NWGA reported in early 2022 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on January 11 it is taking several actions to protect communities and hold facilities accountable for controlling and cleaning up the contamination created by decades of coal ash disposal. Coal combustion residuals (CCR or coal ash), a byproduct of burning coal in coal-fired power plants, contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium, and arsenic that without proper management can pollute groundwater, drinking water, and the air.
The actions include:
- Proposing decisions on requests for extensions to the current deadline for initiating closure of unlined CCR surface impoundments,
- Putting several facilities on notice regarding their obligations to comply with CCR regulations,
- Laying out plans for future regulatory actions to ensure coal ash impoundments meet strong environmental and safety standards.
“I’ve seen firsthand how coal ash contamination can hurt people and communities,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said. “Coal ash surface impoundments and landfills must operate and close in a manner that protects public health and the environment. For too long, communities already disproportionately impacted by high levels of pollution have been burdened by improper coal ash disposal.”
The EPA’s regulations required most of the approximately 500 unlined coal ash surface impoundments nationwide to stop receiving waste and begin closure by April 2021. The regulations outlined a process for facilities to apply for two types of extensions to the closure deadline.
The agency announced it has received 57 applications and made determinations on four, conditionally approving one. The EPA is also notifying some facilities where the agency has information concerning the possible presence of issues that could impact health and the environment. Concerns outlined in separate letters include improper groundwater monitoring, insufficient clean-up information, and the regulation of inactive surface impoundments. The EPA is also ensuring facilities comply with the current CCR regulations by working with state partners to investigate compliance concerns at coal ash facilities across the country.
The EPA is requesting public comment for 30 days on the proposed determinations. Click here for a list of the individual determinations and how to comment.
[A national study suggests widespread contamination (more). As part of the removal process, the recycling of critical elements should be included. It has become apparent that coal ash may contain valuable elements, such as REEs, and other elements of interest, see: https://i2mportal.com/search_resource.php?search_value=coal+ash#page=1 .
Before the coal ash is removed or disposed of in some way, a full inventory of the coal ash could be undertaken to assess the ash’s elemental content. The activity would be a recycling assessment. If such critical elements are available in elevated concentrations than efforts could be made to encourage industry to process the coal ash before it is otherwise disposed of as non-hazardous and turned into useful fill material. The recycling would help to off-set the cost of such coal-ash management. Although little can be done for existing contamination in the groundwater, except pump-and-treat (or remove), the source of such contamination would be removed.
Perhaps moving such material to a central storage site located at a more environmentally suitable, managed location would be in order for the ash’s possible use in the future as feedstock to new processing technologies as the market prices of the contained elements (REE, etc) continue to rise.
Even raw coal is being evaluated as containing critical minerals: https://i2mportal.com/search_resource.php?search_value=coal+REE#page=1 ]
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