Dear Cane Run Power Plant,
I am writing to you concerning the coal production of your company, with the production of the
coal there is always coal ash. My questions is how are you disposing of the coal ash that is being
produced, an open dump site, a pond? Do your plant have any rules or regulations when it comes to the
disposal of the coal ash? Finally, if you don’t have any rules or regulations, do you plan on enforcing
some? Because the coal ash that you are putting into the air, which you would already know, contains
chemicals that are toxic to humans and is affecting the environment. Now, I know that the burning of
coal is important to the production of electricity, but the environment and the people are suffering from
the toxins that are getting into the air and water sources because of the lack of appropriate disposal. So
it’s now up to you in deciding which is more important, the people and environment or the money that
you make? With my letter I will be stating facts about coal ash, the chemicals in it, the effects that it has
on people and the environment, and what has been done to try and get the companies to enforce
regulation for the disposal of the coal ash.
Just a couple of months ago a family moved into a house expecting to make it a home for their 2
year old son. Just like any other little boy, he played outside in the dirt and his parents let him because it
was normal for kids to go through that phase. Once the child began having breathing problems his
parents took him to the doctors to find out what was wrong with their son. At the doctors the found out
that their son has got asthma and an upper respiratory infection. That’s when the family discovered that
they lived only miles away from a coal fired power plant and it was emitting toxins that had caused their
sons health problems. They were furious because they had not known about the plant or that they was
being affected by it. This isn’t the only instance where a family has been affected by coal ash that plants
produce. It happens all the time all over the United States.
This figure shows the long process of burning coal
“Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel we’ve got … we get more pollution from coal than petroleum and way
more than from natural gas” as stated by Bill Chamedies in his article on The Energy Collective website.
Knowing that coal ash causes more pollution than petroleum and natural gases makes the issue even
bigger and should be means enough to realize that there should be regulations on coal ash. When I
thought of coal ash, I didn’t think it was as harmful as it is or that it has a many chemicals in it that it
does. Then when I looked it up, I found out that after all the burning and processing of the coal, the ash
contains arsenic, lead, mercury, and a dozen other heavy metals that are also toxic. They all pose a
threat to the people and the environment especially where there is prolonged exposure. It is said that
“people living within 1 mile of unlined coal ash ponds can have a 1 in 50 risk in cancer,” says the Sierra
Club. The exposure to toxic coal ash can lower birth rates, cause tissue disease, slow development, and
even kill plants and animals. What’s most important is that children, the ones that are supposed to be
our future, are more susceptible to the health problems associated with coal ash and the Sierra Club
says, “1.54 million children live near coal ash storage sites.” That is alarmingly high and frightening. The
fly ash, or coal ash is released after it has been through all the processes, and then goes into the air,
land, and the drinking water for humans. So that means that there is always toxic chemicals floating
around, making it hard to get away from it. Those chemicals separately are very harmful when ingested,
and when they are together the effects is worsened. Some of those effects are:
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Cancer,
Neurological effects,
Heart Damage,
Lung Disease,
Kidney Disease,
Reproductive Problems,
Birth Defects, and Many More!
Maybe it’s just me, but those effects are very serious and a little intimidating. We, the citizens of a
community, should not have to worry about getting lung disease while drinking water or just going
outside. And you, the big power plant, should be able to filter the coal ash so that when it gets into the
air it does not have all of, or at least a smaller amount of those chemicals.
Over 25% !!
“The hazards to health from exposure to these coal ash contaminants – typically including arsenic,
lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and selenium – are grave: Chronic exposure to arsenic in drinking
water can cause cancers of the skin, bladder, lung and kidney. Lead, a potent neurotoxicant, can
contribute to developmental delays, decreased intelligence, behavioral problems, kidney disease and
death. Mercury, another neurotoxicant, is particularly harmful to the developing nervous system and
can cause developmental delays. Cadmium, if chronically inhaled, can result in kidney disease and
obstructive lung diseases, and recent studies indicate developmental effects on children. Chromium in
its hexavalent form, if ingested via contaminated water, can cause anemia and stomach cancer. Excess
intake of selenium, which can be absorbed by grasses, grains and animals, can cause impaired vision,
neurological problems, paralysis and death. Children are the most vulnerable as their organs, especially
the brain, are still developing and their exposure is greater as they eat more, breathe more, and drink
more per unit of body weight than adults. Coal ash’s threat to health is serious and is growing worse.”
Say the health professionals associated with the Physicians for Social Responsibility. This is real facts, the
chemicals inside of the coal ash is permanently damaging people that live in the communities that are
surround coal plants.
Coal ash doesn’t just affect the people in the community, it affects the environment as a whole. It
contaminates the bodies of water, which affects the fish in those bodies of waters. Coal ash kills
thousands of fish every year, and deforms more than that in a year. That affects the environment
because it is killing off an important part of the ecosystem: fish. It also affects the community because if
it is a community that is big on fishing, there are less fish and the ones left are deformed. For instance,
Dennis Lemly, a research biologist at Wake Forest University calculates that the Selenium, a naturally
occurring element found in coal ash that can cause health problems if too much is in your food source,
from Duke’s coal ash kills 900,000 fish a year in Sutton Lake. There are many groups that focus on strong
enforcement of environmental laws to try and help the environment from the power plants coal ash
chemicals. One group that has been working on getting more rules or stricter policies when it comes to
coal ash disposal is the Environmental Integrity Project or EIP. They released a report pointing out the
numerous sites of coal ash disposal across the country that has been contaminated with deadly
pollutants from the coal ash. Something that is shocking is that there is no regulation for the disposal of
coal ash in the states around the nation. One example of a state not having regulations for coal ash
disposal is Indiana. Indiana gets 95% of its electricity from coal, since there is no regulation on how to
dispose of the ash, it is disposed of just on sites that does not protect the environment from the harms.
In one of the small towns in Indiana they began finding levels of heavy metals in their wells. By them
discovering the levels of heavy metals in their wells that took away from the available drinking water in
that community.
The main problem with coal ash is the disposal of it, if it was disposed of properly to where it can’t
get out and affect the community it wouldn’t be an issue. Coal ash is disposed of on just fenced off fields
and in ponds. The problem with that is that when strong winds pick up the coal ash and it gets put into
the air creating air pollution. The ponds that are used for coal ash waste are also a bad way of disposing
of the coal ash, because the toxic material usually slowly leaches out into surrounding streams and
rivers, which contaminates larger bodies of waters that are used for the community’s drinking water.
This image show how the ponds aren’t really secure and how easily they could leach into another
water source.
The whole issue with coal ash is because of the disposal of the coal ash. 140 million tons of coal ash
pollution is produced every year by the nation’s coal plants. With all that coal ash, they need
somewhere for it to go. Where they dump the coal ash is in the back yards of coal plants across the
nation, into open air pits, and unstable surface waste ponds. Many of those sites lack acceptable
safeguards, which leaves the communities that are close by at risk. One of the things that have plants
not really caring about the disposal of the coal ash is that coal ash is not subject to federal protection,
and the state laws governing the disposal of the coal ash waste are usually weak or non-existent. That in
which gives the coal plants as yourself way too much power and it gets abused. One incident that
describes what could happen when coal ash is disposed of inappropriately is the coal ash spill that
happened in eastern Tennessee. Experts are already calling that the largest environmental disaster in its
category in the United States.
This image shows the aftermath of the disaster that happened in Tennessee.
This image shows an example of a coal ash disposal site, and as you can see it is out in the open
and the contents could easily get out into the community.
“Officials at the authority initially said that about 1.7 million cubic yards of wet coal ash had spilled
when the earthen retaining wall of an ash pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of
Knoxville, gave way on Monday. But on Thursday they released the results of an aerial survey that
showed the actual amount was 5.4 million cubic yards, or enough to flood more than 3,000 acres one
foot deep.” Says the article by Shaila Dewan. That amount that was said was larger than the initial
amount of 2.6 million cubic yards. When a test was performed on a nearby river the results showed that
the river has an elevated level of thallium, which can cause nervous and reproductive system disorders,
and birth defects.
A big problem with the issues of coal ash disposal, is that the people in the community don’t put
forth effort to make a change. They feel that they are voice wouldn’t be heard or no one would listen to
them because they are going against the power plants. They are just dealing with everything because
they feel that they have no other choice. I feel that that is the worse feeling ever, wanting to make a
change but feeling that the efforts would be pointless. What they don’t know is that is they could
actually make a change but they are intimidated by the coal plant names. I want people to believe in
themselves and stand for what they believe is right.
“I started realizing that the power plant that was one mile away from my house was affecting my
family when my child started complaining about breathing problems that they were having. My kids has
always been healthy, so when my youngest would come to complaining that his chest hurt and it was
hard for him to breath at times I knew something was wrong. I took him to the doctors and they said he
had a respiratory infection. I was so upset at the thought that the location where we lived had
something to do with his health problem because we could not afford to move, I knew there was
nothing that I could do, I felt helpless.” Expresses a single mother to a newspaper.
The process of burning coal is very important and I know it, it brings electricity. But it also brings
health problems and a damages the environment. Just because it is an important production that does
not mean that you can just do whatever you want. Yes, as a big company you feel that you have the
power to be able to do anything without anyone one saying anything, and that is partly true because
people do not think that there is anything that they could do. There should be rules, regulations, policies
or something that could help limit the amount of the chemicals that get out with the coal ash. The
companies should not be allowed to just throw coal ash in disposal sites because that gives the
chemicals in the coal ash to fly around in the air and contaminate the surrounding communities’ water
and in turns affect their health. If there can’t be any rules or regulations, as the company you should
look into filtering the coal ash before it is disposed of, that would at least decrease the amount of toxins
in the coal ash so it doesn’t have such a harmful affect.
The issue of coal ash isn’t just an issue that a few people are talking, it is an issue that is being
talked about all over the United States. Just a couple months ago the federal courts ruled that the
Environmental Protection Agency (or EPA) needs to set federal regulations for the appropriate disposal
of toxic coal ash. This means that there is finally going to be some restrictions on how coal plants like
yourself dispose of the toxic chemical infused coal ash waste. This is something that should have
happened a long time ago, it should have not taken innocent people being harmed by the problem for
them to see it as an issue. “We turned to the courts to force the EPA to set long overdue protections
from this toxic menace. This decision marks the first step towards federally enforceable safeguards from
coal ash. For decades, coal ash has been dumped into unlined and unmonitored pits, poisoning water
supplies and the communities that rely on them.” Says EarthJustice, a non-profit organization that is
based in the United States devoted to environmental issues, and their very many supporters. Without
the efforts put in by Earthjustice the issue would not have went to court when it did and the issue would
have been prolonged longer than it need to be.
In conclusion, the way that coal ash gets disposed of is very important. Whether it’s because of the harm
it is causing the residents of the communities surrounding a plant, or the harm that it is causing the
environment, but it is an important issue. I would like for you to take in everything and look at it in a
different perspective. Rules and regulations are needed when it comes to the disposal of coal ash, it may
cost more money for a better appropriate disposal site, but it is worth it.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Citizen
Sources Cited
Hvistendahl, Mara. “Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste”. Scientific American. Web. 13
Dec. 2007.
Young, John. “Waste in our water: The coal ash problem”. Nuvo. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.
Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Coal Ash: Toxic - and Leaking”. PSR.
Dineley Johnson, Teddi. “EPA considers proposals to regulate coal ash: Hundreds of coal ash dumps,
waste ponds may threaten health”. The Nation’s Health. Vol. 40. No. 9. Nov./ Dec. 2010. 1-14.
Fionn-Bowman, Rhiannon. “‘Anonymous’ Question #3: Clear and Present Danger”. Coal Ash Chronicles.
Web. 31 Oct. 2012.
Shorman, Jonathan. “Coal ash issue sparks debate”. News-Leader.com. Web. 8 Nov. 2013
Flowers, Bob. “Lawsuit: Company Lied About Coal Ash Dangers”. Earth First! Newswire. Web. 23 Aug.
2013.
Dewan, Shaila. Tennessee Ash Flood Larger Than Initial Estimate. The New York Times. Web. 26 Dec.
2008.
Chamedies, Bill. Update on Coal Ash Pollution: In Words and Films. The Energy Collective. Web. 5 Aug.
2013.
Gerlat, Allan. Court Rules EPA Needs to Establish Coal Ash Disposal Regulations. Waste 360. Web. 7 Oct.
2013.