Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Kingston coal ash spill (photo: TVA)
There are more than 40 coal combustion waste sites in the United States that are considered a hazard, and yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refuses to disclose their location to the public. Why this is happening is unclear, although EPA decided to keep the sites a secret after meeting with officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Homeland Security, according to Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Boxer is unhappy with EPA’s decision not to release the locations of the 44 coal waste sites that have been labeled “high hazard” by the agency. This is especially disconcerting, Boxer says, in light of the accident last December at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston coal-fired power plant, in which a billion gallons of coal ash and water were released when a retaining wall gave way. The flood of waste occurred about 35 miles west of Knoxville, TN, and covered nearly 400 acres, destroying three homes and damaging a dozen others. No one was injured.
“The volume of ash and water was 100 times greater than the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster,” Boxer told the media. “The cost of cleaning up that spill has been estimated at over a billion dollars.”
Boxer has asked EPA officials to explain their rationale for hiding the locations of other coal waste facilities, some of which could pose a danger to the public. The Democratic senator says she and her staff are prevented from discussing the locations publicly, and are only able to tell other senators whose states are home to the hazardous sites. She has promised to hold hearings on the matter.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
EPA Must Withhold Locations of 'High Hazard' Coal Ash Sites (Environment News Service)
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