Coal-Ash Controversy: USE OF TONS OF THE MATERIAL IN WOODFORD PARK SPURS ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATE

By Greg Kocher and Linda Blackford, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

May 21–VERSAILLES — lblackford@herald-leader.com [mailto:lblackford@herald-leader.com]

Truck traffic has been steady on U.S. 62 south of Versailles this spring as dump trucks haul tons of coal ash to Falling Springs Arts and Recreation Center.

Some 100,000 tons of the dark gray granular material will be used to build a new youth football field at the county-owned park. The ash comes from the Kentucky Utilities generating plant at Tyrone on the Kentucky River, and is trucked to the park site about five miles north of Tyrone.

Coal ash — the sand-like byproduct that’s left from the burning of coal at generating plants to make electricity — has been used for similar “structural fill” projects across Kentucky, said George Gilbert, an engineer in the state Division of Waste Management.

Winchester built a ball field with ash from East Kentucky Power. Docks next to the Ohio River near Owensboro were built with ash from Western Kentucky Energy. LG&E and Charah Inc., a Louisville-based ash management company, are using 900,000 tons of coal ash from the utility’s Mill Creek plant to back-fill a former sand mine for future use as community greenspace.

Such uses are becoming more common because the United States produces about 118 million tons of coal ash every year. According to the American Association of Coal Ash, about 37 million tons are used commercially in products like concrete or foundation fills, but 81 million tons still go into landfills or old mines.

Coal ash fill projects, such as the Woodford one, are controversial because scientists and environmentalists disagree about whether heavy metals like mercury and lead found in coal ash actually contaminate groundwater.

Opponents include Dave Cooper, a Lexington resident who uses the park.

“Of all the places to put it,” Cooper said. “Falling Springs is a beautiful park, it’s brand new. Why would you allow them to put this stuff in there?”

But experts like Tom Robl of the Center for Applied Energy Research at the University of Kentucky say the metals in coal ash are in such minute amounts that it’s “nonsense” to think it’s dangerous.

“It’s simply not toxic, it’s a glassy material and we’ve been using it for years,” he said.

Woodford Fiscal Court unanimously voted in October to accept KU’s offer to donate the material to the park. KU excavated the site, and now fills it in, levels it and will put topsoil back. Work began in April and is about 85 percent complete.

The field probably won’t be ready for use until the fall of 2008 in order get a good cover of grass, said Richard Pictor, director of the Falling Springs center. The field will make up for the loss of a football field at the old Woodford County Middle School property near downtown Versailles, which was sold to a private developer.

“If they (KU) hadn’t come along when they did, I don’t know that little league football would have a place to play,” Pictor said.

But Rosanne Klarer, a retired special-education teacher who lives in Scott County near Midway, wonders whether enough testing has been done to allay concerns about heavy metals.

“I’m concerned they’re laying this coal ash down without doing the analysis of what’s in it and possibly exposing children with developing brains to possible toxic metals,” Klarer said. “It’s going to be used by a lot of different kids, and they come back. They don’t just use it one time.”

Woodford Fiscal Court Magistrate Ellen Gormley — who was not on the court when that body voted Oct. 24 to accept the coal ash — said she has had one person question whether the ash posed an environmental threat.

But Gormley, who owns a Versailles company that does environmental testing, said a 2006 report provided by County Road Engineer Buan Smith showed the levels of selenium, arsenic, lead, mercury, barium and others to be “extremely minimal.”

Smith, who is overseeing the park project, said the material will be surrounded by 2 feet of clay to encapsulate it and reduce its exposure to moisture.

There is no liner beneath the material, but a clay layer at the bottom “because this is considered non-toxic material,” Smith said.

The county is installing pipes and a drainage system to capture spring water in the area and move it away from the material, Smith said. The county has spent about $17,000 for materials, but Smith said he doesn’t know what the final cost, including labor, will be.

“We’re giving the springs a way out without impacting the fill material or interacting with the fill material,” Smith said.

Coal-ash fills that leach metals into groundwater have caused concern around the country.

A National Academy of Sciences report from 2006 found that putting coal ash into old mines should be closely regulated to make sure leaching into groundwater doesn’t occur. A report from the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington, D.C., found that some fills lacked liners, covers and groundwater monitoring to make sure groundwater was not polluted.

Eric Schaeffer, who directs the Environmental Integrity Project, said it’s not a problem when coal ash is used to make concrete or is mixed in with asphalt.

“But when you pile tons and tons of it up and it just sits there, you could have more of a problem,” he said.

In the past, coal ash has been kept in ponds on the grounds adjacent to generating plants, said KU spokesman Cliff Feltham.

“At some point, it reaches a finite level where you can’t put coal ash in the given space that you’re authorized to put it,” Feltham said.

Utilities typically don’t let go of their coal ash for fear of potential liability if it is mismanaged, said Tom FitzGerald of the Kentucky Resources Council.

“But they let go of it if they can find somebody that they are comfortable with, who is going to manage it properly,” FitzGerald said. “It’s cheaper for them to give it to somebody than to have to manage it.”

According to the Center for Applied Energy Research, Europe uses about 90 percent of its coal ash in commercial products rather than putting it in fill because there is less space.

David Goss, president of the American Coal Ash Association, said most coal ash fill testing comes out with lower metals than regular landfills.

“Many of the metals are the same as those in the crust of the earth’s surface,” Goss said, “in relatively low concentrations.”

Most of the ash is made up of silica, a crystalline substance like ground glass, which is why it is so useful for substances like concrete, Goss said.

Tom Robl of the UK research center says propaganda surrounds coal and its by-products even though ash is becoming more mainstream for commercial use, such as the Falling Springs project.

“We’ve used a lot of it in Kentucky,” he said. “We’ve used it in a lot of roadways, and in all of our concrete. It’s very popular for fill material, and this application is not different.”

Reach Linda Blackford at (859) 231-1359. Reach Greg Kocher in the Nicholasville bureau at (859) 885-5775.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

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