Sunday Focus: Coal Ash

 

The ALAPOWCO Green County Plant. Coal ash is in the lake in the foreground.

 


   The Feds have begun an investigation into allegations of environmental racism in coal-ash disposal.
     Coal ash is the residue left after coal is burned, mostly at power plants to produce electricity.

  
  


 Scientific American published a story last week, in advance of a hearing last Friday by The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that heard testimony from people in Alabama and elsewhere who say they have been taken advantage of by mountains of coal ash dumped where they live.

The Coal Ash in Perry County, covered in a lined landfill.

Trains carried the coal ash from TV to AL.

     Alabama's mountains of coal ash come from power plants in the state that burn coal. 
     But tons of it was also buried at a Perry County landfill...coal ash spilled at a TVA power plant in Tennessee when the wall of a coal ash containment pond broke. 
     (No landfills in Tennessee I guess?)

     Coal Ash includes lead and other heavy metals, and the furor over the lead exposure to people in Flint Michigan via their water supply may shine a brighter light on the environmental battle over coal ash.
     Some coal-fired power plants in the state are being converted to natural gas, like the Alabama Power plant in Greene County.

 

A Control Room at The ALAPOWCO Greene County plant.

 

   There is a web site called "Coal Ash Facts" the cites the utility companies party-line that coal ash is not dangerous, and that much of it is recycled into other products. It doesn't say so on the site, but the coal ash association pays for the site.




 





[Sunday Focus is a regular feature of www.timlennox.com]