Coal Ash: 130 Million Tons of Waste

60 Minutes Investigates a Potentially Harmful Waste Byproduct that Inundated a Tenn. Town

(CBS)  We burn so much coal in this country for electricity that every year that process generates 130 million tons of waste. Most of it is coal ash, and it contains some nasty stuff. Environmental scientists tell us that the concentrations of mercury, arsenic, lead and other toxic metals are considerably higher in coal ash than in ordinary soil.

When coal ash is disposed of in dry, lined impoundments it is said to be safe. But it's often dumped into wet ponds - there are nearly 500 of them across the country - and in those cases the ash could pose health risks to the nearby communities.

Jim Roewer, one of the top lobbyists for the power industry, told 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl that nearly half of the electricity in the United States is generated by coal.

"Coal's gonna be around for a long time," he said.

"We really can't get rid of coal," Stahl remarked.

"We shouldn't get rid of coal," Roewer said.

"Well, should or shouldn't, we can't. And coal makes waste. Would you say that the industry has done a good job of disposing of the coal ash waste?" Stahl asked.

"We can do better," Roewer said.

Asked if that means no, Roewer told Stahl, "Well, we had a Kingston spill."

That's Kingston, Tenn., where last December a giant retention pool of coal ash buckled under the weight of five decades of waste.

A billion gallons of muck shot into the Emory River like a black tsunami, engulfing homes, uprooting trees, and throwing fish out of the water.

Residents woke up to an apocalyptic moonscape of "ashbergs" everywhere. The spill was 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez and it was all coal ash.

Stahl had never heard of coal ash before the Kingston incident.

"Wasn't a problem," Roewer remarked.

"Well, it was a problem, we just didn't know," Stahl replied.

The problem is: where do you put all that stuff? The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) dumped up to 1,000 tons of coal ash every day into a wet pond near the plant, slowly amassing a waste-cake 60 feet high. Some of the ingredients, according to the EPA, were arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, cadmium and other toxic metals.

"You know, some people say that this is a poisoned meadow," Stahl said to Leo Francendese, an environmental "Mr. Fix It,” sent by the EPA to clean up this mess.

"In the wrong circumstances coal ash is dangerous. Breathing it, that's dangerous," Francendese replied.

The summer heat can bake the ash into a fine talc-like powder that can wreak havoc on your lungs.

So while the government has never formally labeled coal ash a hazardous waste, it's being treated as such at the Kingston site.

As the 60 Minutes team left the site, they were scrubbed clean, as was their car.

Francendese explained that every vehicle that exits the site must go through the cleaning process.

Gary Topmiller lives right on the river. He had a front row seat when the spill covered his dock.

"Now what the doctors did tell me was, 'Get out of there.' And I said, 'I don't have any place to go,'" Topmiller told Stahl.

[bkwaas]

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) ? an unbiased authority dedicated to protecting the environment has a very useful review of coal fly ash (http://www.nrdc.org/energy/coalwaste/default.asp) and its toxicity.

NRDC categorizes coal fly ash as a Contaminated Coal Waste

NRDC states ?toxic material is laced throughout? the fly ash

NRDC states ?Coal ash contains many toxic metals, including arsenic, which unchecked, can leak into ground water and be extremely hazardous to breathe?

NRDC states that coal ash ?is contaminated by 10 metals classified as toxic by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR): Antimony, Arsenic, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium, Cobalt, Lead, Manganese, Mercury, Nickel and Selenium.?

NRDCs states ?Coal-fired power plants produced more than 126 million tons of contaminated coal waste?

It also states ?the waste produced in a single year contains nearly 100,000 tons of toxic metals?

This is the waste that Calstar wants to make bricks of and sell to unsuspecting consumers.

Bricks that are laced with toxic metals.

Toxic metals that leach out from the bricks ? according to Calstar?s own data.

Calstar would like people to believe that the toxicity of fly ash is not an issue.

Calstar would like people to believe that bricks made from a Contaminated Coal Waste laced with toxic metals are not an issue.

Calstar would lke people to believe that it is ?beneficially recycling? toxic fly ash and producing a ?Green? product.

How is a product that is laced with toxic metals ?Beneficial?? Beneficial for lining Calstar?s managements pockets?

How is a product that is laced with toxic metals that leach out ?Green?? Is polluting the environment and poisoning people with a contaminated waste the new ?Green?? Perhaps the ?Green? is the money Calstar is hoping to make from selling the toxic bricks.

Does the management of Calstar have any decency?

Calstar ? a company bereft of morals, trying to sell the new Asbestos.

[bkwaas]

Unscrupulous companies are trying to Greenwash fly ash and profit from this hazardous waste.

Calstar Products is trying to sell coal fly ash bricks - the company is claiming that the bricks are safe, but their own results show that they leach toxins like arsenic, antimony, beryllium, cadmium, lead, manganese, mercury and nickel.

These crooks are going to poison people - their fly ash bricks are going to be the next asbestos.

See the following links:

http://techpulse360.com/2008/10/23/reader-comments-on-fly-ash-brick-toxicity-cal-star-hype/

http://www.greentechmedia.com/green-light/post/here-comes-the-green-brick-664/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10359630-54.html

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/inside-the-green-brick-house/

[afmcalax]

All toxic waste in America should be forced into Republican districts since they are always so sure that their fake, economic driven science is more reliable than real, rational science. But if you notice most of the toxic waste generated is usually dumped by rich, white Republican-leaning owned companies into poor, minority Democratic-leaning neighborhoods. If these conservative Republicans are so sure of their science then white areas of the deep south should be designated the only allowable dumping grounds.

[mrredskin]

genius... absolute genius, afmcalax.

your comment had absolutely nothing to do with this topic. lovely, racist remarks, too.

[mrredskin]

wow, props to CBS for only showing one side of the story: what everyone WANTS to hear. I love the line under the photo with the house that says the whole town of Kingston was flooded with coal ash. The spill affected TWELVE families and their homes/yard. Let's not forget the fact that they CHOSE to live next to fly ash ponds. Very desirable...

Seriously, epic fail for CBS on this. Journalism at it's worst. They didn't bother showing the video that was taken on Sept 25th as to how much of it has been cleaned up.

And to whomever it was that said they received letters 3 times already stating their rates increased because of the spill, you're full of crap.

CBS will never get another minute of my time, except for football games. The "news" is a joke.

[gabbyur24]

Obama said he would "follow the Science"; the leading climate scientist in the world, Dr James Hansen NASA demonstrated in Coal River WV against Obama's Mountaintop Removal position. Look it up. Robert Kennedy Jr has written Op Ed pieces against what Obama is doing to Appalachia. Our government is committing genocide against those helpless, poor, uneducated people. Heavy metals are causing chronic diseases like cancer, asthma, diabetes, silicosis, birth defects, etc. The coal industry has tried to blame this on incest for a hundred years. Like the tobacco industry had its smoking gun, the coal industry knows they are poisoning those people and so does Obama and the Congress. I voted for Obama and he stabbed us all in the back. WV is at the top of every negative list and the bottom of every positive one because of mountaintop removal mining, and the news media is letting the government get away with it. If coal is so good for WV's economy, why is it the poorest, sickest state in the union? McDowell Co is the 8th poorest county in the country out of over 5000 counties! Get real! Shame on you 60 Minutes for not bringing this to the attention of the country before this. Those people will live with the fall out of this for the next hundred years. Obama can stop it and he should have immediately.

[bessr]

The coal fly ash story was very timely for what is happening in the small rural town of Dendron, VA where I live. Old Dominion Electric Cooperative is planning to place a 1,500 mega-watt coal burning power plant within our town limits. The plant would be situated just yards from the homes of Dendron residents, and about two miles from the Surry County Schools complex. ODEC plans to landfill the fly ash in the town on land bordering the Blackwater River. EPA should tighten restrictions as soon as possible.

[bubbadubba]

That would be the same coal used to produce electricity used to transmit CBS shows, power CBS offices, and power the TV's for people who watch CBS?
Yea, I thought so. The very same coal.
H Y P O C R I T E S.

[culturechang]

Fly ash would likely be a hazardous waste by chemical analysis.....but the coal lobbyists had it specifically exempted from regulation back in the late 70s.

Now, its a common ingredient in concrete mixes.

[erasmus111]

Hasn't anyone ever heard of NATURAL GAS?

[FrontRangeCO]

Coal ash is a tremendously toxic substance and yet the power companies and coal industry pooh-pooh it as benign - "it's like dirt!" Leslie Stahl's report showed the truth about how this toxic byproduct of coal combustion is poisoning us. If the EPA finally regulates coal as a toxic substance, then the cost of coal will skyrocket. It will become very expensive due to the high disposal costs, thus we are finally looking at coal's TRUE COST. And if a carbon tax is instituted in the U.S., then coal becomes as costly as nuclear power if not more. Then renewables will finally be considered "economic".

The public might find this of interest! Platte River Power Authority is shipping it's fly ash for use in feedlots. I wonder where those feedlots are located and what animals are being poisoned? So, when you "eat the beef" (or maybe pigs), some of us are consuming high levels of arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, and cadmium in our hamburgers. What is the cost to our society when fly ash is put into the food chain? Cancer, immune disorders, neurological ailments? I'm no doctor but I'll leave it up to your imagination.

Please, 60 minutes - expand this investigation and uncover the multitude of stories across the entire country that need to be heard.

[Treehugger2]

Isn't that why we have the FDA. Maybe if they had called TVA, FTVA the connection would have made the story. Federal Government continues to scare itself, maybe they figured out what "heads would roll". Are we going to call Heath Care, FHC don't we have that!

[k_campbell]

Going green using solar and\or wind power seems to make more sense after what happened to Kingston, TN. In some cases it might look somewhat unsightly throughout the landscape, but not really. Obviously it is free energy and it gives off nothing hazardous (imagine that). I would expect the big coal burning advocates to totally rip this up, but right now they have no leg to stand on, but again money talks and ******** walks, or in this case slides down the Kingston river.

[LilBambi01]

Yes, what about the health and well being of those who live within 30 miles of coal fired power plants, particularly baseload coal fired power plants - and places where Mountain Top Removal is happening on a massive scale above homes, communities, water supplies, food sources?

I truly am not all that interested in carbon emissions per se. What I am interested in is the pollution as a whole; air, water, ground, livestock and foodstuff farms.

And humans that have to breath all this pollution, or drink water that has been compromised by the pollution, or eating from their gardens or farms or selling these products to grocery store for others to ingest.

Sure, the newer coal plants have less pollution than the older plants - but if you remember that old hemorrhoid relief commercial where they say while demonstrating with their hands, "If THIS is your problem, THIS is no answer."

And every new coal plant, particularly baseload power plants that are added, adds to the overwhelming problems already related to coal extraction, preparation and transportation, and of course the end result coal ash waste.

There are many waterways that are already injured and flow downstream to rivers and bays, like the Chesapeake Bay here in VA which is already struggling to get the pollution under control from years of lack of regard for what goes into it pollution wise from various industries.

And what of local water ways, like right near us in the Blackwater River system, that has mercury levels in many areas where you can't eat fish more than once a week (if at all) due to the mercury content already in it - before the new 1500 MW ODEC coal fired power plant is built and spewing even more pollution to add insult to injury.

As Elisa Young from Ohio noted above, Virginia isn't alone in this battle. Many states are struggling with the clash between the health and welfare of their population, and the need and/or greed of money and power (both electrical and over people).

We really need to stop looking at the dollar signs and start looking at the telltale danger signs for the health and welfare of our people and our children, grandchildren and their children, and grandchildren -- The future!

You know, George Carlin was right when he said the problem isn?t the planet, the planet will do just fine - it will just shake us off like a bad case of fleas and continue on it's merry way - it's us I'm worried about! (forgive the paraphrase).

Yes, the world will continue either way - we just might not be in the equation. Another species will rise up to take our irreverent and uncaring place.

No one is saying turn off the coal plants, except to upgrade them to better technologies. They are already with us and the current ones are needed to get us by for awhile. And for a hazardous material to be regulated as it should have been from the start.

However, we don't need any NEW coal plants adding to the problem, what we need is the OLD ones upgraded to newer technology currently available AND ANY new facilities based on renewable sources.

I really feel for those areas in the country that are already feeling the affects of having coal plants so long near their homes, schools, water supplies and food sources due to these coal plants. I am saddened that it took me until now when they want to put a 1500 MW baseload coal fired power plant so close to our home, schools, water supply and farms/gardens to realize the dangers others have been facing for years -- from Mountain Top Removal to these coal fired plants around the country and around the world.

For complete disclosure, here is my connection to the coal industry:

I am a property owner/resident in the small 300+ Town of Dendron, in Surry County, VA where ODEC proposes to build a 1500 MW coal fired power plant. My Jim has a paralyzed right side diaphragm and is on an oxygen concentrator a minimum of 12 out of every 24 hours and struggles with Lyme Disease. Oxygen concentrators filter out nitrogen from the air to concentrate the oxygen, but doesn't filter out anything else (pollutants in the air), and we will be well within the 1 mile stack shadow (as will EVERY SINGLE RESIDENT OF DENDRON AND OUR WATER SUPPLY). Not to mention, the wetlands close on two or three sides of the 1500 MW plant proposed. They actually had to move the plant CLOSER to the town to better 'protect' the wetlands. Well, what about the people that they moved it even closer to??!

We have been here for over 10 years and took a lot of time looking for and researching the area for a home that we could live in for the rest of our lives and sunk everything we had into it. There was NO mention in any papers about this area at that time that ODEC was even considering this plant in 1998, or I can tell you with a certainty that we would not have purchased here.

[rwmitc]

It occurs to me that most of this coal comes to the power companies in loaded rail cars and the cars return to the mine from whence they came from empty. Why not fill a few of them with this ash and send it back where it came from, it can be used to fill the holes that were created in the process of removing the coal in the first place. If the railroad cars have to return to the mine anyhow why not use that opportunity to return the ash back to the mine in them also.

[simple-truth]

Lesley Stahl, thank you for this report. If you were frustrated by industry and government double-speak, and the resulting contamination form coal ash, you must investigate the energy industry's push to begin horizontal hydro-fraction for natural gas extraction in New York State before the NYSDEC begins permitting. The process used to drill in deep shale uses 3-9 million gallons of water per well into which is injected approximately 245 chemicals, including Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Benzene, Toluene, Ethyl Benzene and Xylene (BTEX) and other volatile components which are known to cause cancer, endocrine disruption, neurological disorders, bleeding from the nose and mouth, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and in some cases death. The NYSDEC has just opened a very short period for public comment on this issue. Their proposed regulation of the industry is limited. Governor Patterson's new New York State Energy Plan embraces drilling for natural gas for the immediate revenue, but we know the long-term costs will be far greater. As many as 50,000 wells are proposed for the Delaware River Basin alone. The DRBC is presently considering a request by Chesapeake Energy for water withdrawal for hydro-fraction from the West Branch of the Delaware in Pennsylvania, across the river from Hancock, NY, a nationally recognized trout fishing location. There is no viable plan for effective waste water treatment. The Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) is considering permitting waste water to be returned to the watershed. Only national investigative news organizations like 60 Minutes will be able to STOP this dangerous and irreversible practice from industrializing hundreds of thousands of acres of the Catskills and the Southern Tier of NY, contaminating the air with volatile organics, and contaminating rural wells and the water supply for NYC, Philadelphia,PA and Trenton, NJ. Lesley, PLEASE investigate this issue before it's too late. Here are some links:

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) website explains the drilling process and gives the government's perspective:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/46288.html

The Oil & Gas Accountability Project, (OGAP) has an on-line booklet about oil and gas development in the Marcellus Shale. The following website has this and other information about gas drilling:

http://www.earthworksaction.org/publications.cfm?pubID=354

The following website describes chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and their effects on human health:

http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/chemicals.introduction.php

This website has very good pictures and information about gas drilling in Pennsylvania, as well as interviews with land owners:

http://www.donnan.com/Marcellus-Gas_Hickory.htm

This is a website devoted specifically to issues surrounding Marcellus Shale:

http://www.marcellus-shale.us/

News Articles on natural gas:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/05/05/fracking/index.html

http://www.propublica.org/feature/buried-secrets-is-natural-gas-drilling-endangering-us-water-supplies-1113

This website has a trailer for the film "Split Estate" which very clearly documents the impact drilling for natural gas has had on communities in the west. "Split Estate" will be on Discovery Channel in October, and will soon be available for purchase on DVD. It really is a must see film for anyone involved in making decisions about gas drilling whether they are land owners or politicians at every level of government. The "Split Estate" website also has links to many sources of information:

http://www.splitestate.com/

The following organizations are some of the growing number created by people living in the rural areas slated for industrialization in the Marcellus Shale. Each has a lot of information, can provide videos and testimonials from land owners and links to more information:

http://www.catskillcitizens.org/
http://www.damascuscitizens.org/
http://un-naturalgas.org/
http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/node/290
http://www.preservethefingerlakes.com/id1.html
http://binghamtonsustainability.org/index.php?/test/gas-drilling-education-amp-action/

Thank you for reading this letter. I hope to hear from you soon,
Simple Truth

[txlakeside]

Coal ash is safe, the Artic is not melting, republiCONS care about the world and yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! What a bunch of dumb as dirt lemmings following Flush Rush, Calamity Hannity and punch druck Oreily .... Vote the republiCONS out in 2010! Return America to the people!

[MMGVA2009]

I can identify with the victims of "coal ash". I am a victim of the "trash" in chinese drywall! The USA is not "creating it", we are "importing it". We have imported more than 7 million sheets of chinese drywall that emits toxins and gases into our homes. The CPSC has received complaints from 28 states. Thousands of homeowners have been affected, and many are being forced to leave their homes and belongings because of the contamination. Their health has been attacked, pets have died, people have become debilitated by the effects of the gases and toxins. It was discouraging to hear that the EPA is "still" studying the effects from a "coal ash" spill from December 2008. They keep delaying our reports, too. We need national media attention on chinese drywall.

[SAMsSites]

Coal is also the major contributor to global warming. We need to set a goal to rid ourselves of the use of coal. Germany is reaching for the moon, why can't we. They plan to be only using renewable sources of energy by the year 2050.

[MARYWILMA]

I LIVE WITHIN 5 MILES OF 4 LARGE COAL BURNING POWER PLANTS...AND SEVERAL MORE NOT MUCH FURTHER AWAY.. THE DUST IN MY HOME IS CONSTANT AND FLY ASH IS PRESENT ALL THE TIME, EVEN THOUGH WE ALMOST NEVER OPEN THE WINDOWS OR LEAVE THE DOORS OPEN.. WE VACUUM QUITE OFTEN AND THE MACHINE ALWAYS CONTAINS A GREY POWDER [FLY ASH].. WE REMOVED MOST OF THE CARPET AND SUBSTITUTED IT WITH FLOOR TILE. THAT HELPED SOME, AT LEAST WE CAN MOP IT UP INSTEAD OF IT MOVING AROUND WHEN YOU MOVE... I HAVE 2 SMALL DOGS AND SOMETIMES WE ALL COUGH TOGETHER...I HAVE BEEN CERTIFIED THAT I HAVE COPD. WHICH IS A KILLING PROBLEM... THE PLANTS HAVE BEEN ADDING SOME SCRUBBERS AND OTHER DEVICES, THAT HAVE CLEANED THE AIR SOMEWHAT...WE NO LONGER HAVE BLACK SMOKE IT IS WHITE NOW.. MY GRANDSON THINKS THE PLANTS ARE THE PLACE WHERE CLOUDS ARE MADE...THE ANSWER TO FLY ASH WAS SUPPOSED TO BE NUKE PLANTS. BUT THE GOVERMENT MADE THEM SO COSTLY DUE TO SO MANY STUPID REGULATIONS DURING THE CONSTRUCTION PHASE...THE INSPECTIONS OF AREAS IN THE PLANT THAT WERE NOT EVEN ASSOCIATED WITH THE RADIATION WERE UNDER THE SAME RULES. AND THREE MILE ISLAND IN PENNA AND THE CHENOROBLE INCIDENT IN RUSSIA MADE THEM IMPOSSIBLE TO,, BUILD EVEN THOUGH THE LEAKING RADIATION WAS CAUSED BY THE OPERATORS NOT BELIEVING THEIR INSTRUMENTS... NUKES ARE THE ANSWER, AND WE HAVE LET A FEW RUN ALL OF US TO STOP THEM..

[Swain7]

An otherwise good segment is marred by Leslie Stahl trying to get a coal lobbyist to admit that all coal ash is properly disposed of. Is she for real? She is trying to pin potential spills on that guy. What about the state regulators? How come they didn't get the 3rd degree? I think the key to a good segment is having an interviewer who has common sense and has a basic knowledge of what he or she is asking.

[michaelm07]

Well, until the wacky far left accepts Nuclear power, coal is it and it is what powers the United States. Wake up and smell the sulfur, please. In the future some green alternative might show itself but anyone who thinks wind and sun power will replace Coal or Nuclear power is truly a dim bulb (ha, ha, pretty funny analogy, eh?).

[WesternJprof]

Wind is already cheaper than coal in the US, solar costs are declining annually while traditional energy just keeps getting more expensive. Germany is now at 15% renewable energy headed for 30 to 40% renewable energy in a decade or so. They are closing down coal and nuclear plants all over Europe . We, the USA, are getting left far behind by or ignorance of renewable energy systems.