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Jeff Stant, the Clean Air Task Force, and Earthjustice deserve our thanks for their eye-opening report on how minefilling of fly ash in Pennsylvania has damaged the state's groundwater, rivers, and streams.  Power companies have dumped millions of tons of fly ash into abandoned coal mines, backed by the Pennsylvania Department of the Environment, which has told the public that ash dumping will actually improve water quality by reducing acid drainage.

The report leaves no doubt that the minefilling of coal combustion waste makes water quality worse, not better.  The report found that ash disposal had increased contamination in groundwater and streams at ten of fifteen sites, compared to pre-disposal conditions, while data at the remaining five sites was insufficient to determine any trends.  Some of the numbers are shocking -- the Swamp Poodle Mine registered arsenic at 389 times the drinking water standard.

The problem is not limited to Pennsylvania - last night in Maryland, the Anne Arundel County Council met to try to figure out what to do about the poisoning of drinking wells contaminated after Constellation dumped hundreds of thousands of tons of fly ash in a sand and gravel pit.  Maryland is also home to another coal waste disaster, the Faulkner pit in Charles County, which has damaged a wetland and local watershed with acid drainage and heavy metals.

The public[s been told for decades that these coal wastes are not hazardous -- it's time to end that fraud.  The National Academy of Sciences last year and the EPA this year have both acknowledged that disposal of ash in mine sites can increase public health risks.

What should we do?  I hope the Pennsylvania Department of Environment will take this report seriously, but I'm afraid the Department functions as a kind of chamber of commerce for the state's coal industry.  Ultimately, the federal government needs to step in, as the National Academy of Sciences has recommended, and establish safeguards for ash disposal that recognize the material is hazardous, requires double-liners and leachate collection systems to minimize runoff, promotes recycling of this material wherever possible and, most important, makes the industry assume liability for cleaning up any contamination. 

Getting that job done will require EPA to get out of its offices, and start collecting and analyzing the kind of data that CATF and Earthjustice are presenting today.  EPA has adopted a "don't ask, don't tell" policy to avoid confronting controversial issues, and it's time for that to end.  We need EPA to take a hard look at the available science, put the public interest first, and make the right decision to regulate these unsafe practices.

For a copy of the full report and video presentation:

http://www.catf.us/projects/power_sector/power_plant_waste/paminefill/