TVA's Coal Ash Dumping Plan Sparks Health Concerns

After a dam burst at its Kingston, Tenn., power plant last December and dumped more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge into a nearby community and river, the federal Tennessee Valley Authority decided to change the way it stores its coal waste, transitioning from wet landfills like the one that failed to dry storage of ash.

Now, a company is pushing a plan to use dry coal ash from the Kingston plant to fill an abandoned coal mine in Tennessee, but environmentalists are raising concerns about the proposal's health risks.

Smith Mountain Solutions, a company owned by the principals behind Wright Brothers Construction of Charleston, Tenn., has proposed taking dry ash from TVA's Kingston plant and using it to fill a former surface mine 20 miles away atop Smith Mountain in Cumberland County.

The company says it would install a protective synthetic liner first and abide by regulations of the Tennessee Department of Environmental Conservation. (Coal ash is not currently regulated as hazardous waste by the federal government, though the Environmental Protection Agency has said it intends to release proposed regulations by year's end.)

Smith Mountain Solutions makes the case that the plan would benefit the environment by cleaning up the toxic acid mine drainage that now runs from the mine site. Brock Hill, the mayor of Cumberland County, also supports the plan as a way to fix an environmental eyesore, The Tennessean reports:

But many residents stand in opposition, concerned about truck traffic and the potential for air and water pollution from mercury, arsenic and other potentially toxic substances found in ash. They draw support from a list of heavy hitters that includes the Sierra Club and the National Park Service, both of which are partly motivated by wanting to protect the nearby Obed Wild and Scenic River.

Other groups opposing the plan include Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (an environmental advocacy group formerly called Save Our Cumberland Mountains), the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Southern Environmental Law Center.

Their concerns include public health threats from contamination resulting from liner failure as well as from airborne coal ash — a particular concern atop a windy mountain. The photo above shows a massive mine pit in eastern Pennsylvania's Schuylkill County that's being filled with coal ash waste; the white cloud inside the pit is dust rising from the ash.

Coal ash contains a number of health-damaging contaminants including arsenic, lead, mercury and radioactive elements (see chart for more on ash components and their health effects). Children are especially vulnerable to the poisons.

A number of residents of the mountain road leading up to the mine site are suing over the dumping plan. They include the owner of Black Cat Lodge, a drug treatment center that helps patients recover by getting close to nature. The residents say the mine filling plan has been drawn up without adequate public scrutiny.