WEBVTT - Why Is Coal Ash Such a Problem? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.040 Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:12.520 Lauren Bogelbaum here Shortly after Hurricane Matthews stormed through North 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:16.800 Carolina in October, swelling the Noose River to a level 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.919 never seen before. One Matthew Star ventured out on the 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:24.279 river to see some of the damage himself. In the 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:26.880 article this episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:30.120 with Star, the Upper Noose River keeper for Sound Rivers, 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:33.440 a nonprofit that monitors and protects the Noose and Tar 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:38.480 Pamlico River basins. He said, well, when the flood water receded, 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:40.800 I was out on the boat doing a patrol on 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.040 one of the inactive ash ponds, and it really looked 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.839 like a winter wonderland. Here was this white, very fine 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.160 ash up in the trees, on the water, on the trunks, 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.760 on the leaves. It was just everywhere. If you just 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.880 slightly bumped a tree, it would just rain down this 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:02.200 very fine ash. Fast forward two years later, not a 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:07.479 single shovel of ash has been removed. The ash Star 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:12.360 speaks of is whole ash, an ecological can that the state, 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:15.000 in the whole country has been kicking down the road 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:20.000 for decades. More than thirty thousand tons of coal ash 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.640 spilled into the Dan River, the two fourteen mile or 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:27.960 three kilometer river that crosses the Virginia North Carolina line 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.399 eight times and something the locals came to call the 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:36.040 heartbreak on the Dan. How Stuff Works also spoke with 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.360 Brian Williams, the Virginia program manager for the Dan River 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:42.319 Basin Association, who was one of the first on the scene. 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.360 He said the river ran gray for weeks after that. 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.600 People still ask me, is it's safe to go waiting 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.280 in the river. I don't know. I can't say the 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:54.080 same thing about it that I used to be able to. 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:57.760 Coal lash is just what it says on the box. 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:01.760 It's what's left over from burning coal. The coal consumption 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:05.080 has dropped dramatically in recent years. It peaked in two 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.640 thousand seven, and the electric power sector used less coal 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:12.080 in twenty seventeen than in any year since nine three, 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:16.320 but power plants throughout the nation still use a staggering 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:20.400 amount of it. About seven hundred and seventeen million tons 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.840 of coal were consumed in twenty seventeen, most used to 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.960 produce electricity. About thirty percent of the nation's energy still 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.800 comes from coal, and of course millions and millions of 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:34.600 tons of coal ash are left over from when the 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:39.880 US was more coal dependent. The Environmental Protection Agency or 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:42.240 e p A says that coal ash is one of 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.800 the largest types of industrial waste produced in the United States. 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:48.480 More than a hundred and thirty million tons of the 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.639 stuff was generated in fourteen alone. Though there are some 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.919 uses for the ash to strengthen things like wallboard and concrete, Mainly, 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:01.440 most is discarded into dry landfills or wet ponds near 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.079 the power plants where it's produced as it has been 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:09.400 for decades, and where it just sits until that is 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:13.639 something happens a flooding river or lake nearby, a dam break, 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:18.680 and then catastrophe rivers and streams the air. Coal burning 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.440 plants are used to cool machinery and produce steam, but 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:24.840 they also provide a way out for the ash if 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.399 it's not disposed of properly, and the problem with coal 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:30.800 ash getting loose in the environment is that it is, 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:35.760 in a word, toxic, to quote the Organization Physicians for 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:44.080 Social Responsibility. Coal ash typically contains heavy metals, including arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:55.440 and selenium, as well as aluminum antimony, barium, beryllium, boron, chlorine, cobalt, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, ballium, vanadium, 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:59.720 and zinc. If eaten, drunk or inhaled, these toxicants can 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.240 cause cancer and nervous system impacts, such as cognitive defects, 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:07.400 developmental delays, and behavioral problems. They can also cause heart damage, 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:12.760 lung disease, respiratory distress, kidney disease, reproductive problems, gastro intestinal illness, 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:17.720 birth defects, and impaired bone growth in children. The worst 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.880 coal ash spill ever came in December of two eight, 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.200 when a dike at the storage site at the Tennessee 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:27.719 Valley Authorities Kingston Fossil Fuel power plant burst, releasing five 0:04:27.720 --> 0:04:30.400 point four million cubic yards of wet ash into the 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.240 surrounding land. The sludge covered some three hundred acres that's 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.719 a hundred and twenty hectors, befouling land and waters and 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:42.920 prompting a year's long cleanup. More than thirty workers charged 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:45.159 with getting rid of the coal ash have already died, 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.000 allegedly from long term exposure to the toxins. At least 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.720 two hundred more are sick or dying lawsuits are pending. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.040 North Carolina has had a few spills after the Dan 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.400 River disaster. Rains from Hurricane Matthew in twenty six and 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:05.000 Hurricane Florence in September caused kalash to spill into other 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:09.920 North Carolina rivers, though Duke Energy, the state's largest utility, 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.040 says the damage from the Hurricane Florence spill is minimal. 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:17.120 A statement released in September by the Upper Noose River 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.720 Keeper and Waterkeeper Alliance disputes that claim. An analysis by 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:25.760 Pace Analytical not only found levels of arsenic nearly eighteen 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:28.640 times higher than the North Carolina standard for drinking water 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.240 supply and fish consumption, but it also found elevated levels 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.679 of lead and other heavy metals in the water. Williams said, 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.559 are we going to see twenty years from now heavy 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.719 metals in shellfish? Who knows? Probably, We just can't say 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:47.200 right away. We can definitely say that concentrated heavy metals 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:51.039 are not good in the environment, and this is not 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.040 a problem limited to the southeast. According to the e 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.400 p A kalash disposal occurs at over a thousand sites 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.680 around the US, and those are just the active sites. 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.560 As many as one thousand additional coal ash disposal sites 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.200 exist around the country. Some of the ashes stored in 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.880 pits where it's mixed with water, which helps to keep 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.960 the dusty ash settled, and some mistored dry. Some of 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:18.000 these sites are covered and some of the pits are lined. 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.279 Environmentalists note that even when the sites aren't flooded or 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.120 retaining walls aren't compromised, the minerals in the ash can 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:31.400 still seep into water tables and infect drinking water. Williams said, 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.800 we know everything's not okay. Just sweeping this under the 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.800 rug is not cutting it. What's going to fix this 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:41.560 is good ideas and admitting, yeah, this is a problem 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:46.320 and we've got to figure out a solution. Utilities, fearful 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.360 of the huge costs associated with cleaning up these sites, 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.880 favor ceiling off the landfills and the ponds that hold 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.679 coal ash. But that doesn't remove the problem. It only 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.880 kicks the can further down the road. The star expl 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:03.279 and this isn't without a fix. The fix is to 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.480 excavate all of the coal ash. Once you remove all 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.200 the coal ash, the threat is removed. Excavating the coal ash, 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.960 putting it away from our water resources. And putting it 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.880 into aligned landfill. Your kitchen garbage has more strict restrictions 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.560 on it. That's what you have to do. The fix 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:24.840 is to remove it. A rule dictating stricter federal standards 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.760 for coal ash disposal passed in under the Obama administration 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:33.360 was eased in by the Trump administration, but a US 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.559 Court of Appeals decision later not only threatens to gut 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:39.840 the Trump rollbacks, but calls on the e p A 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.840 to pass even tougher rules than called for during the 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:47.480 Obama era. Disposal of all the coal residue is going 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.240 to take years and years to pull off. All will 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:53.680 plants across the country continue to produce it. That means 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.840 coal ash will be a problem for everybody for the 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:04.840 foreseeable future. Today's episode is based on the article the 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:07.880 Deadly Problem of coal ash on how Stuffworks dot Com, 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.600 written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of by 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.120 Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.080 is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts to my 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.960 heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:20.800 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.