Burning
After coal has been mined, transported, washed and
delivered to utility units, it is burned to create electricity. Unfortunately,
because it’s cheaper and easier to build power plants near the
source of the coal, the very same populations that pay the highest
price of mining are also disproportionately impacted by the burning
of coal.
Nevertheless, the effects of burning coal reach far beyond the coalfields.
Towering power plant smokestacks churn out massive amounts of mercury,
greenhouse gases and more smog-causing nitrogen oxide emissions than
all of the nation’s
cars, vans, and SUVs combined. By some estimates, these pollutants cause almost
30,000 deaths each year, extending the risks of coal mining far beyond the
coalfields. Add to those impacts acid rain, mercury contamination and
climate change from carbon dioxide emissions.
New “clean coal” technologies that remove some of the toxics
now being spewed into the air may sound noble, but even these fail to
address the significant problems associated with mining and the disposing
of coal waste and ash. Much of the heavy metal laden ash and waste is
stored in landfills or in slurry impoundments that can leak or fail.
Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper
Miller Steam Plant on Locust Fork of the Black
Warrior River, AL, one of 1,100
coal-fired power
plants in the U.S.
Coal Fly Ash Basin Blows Out:
1000 Million Gallons Spill
Into Delaware River
On August 23, 2005, a
leak began in Pennsylvania Power and Light's (PPL) coal fly ash storage
basin at their Martins Creek power plant. By the next day, the leak turned
into a flood over the roads and fields adjacent to the basin, then an
eruption of coal fly ash slurry that lasted for several days. In the
end, at least 100 million gallons (company estimate) of coal fly ash
effluent gushed into the Oughoughton Creek and the Delaware River.
Easton, about 10 miles downstream, had to shut down its water intakes for several days; the river was dark gray with a slick of light gray for more than a week. Known components of the fly ash include arsenic, mercury, lead, silica, crystalline silica, barium, chromium and other heavy metals. The toxin-laden slurry paved the river bottom, smothering aquatic life for several miles downstream; as far as 40 miles south the gray sludge was visible in between rocks in the river.
The blow out, the slow and mishap-riddled cleanup, and poor decision making by the company and state officials has resulted in prolonging the pollution event, causing pollution from the coal fly ash to spread, and making a very bad situation much worse. Delaware Riverkeeper Network will continue to advocate for the permanent shut down of the coal fired units and the removal of the open impoundments, which represent outdated technology and are not environmentally protective.