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Federal Waste Ash Rules Needed, Study Says

Posted on: Friday, 3 March 2006, 00:00 CST

By Ken Ward Jr.

kward@wvgazette.com

Federal regulations are needed to minimize potential health and environmental risks from the disposal of coal combustion ash at mine sites, a National Academy of Sciences study has concluded.

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining should take the lead in writing such regulations, according to the study released Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

OSM should seek help from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address a "lack of confidence" in OSM by coalfield residents, the study concluded.

"This lack of public trust should be remedied," said the study, released by the academy's National Research Council.

The council is an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.

The council launched the study two years ago, in response to a congressional mandate sought by Rep. Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., also was instrumental in obtaining funding for the study.

"The study recognizes that regulatory gaps exist and recommends that enforceable federal standards should be issued for the regulation of coal combustion wastes in mine reclamation," Rahall said Wednesday.

"I knew that when I requested the study, and applaud the committee which put this study together for also coming to this conclusion," he said. "I am, however, disappointed that this study does not hold the federal government's feet to the fire to end 26 years of uncertainty surrounding this issue by specifically recommending a regulatory regime, although it does express a belief that the Office of Surface Mining should take the lead."

Coal provides more than half of the nation's electricity, and burning coal produces about 120 million tons of ash per year, enough to fill about 1 million railroad cars.

Power plant ash contains iron, manganese, sulfates, chlorides, boron, and metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, chromium, nickel and selenium.

Most of this waste is dumped in landfills or into surface impoundments. But increasingly, it is being used in mine reclamation. In addition, about 38 percent of the wastes are used to make cement, wallboard and other products.

"Because the amount of coal combustion residues is large and increasing, we should pursue productive uses for them," said Perry Hagenstein, president of the Institute for Forest Analysis, Planning and Policy in Wayland, Mass., and chairman of the committee that wrote the research council report.

"When such uses are not feasible, putting residues in mines as part of reclamation provides an alternative to landfills and surface impoundments, although potential health and environmental risks must be addressed."

Supporters of disposing of these wastes in mines say the ash is a benign waste product that does not harm water supplies and can sometimes be used to treat acid mine drainage.

Others say the practice is contaminating groundwater and polluting streams.

In May 2002, EPA officials announced they would not seek to regulate power plant ash as a hazardous waste under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. EPA made that decision despite a study it contracted that concluded these wastes appear "to present significant risks to aquatic and semi-aquatic organisms, from changes in the physiology to extirpation [destruction] of entire populations of amphibians, fish and aquatic insects."

In its report issued Wednesday, the research council said little is known about the potential for coal ash damaging groundwater and surface water when it is dumped at mine sites.

Based on limited information, the study concluded that "the presence of high contaminant levels in many [coal ash] leachates may create human health and ecological concerns at or near some mine sites over the long term."

To contact staff writer Ken Ward Jr., use e-mail or call 348- 1702.

Source: Charleston Gazette, The

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