EPA's Blind Spot: Hexavalent Chromium in Coal Ash

[txlibdem]

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Coal ash may be the secret source of cancer-causing chromium in your drinking water

Newly released report on a new carcinogen identified in coal ash: hexavalent chromium. By PSR with Earthjustice and Environmental Integrity Project.
http://www.psr.org/resources/epas-blind-spot-hexavalent-chromium-coal-ash.html

Hexavalent chromium pollution linked to coal ash disposal

kingston_spill_aerial.jpgThe landmark $333 million court settlement that propelled legal researcher Erin Brockovich to environmental stardom involved the contamination of a California town's groundwater with hexavalent chromium, a toxic compound known to cause cancer.

Now the same dangerous heavy metal, usually associated with steel manufacturing and metal plating, has been discovered seeping from coal ash disposal sites nationwide -- and at levels that far surpass what Brockovich encountered.

"Communities near coal ash sites must add hexavalent chromium to the list of toxic chemicals that threaten their health and families," says Lisa Evans, an attorney with the public interest law firm Earthjustice.
http://www.southernstudies.org/2011/02/hexavalent-chromium-pollution-linked-to-coal-ash-disposal.html

Coal ash, the leftover waste from power plants, contains arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, selenium and many other chemicals that can cause cancer and damage the nervous system and organs, especially in children. Hexavalent chromium is a highly toxic carcinogen when inhaled, and recent studies from the National Toxicology Program indicate that when leaked into drinking water, it also can cause cancer.

“The cancer risk from hexavalent chromium is one more serious threat to health from coal ash,” said Barbara Gottlieb, Deputy Director for Environment & Health at Physicians for Social Responsibility. “To protect the public from carcinogens and other dangerous substances, the EPA needs to regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste.”

“The pollution from coal ash sites is making people sick,” said Dalal Aboulhosn who works on coal ash for the Sierra Club. “As we’ve seen time and again, big polluters can’t be trusted to police themselves. We need the EPA to hold them accountable.”
http://valleywatch.net/?p=1684

New report ties coal ash to hexavalent chromium
February 1, 2011 by Ken Ward Jr.

A new report out this morning ties toxic coal ash to pollution of water supplies with the cancer-causing chemical hexavalent chromium.

...snip...'

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the type of chromium that leaches from coal ash sites is nearly always of the hexavalent variety, which is the most toxic form of chromium.
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/02/01/new-report-ties-coal-ash-to-hexavalent-chromium/

[TheWraith]

1. People talk about dependence on oil, but coal is the real danger to everything.

If I could wish away either our use of oil, or our use of coal, I'd pick coal in a heartbeat and never think twice.

[Kolesar]

2. I organized a protest against Bush's EPA director ...

...when flew into town to announce relaxing the mercury regulations for coal fired plants.

What have you done?

[txlibdem]

3. We all fight in our own way, Kole

I am disabled and can't leave my house but I still manage to maintain contact with some rabble.

It's high past time for the rabble to rouse!!!

PS, thanks for your efforts!!!

[txlibdem]

4. So much of the down side of coal is hidden or never talked about in the media

As of this year we cannot even protest at these coal dumping sites because the President made their locations all secret.

We should have an anti-coal movement to protest against this poisonous and radiation spewing death machine.