RICHMOND -- A bill to place greater restrictions on the use of fly ash -- a coal byproduct that can contain arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxins -- has passed its first legislative test this year.

Senate Bill 865 would require a solid waste permit from the state Department of Environmental Quality to use coal fly ash in a 100-year flood plain. It passed the Senate agricultural committee with a unanimous vote and now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

Fly ash is a byproduct of coal-fired power plants -- Appalachian Power Co.'s Glen Lyn plant produces about 200 tons of ash in burning about 2,000 tons of coal each day. The ash often is recycled and used in embankments and structural fill. Sometimes it's combined with cement, but it's the unaltered version with which SB 865 is concerned.

"The purpose is to avoid toxic runoffs in rivers and streams," Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, told the committee last week.

Legislation to restrict fly ash was first filed last year by Edwards and Del. Anne Crockett-Stark, R-Wytheville, in response to concerns of Giles County residents over Cumberland Park, a project that's filling about seven acres of New River flood plain with 254,000 cubic yards of coal ash.

Crockett-Stark's bill was killed in a House committee, while Edward's version passed the Senate on a 35-4 vote before it also was killed in the House.

But the effort to regulate fly ash more tightly took on a greater urgency late last year when an earthen dam near Harriman, Tenn., gave way and about 1 billion gallons of a mixture of coal ash and water covered 300 acres and contaminated the Emory and Clinch rivers, tributaries of the Tennessee River. Three houses were destroyed and nine others were damaged.

Edwards said this year's bill is even more restrictive than last year's because it's slightly broader and covers all fly ash instead of just that used as structural fill. The bill was passed with little discussion after it was debated for some time last week.

Then, Edwards said that both Appalachian and Dominion Virginia Power both were fine with the bill.

It did draw some criticism, however, from David Bernard, the water quality chairman for the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, who said he didn't feel the bill went far enough.

"I don't know that it makes things any worse, but I don't think it does much to address the very large problem we have with poorly regulated coal combustion waste in Virginia," Bernard said.

Edwards responded that the bill is written narrowly to address only the issue of using fly ash in flood plains along river banks.

Staff writer Tim Thornton contributed to this report.