The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has promised to more strictly regulate coal ash, but it’s still promoting use of the toxic waste on food crops as a soil amendment.
This month, the EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture enter the final year of a three-year partnership that’s part of a larger effort by the American Coal Ash Association, the Electric Power Research Institute and others to "promote appropriate increased use of" coal ash in agriculture, according to documents released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
The agencies say coal ash can improve the texture and fertility of soil, but environmental advocates raises concerns about its toxic elements. Created by the burning of coal for power, coal ash contains contaminants including arsenic, lead and mercury.
"USDA should pull out of the coal ash business tomorrow morning," says PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, who obtained the documents under the Freedom of Information Act. "USDA does American agriculture no favors by duping farmers into spreading hazardous wastes across their fields."
According to an April 2, 2009, letter from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to EPA’s Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery, one of the coal combustion products being applied to crops is what’s known as flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum, which is produced when power plants add lime to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust gas. The material also contains impurities including arsenic and mercury.
As ARS Deputy Administrator Steven R. Shafer wrote:
"An important use of FGD-gypsum is as a replacement for commercial gypsum applied to peanuts on Coastal Plain soils in the southeastern U.S."
Coal ash products are also used in growing corn, tomatoes, alfalfa and other crops, according to the letter, which goes on to note the uncertainty surrounding the potential environmental risks of applying coal combustion products to crops:
"For example, new technology to reduce greenhouse gases and remove sulfur dioxide, mercury and particulates from power plant emissions also increases the metal content, such as mercury and arsenic, in the CCPs. The use of these materials in agriculture may create risks to the environment depending on coal source, technology used, and the land application rate."
According to EPA, agriculture uses more than 180,000 tons of coal ash and other coal combustion products annually. There are currently no federal standards governing the application of such materials on food crops.
"The public does not want its food to come from ‘industrial material recycling’ any more than it wants coal-flavored cauliflower," Ruch said. "This coal ash re-use campaign is really just a multi-billion dollar backdoor subsidy to the coal industry to relieve it of the true costs of handling its toxic wastes."
(Originally published at Facing South, Institute for Southern Studies)
See also:
EPA Study Finds Dangers in Coal Ash Ponds Nationwide
TVA’s Coal Ash Dumping Plan Sparks Health Concerns
EPA Releases Secret List of 44 High-Risk Coal Ash Ponds
Review Finds 13 North Carolina Coal Ash Ponds Leaking Toxins into Groundwater
Controversial Mining Office Nominee Cleared for Senate Vote
(Photo: ellievanhoutte / CC BY 2.0)
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
