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FirstEnergy says it's not aware of problems
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Jan 09, 2009
There are about 100 largely unregulated ''wet dumps'' across the United States, including nine in Ohio, that pose a threat, a coalition of environmental groups said Wednesday.
The ponds and lakes, used by electric utilities to store toxic coal ash and filled with toxic heavy metals, are similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority's facility at Harriman, Tenn., that was breached Dec. 22.
Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp.'s Bruce Mansfield Power Station at Shippingport, Pa., is featured prominently in the report released by the Environmental Integrity Project and EarthJustice.
The coal-fired Mansfield plant ranks No. 1 in the United States for the selenium content of its ash: 167,494 pounds from 2000-06, based on data the utility provided to the federal government.
In addition, the plant was No. 10 for arsenic (516,091 pounds), No. 8 for chromium (809,049 pounds), No. 9 for lead (462,530 pounds) and No. 8 for nickle (779,246 pounds).
FirstEnergy's Sammis Power Plant in Ohio's Jefferson County is ranked No. 30 for selenium.
The Mansfield plant is one of
the largest coal-fired plants in the country and would rank high by sheer volume of coal burned and ash produced, said company spokesman Mark Durbin. FirstEnergy is not aware of water-stored ash creating problems, he said.
FirstEnergy mixes the ash and slurry from the plant's anti-pollution scrubbers; that mixture, a concrete-like sludge, then is pumped into Little Blue Run, a man-made lake seven miles from the plant, he said.
The 400-foot-dam is inspected by a contractor twice a year and checked by the state of Pennsylvania, Durbin said.
Some coal ash from the Sammis plant is recycled and some goes into a landfill — not into water, he said.
Ohio was No. 2 in the country for having most bodies of water for fly ash storage with eight. Indiana has 11. A total of 13 states have three or more such impoundments, the report says.
The other Ohio plants include two Dayton Light & Power plants: J.M. Stuart and Killen Station. Also on the list were four plants operated by the Columbus-based American Electric Power: Gavin, Conesville, Cardinal and Muskingum River. Also listed was the Kyger plant in Gallia County.
In 2007, America's electric utilities reported producing 131 million tons of coal ash — with 40 percent of that waste going into impoundments for storage.
The fear is that such impoundments can breach, resulting in floods like the one in Tennessee that released 1 billion gallons of fly ash slurry that covered 300 acres and polluted two streams, said Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project.
Such impoundments, most of which are unlined, also can leach and foul ground and surface water, he said.
The environmentalists said they believe the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to adopt rules on dealing with coal ash disposal. At present, there is ''an inexcusable lack of regulation,'' Schaeffer said.
Ohio's regulations on coal ash are subject to ''very broad exceptions,'' said Lisa Evans, an EarthJustice attorney.
Household garbage is more regulated than coal ash, and that's ''very sad,'' Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said in a teleconference.
Such storage should be phased out and existing impoundments should be inspected immediately, said Christopher Irwin of the Tennessee-based United Mountain Defense.
The report is available on the Documents page of http://www.environmentalintegrity.org.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
There are about 100 largely unregulated ''wet dumps'' across the United States, including nine in Ohio, that pose a threat, a coalition of environmental groups said Wednesday.
Get the full article here.
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