A December, 2008 coal ash spill in Tennessee - branded America's largest environmental disaster by both activists and politicians - is providing new insights, and renewed investigation, into this unsightly and dangerous byproduct of coal-fired power plants.
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In both 1988 and 1999, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies largely downplayed the risks of coal ash, and this led to the adoption of the Bevill Amendment, which exempted power plants from having to treat coal ash like toxic waste; that is, providing double-walled liners at disposal sites and monitoring groundwater for leaching at regular intervals.
In 2007, another EPA study on coal combustion byproducts determined that, in terms of both human and ecological risks, coal ash contained significant quantities of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium, which can lead to the development of cancer and neurological problems. The risk, from unprotected coal ash sites leaching into water supplies, is described as being in the 90th percentile (read "very high").
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