With the recent focus on the CO2 problem, the coal hearted guys figure you have forgotten about the mercury, arsenic, selenium, sulphur and cadmium (plus trace quantities of uranium and thorium) that is all part of coal's inherent natural beauty. None of these materials are good for humammals, but they have nevertheless been polluting the atmosphere for the better part of a century all around this small planet. Sulphur dioxide in particular has caused acid rain, smog and respiratory problems for decades.
In the U.S., some progress has been made since the 1960's toward minimizing these air borne poison emissions using particulate precipitators or so called smokestack scrubbers. But don't jump to the conclusion that all coal-fired plants have been fitted with smokestack scrubbers. On the contrary, over the past two decades, the fine gentlemen of the coal-fired utilities have been screaming like stuck pigs trying to avoid cleaning up their act. In 2010 , hundreds of plants still have yet to be fitted.
For a current example of the situation, check out the story on
Allegheny Energy as the ancient utility lumbers screeching and whining into the 21st Century. In this particular case, Allegheny is essentially attempting to dump the pollutants scrubbed from the air into the Monongahela River near Pittsburgh. Directly contradicting the patriotic TV ads runs by the clean coal pimps, Allegheny only installed the scrubbers after they were sued by the states of New York and New Jersay. The new plan: Take the poison out of the air put it in the water. It will end up in Pittsburgh's water rather than New Jersey's air.
Near Steubenville, Ohio, one of the state's largest coal-burning plants, will finish installing a scrubber system in 2012, most likely. Also still dragging its heels is the TVA, the nation's largest public utility. It has spent millions fighting environmental lawsuits, essentially using your taxpayer dollar to pay lawyers to delay compliance with the law, and for the right to continue polluting your habitat. The legendary Depression-spawned behemoth has just completed a new smokestack scrubber at it's Bull Run plant, which brings the number of TVA plants in compliance to about half. The rest continue to dump sulphur dioxide into the air you and the trees are breathing.
So it isn't really a done deal yet, is it?
The Alleheny Energy story points us to the next problem. When the nasty pollution has been scrubbed from the coal smoke, where does it go? Does it disappear like the Wicked Witch?
No Dorothy, it does not.
3. THAT FLY ASH PROBLEM
While you were wrapped up in the 2008 Holiday Season, the U.S. media was busy ignoring an environmental disaster that has been described as larger than the Exxon Valdez incident. The CatMap blog was one of the few report on the incident at the time, which dumped a billion gallons of fly ash sludge into the Swan Pond Road area of Kingston, TN on Dec 28. Fly ash is a solid waste by-product of coal combustion, basically, the poisons the smokestack scrubbers have removed from the air. This particular batch had been brewing for about 50 years and stood 55 feet high. Then it burst through the wall and flooded somewhere between 300 and 400 acres with a glossy grey sludge, destroyed 3 homes and damaged up to fifty more, and generally screwed up life for everyone in the area for the foreseeable future.
You heard about it, right? On the morning of Dec, the national news media ranked this story below the following stories: how to party off the pounds with Richard Simmons, ongoing coverage on the spat between Josh and Russell and need to know info on Hef’s new girlfriend/playmate.
The solid waste created by a typical 500-megawatt coal plant includes more than 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons of sludge from the smokestack scrubber each year. Nationally, more than 75% of this waste is disposed of in unlined, unmonitored onsite landfills and surface impoundments. When they fail, you get something like the Kingston disaster.
In June 2009, a TVA sponsored engineering study concluded that this was a once in a lifetime incident. Except that it isn't. In 1972, 125 people were killed in a coal slurry incidenent in Buffalo Creek. WV. In that incident, Pittston Coal Company's coal slurry impoundment dam #3, burst four days after having been declared 'satisfactory' by a federal mine inspector. So that's twice in a lifetime, minimum.
On Oct. 11, 2000, 250 million gallons of coal slurry poured out of an impoundment in southeast Kentucky, destroying 75 miles of waterways. In all, seven other failures have occured over the years. At present, the EPA is investigating 44 other coal slurry storage sites it has deemed "hazardous". The EPA is refusing to disclose the locations of these sites due to security issues.
So, on the one hand we are glad that the coal industry has figured out how not to dump the coal poison into the air. On the other hand, we are a little disappointed that they still don't know what to do with these toxins.
