of this year adds information about toxic releases from these facilities to nearby water systems and data on how some contaminants accumulate in fish and deer and can harm the health of people who hunt and fish.

The report said that people who live near the most problematic disposal sites have as much as a 1-in-50 chance of getting cancer from drinking water contaminated by arsenic. The highest risk is for people who live near ash ponds with no liners and who get their water from wells.

The report said the ash ponds also produced an increased risk of damage to the liver and other organs from exposure to such metals as cadmium, cobalt and lead, and other pollutants.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/67753.html

[undergroundpanther]

1. Coal ash

Did you know..
It's fucking...radioactive!!


Over the past few decades, however, a series of studies has called these stereotypes into question. Among the surprising conclusions: the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.

At issue is coal's content of uranium and thorium, both radioactive elements. They occur in such trace amounts in natural, or "whole," coal that they aren't a problem. But when coal is burned into fly ash, uranium and thorium are concentrated at up to 10 times their original levels.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs163-97/FS-163-97.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste

http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/coalash/image/image_view_fullscreen

[Nihil]

4. No one cares - it's only coal ... (n/t)

:shrug:

[quidam56]

2. Appalachia can't stand anymore...

of the prosperity, we are being bombed, blasted and bulldozed right into 3rd world America. It's un telling how many toxic heavy metals and disease is in our watersheds. There are visible signs of Iron and Manganese going right into The Big Sandy River Watershed in Wise County, VA, draining from a strip mine from thirty years ago. Wouldn't at all be surprised if Arsenic is going into our water because of the heavy Iron concentrates.

http://www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138

[Kolesar]

3. Bush EPA hid data on coal-ash cancer risks, study shows

Bush EPA hid data on coal-ash risks, study shows
By Ken Ward Jr.

http://wvgazette.com/News/200905070785

Read more in Coal Tattoo http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Bush administration kept secret for nearly five years data that showed increased cancer risks from drinking water polluted by coal-ash impoundments, according to a new report issued Thursday.


Under President Bush, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials never made public an October 2002 study that outlined increased risks of as high as 1 in 50 additional cancer cases.


EPA later published some of the data in an August 2007 study. But even then, the agency report left out some key information about additional dangers to aquatic ecosystems and wildlife from toxic metals leaching out of unlined or inadequately lined coal-ash dumps.


The Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice on Thursday issued a report that tries to explain in simple language the findings in both EPA documents, which examined more than 200 coal-ash landfills and surface impoundments.


"We now have the full picture about coal dump sites across America and it is not pretty," said Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
...more...