Coal ash.
Coal
ash.
Coal ash.
For
462 days, we’ve been maneuvering through an emotional minefield laced with the
dangers of dumping millions of tons of toxic coal ash in Wayne County. From mid-January 2016 until April 5, we
expected the worst—Broadhurst could become America’s largest depository of
poisonous coal ash.
Thank
goodness, Republic Services reconsidered and withdrew its rail-spur and
coal-ash plans—for now. We hope that
corporate decision is permanent. As
grateful as we are for Republic’s good-neighbor action, we should
never—again—take unpolluted air, water and earth for granted. Just ask the people of Gallatin, Tennessee.
Over
the weekend, I read about that community’s plight in The New York Times. The
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is being sued—twice—over allegations that its
Gallatin coal-fired power plant is contaminating groundwater and the Cumberland
River, 30 miles upstream of Nashville, Music City U.S.A. Add that to the much-publicized horrors of
Duke Energy’s Dan River and TVA’s Kingston coal-ash nightmares. Wayne County was right to ring the alarm.
Before
any of us knew much about toxic coal ash, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) was well versed. The EPA has
identified 310 active onsite coal-ash landfills, averaging 120 acres each, and
another 735 active onsite impoundments, averaging 50 acres in size. That’s almost 75,000 acres of trouble waiting
to happen. So, what do we do?
Since
this is Earth Week, why don’t we take a test on dealing with this humongous
threat to our natural resources?
Question: “How
should we approach the global problem of toxic coal ash?”
A. Relocate
problem waste to lined municipal landfills?
B. Cap
the problem in place and hope for the best?
C. “Kick
the (problem) can” down the road for future generations to solve?
D. Ignore the problem and hope it goes away?
E. Use technology to detoxify coal ash, and,
solve problem permanently?
In
my visit with Kentuckian Wendell Berry last year, I made note of his advice: “The
care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most
pleasing responsibility. To cherish what
remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”
If we are to give heed to his
wisdom, the only responsible answer is “E.”
I have been following a company which is close—oh, so close—to a
technology breakthrough to solve our toxic coal-ash crisis. The firm is developing a cost-effective
system for onsite remediation of coal ash and its wastewater (leachate). Mobile units could be taken to landfills and
impoundments to treat the coal ash and turn it into usable materials for future
redevelopment.
Imagine
having no more unlined ash ponds beside waterways or transporting—and possibly
scattering —toxic coal ash to places such as the Broadhurst Environmental
Landfill, which sits atop the Floridan Aquifer and in the watershed of the
Altamaha and Satilla rivers?
You’ve heard me
say before, “If we can put people on the moon, we can solve this problem, too.” The time has come for us to clean up our
fossil-fuel messes. As Wendell Berry
also says, “There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places and desecrated places.”
Coal ash.
Coal ash.
Coal ash.
So, my final
question is: “With Earth Week upon us,
why on earth are we waiting to permanently solve this problem?”
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com
