A congressional leader from Southern West Virginia's coalfields called Tuesday for national standards to govern the design, construction and other safety standards of coal-ash dams like the one that broke last week in eastern Tennessee.
A congressional leader from Southern West Virginia's coalfields called Tuesday for national standards to govern the design, construction and other safety standards of coal-ash dams like the one that broke last week in eastern Tennessee.
House Natural Resources Chairman Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., said such dams should be subject to the same regulations as those that currently govern coal-slurry impoundments under the federal strip mine law.
"Our initial reaction is that utility coal-ash impoundments should be regulated in the same manner as coal-sludge impoundments," said Jim Zoia, a longtime Rahall aide and staff director for the House committee.
As a freshman congressman in 1977, Rahall was on the conference committee that wrote the final version of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. His committee has jurisdiction over that law and the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, which administers the statute.
A week ago, a dam broke at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Plant west of Knoxville. More than 5.4 million cubic yards of wet ash poured out, covering hundreds of acres of fields, homes and streams.
More than half of the 129 million tons of power-plant ash generated every year in the U.S. is dumped into 600 or more landfills and surface impoundments like the one at the Kingston Plant, according to government studies. Burning coal concentrates various toxic metals in the ash, and environmental groups have complained for years that there are no federal standards for its disposal.
But the TVA disaster has highlighted a second key issue: A loophole that allows coal-ash dams to avoid any federal standards for engineering design, construction or inspections.
A congressional leader from Southern West Virginia's coalfields called Tuesday for national standards to govern the design, construction and other safety standards of coal-ash dams like the one that broke last week in eastern Tennessee.
House Natural Resources Chairman Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., said such dams should be subject to the same regulations as those that currently govern coal-slurry impoundments under the federal strip mine law.
"Our initial reaction is that utility coal-ash impoundments should be regulated in the same manner as coal-sludge impoundments," said Jim Zoia, a longtime Rahall aide and staff director for the House committee.
As a freshman congressman in 1977, Rahall was on the conference committee that wrote the final version of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. His committee has jurisdiction over that law and the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement, which administers the statute.
A week ago, a dam broke at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Plant west of Knoxville. More than 5.4 million cubic yards of wet ash poured out, covering hundreds of acres of fields, homes and streams.
More than half of the 129 million tons of power-plant ash generated every year in the U.S. is dumped into 600 or more landfills and surface impoundments like the one at the Kingston Plant, according to government studies. Burning coal concentrates various toxic metals in the ash, and environmental groups have complained for years that there are no federal standards for its disposal.
But the TVA disaster has highlighted a second key issue: A loophole that allows coal-ash dams to avoid any federal standards for engineering design, construction or inspections.
Impoundments used for disposal of slurry, the wet waste from preparation plants that clean coal prior to its being burned, must meet strict design, construction and inspection standards set by Congress in the 1977 law. Unless power-plant dams are located on active mining sites, they are not covered by those standards. Regulation of coal-ash dam safety has been left to state agencies, where standards, inspection staff and expertise can vary widely from state to state.
"We've been focused on the toxic pollution, but clearly we should have paid more attention to the design and construction safety standards," said Lisa Evans, a lawyer with Earthjustice who has followed the issue for years.
During a June hearing before Rahall's committee, Evans testified that the use of surface impoundments for coal-ash disposal should be banned at new power plants and phased out at existing facilities. Instead, Evans told lawmakers, utilities should be pushed toward dry disposal in landfills, and perhaps recycling at a later date.
"A prohibition on new surface impoundments would greatly reduce the risk of new cases of poisoning and would ensure that waste management practices at the numerous new coal plants coming online reflect our scientific knowledge," Evans said. "Communities living near coal-fired power plants deserve protection from this wholly avoidable threat to their health and environment."
In the meantime, Evans said federal disposal standards are needed because many states have "no more stringent than" laws which prohibit them from passing their own coal-ash regulations in the absence of a federal rule.
During the same hearing, David Goss of an industry group, the American Coal Ash Association, told lawmakers his group believes current rules are "more than adequate to protect both the environment and to address any potential health risks to the general public."
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
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