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Editorial: A source of coal comfort

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Tuesday, February 9, 2010

(Updated 4:05 am)

In an overdue stroke for common sense and the common good, the state will call on energy companies to keep closer watch over their coal ash ponds.

The N.C. Division of Water Quality will require Progress Energy and Duke Energy to monitor groundwater near the ponds, which contain the toxic leftovers from coal-fired power plants.

That waste has been found to include such ingredients as lead, mercury, arsenic, boron, cadmium, chloride, chromium, manganese and sulfate in amounts that are considered harmful.

The state wants the utilities to install wells to monitor the groundwater near the ponds, two of which serve Duke Energy's Dan River power plant, near Eden.

State lawmakers last year also passed legislation, sponsored by Rep. Pricey Harrison of Greensboro, that requires regular inspections of the dams used to contain the toxic sludge. Those inspections will occur at least every two years, as they do with other dams in the state.

One such dam collapsed in Tennessee in December 2008, flooding the nearby countryside and spilling tons of the poisonous gunk into streams, yards and homes.

Both moves in North Carolina are encouraging, if not all that monumental. Of course the state should inspect the dams and of course somebody should keep tabs on water contamination.

What took so long?

More sweeping regulation from Washington, which had been expected in December, has been even slower to arrive. The casual pace belies the potential for a recurrence of what happened in Tennessee. Or worse.

Twelve of the nation's 44 coal ponds described as "high-hazard potential" by the Environmental Protection Agency are in North Carolina. "A failure," the EPA says, "will probably cause loss of human life."

And still, as Harrison notes, nobody has studied the effects of coal ash that has been recycled into construction materials, road surfacing and other uses.

The state's most recent action is a welcome step in the right direction.

But it's a baby step all the same.

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notquitelethalexistence

February 11, 2010 - 2:28 am EST

The coal ash regulatory debacle fails to regulate or consider other areas of contamination from toxic ash which contains "lead, mercury, arsenic, boron, cadmium, chloride, chromium, manganese and sulfate in amounts that are considered harmful". As heavy metals fail to bind properly with cement, building products such as cement water pipes can not only deliver toxic water, but can represent tremendous danger from weak structural strength as well as an enormous waste of tax funds needed to replace failed roads, water pipes, buildings etc. This is not news to the regulators as Texas had to replace miles of enormous failed water pipes that were made from cement from kilns that mixed cement with toxic ash from where hazardous waste was used to power the kilns. The public was never notified of the toxic drinking water from this breakdown of the cement or they may have linked their cancers and neurotoxic injuries such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and birth defects… to these toxic exposures.

This treasonous conspiracy between poison pushing corporations and their wholly owned subsidiaries in the political and regulatory realm will never admit the inevitable premeditated random homicides that result from their decisions.When will the corporations stop using our children's bodies to dispose of their toxic waste in order to maximize profits? When will our politicians and regulators protect real people instead of anthropomorphizing corporations and bestowing more rights on them than the people? Let's not make the regretted mistake written of by the German Poet, Christa Wolfe, "We haven't said too much but too little and the little we said came too timidly and too late". Demand regulatory precautions are taken to protect public health and the environment. If we are to reduce suffering and lower health costs we must stop the poisoning now!