The first comprehensive national study of coal ash dump sites by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) has been released. In it researchers found that “242 of the 265 power plants with monitoring data contained unsafe levels of one or more of the pollutants in coal ash.” That includes poisons such as arsenic and lithium. An important thing to realize here is that the researchers used data provided by the coal-powered plants themselves.
EIP’s study showed that over 50 percent of the sites showed unsafe levels of arsenic, and even more sites showed unsafe levels of lithium. Both toxins have been shown to impair brain development in children and cause cancer and neurological damage. Researchers were unable to determine what effect if any this has had on the drinking water in the surrounding areas. However, researchers point to previous studies of coal ash dumps leeching chemicals into drinking water areas. The problem is dangerous enough that ignoring it could be catastrophic. Inside Climate News explains that in places such as Memphis, Tennessee, researchers found that the leeching of coal ash toxins into a shallow aquifer positioned the poisons just above a second, larger aquifer that 650,000 people used for their drinking water.
The levels of pollution leeching from coal plants are off the charts in a place such as Texas, where just outside of San Antonio, next to the San Miguel Power Plant, researchers found groundwater contaminated with “at least 12 pollutants leaking from coal ash dumps.” Also high on that list are Duke Energy’s coal ash dumps in North Carolina, which have been studied and diagnosed with massive pollution issues.
In total, researchers were able to get data from around 75 percent of the country’s coal plants, the omissions being facilities not required to provide that information. Inside Climate News reached out to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, but received a general response that it is working on some kind of statewide set of rules for coal ash management in Texas.
Not only have companies like Duke Energy fought against regulations of their coal ash pollution, but they have also actively fought vociferously against any and all competition from renewable energy. This study comes only a couple of months after the Trump administration proposed doing away with “costly” regulations limiting mercury output by the coal industry.
Many companies also spend a considerable amount of time doing what big companies polluting the planet have done for decades: arguing that there are other possible reasons for the contamination levels at their sites. The long game for these companies is to cut down on the costs they will incur as municipalities demand that fossil fuel companies pay for the clean-up of these areas.