Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Editorial: Fly ash regulations don't make sense
State and federal environmental regulators need to rethink how they handle coal waste.
From the RoundTable blog
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The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality may care whether fly ash -- the residue left over from burning coal to generate electricity -- is put in the ground simply to get rid of it or if it is put in the ground for a "beneficial purpose," such as creating a level space for construction.
But the purpose of the fly ash makes no difference to nearby groundwater. In either case, it can become contaminated by leaching heavy metals and other toxins.
For instance, monitoring wells near the landfill for Dominion Virginia's Deep Creek power plant show high levels of arsenic in the ground water.
Fly ash from the same power plant was used to create an 18-hole golf course in Chesapeake -- but no monitoring wells or other safeguards are required because DEQ officials determined the golf course was a "beneficial purpose."
Because of that designation, whatever impact the fly ash buried beneath the golf course may be having on the nearby environment will go unknown.
Thankfully, DEQ is re-examining that nonsensical policy at a meeting Thursday. That meeting will come two days after an oversight hearing by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. At that hearing, representatives will question whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should re-examine federal regulations regarding the disposal of fly ash.
In Giles County, residents protested a fly ash fill along the New River that will be used to create a construction site.
Controversy over that project wasn't enough to get the General Assembly to force a change in DEQ regulations.
Instead, residents had to wait for the dumping to begin before they could even ask a judge to empanel a grand jury to determine whether the dump consitutes a public nuisance.
The public is not served by a policy that treats the same material differently depending on whether it is being discarded or used for fill.
In either case, those who dump it should be held to the same standards -- and required to monitor nearby groundwater for contamination.
Nothing else makes sense.
