A Brief Note On Dan River Coal Ash Spill

Have you ever enjoyed walking, eating, or shopping by the riverfront, in downtown Green Bay? It is currently being covered by coal dust daily and no one is stopping it. Coal piles have disrupted people around the riverfront since 1978. The Koch company has recently sold the controversial Coal Piles to a coal industry family in Pennsylvania, this could be what the locals have been waiting for as the coal piles could be removed. However, the family has stated that they don’t plan on moving the piles in the future. The Coal piles in downtown Green Bay are ruining land, peoples homes, and is bad for the environment.

Clean coal technology usually addresses atmospheric problems resulting from burning coal. Historically, the primary focus was on sulfur dioxide and particulates, since it is the most important gas in the causation of acid rain. More recent focus has been on carbon dioxide (due to its impact on global warming) as well as other pollutants. Concerns exist regarding the economic viability of these technologies and the timeframe of delivery, potentially high hidden economic costs in terms of social and environmental damage, and the costs and viability of disposing of removed carbon and other toxic matter. More, the byproducts of coal power production range from fly ash sludge ponds full of mercury, arsenic, and sulfur in unlined ponds that can leak into the water supply.

Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal in power plants and is composed mainly of aluminum and silicon oxides. This ash is commonly stored away in dump sites, only to leach out solutions of concentrated toxic heavy metals. Such issues are detrimental to the health of water systems, posing both a human and environmental health risk. However, there are solutions to this problem. Coal ash possesses unique chemical properties that allow for the remediation of other environmental concerns, such as the treatment of soil polluted with heavy metals, the removal of nutrients from wastewater, and the remediation of acid mine drainage in streams.

The Tar Creek Superfund site is located in Ottawa Country, in northeastern Oklahoma. This superfund site covers five municipalities in its boundary, the site covers approximately 40 square miles. Two towns are situated in the middle of the superfund site, Picher and Cardin, both in hazardous areas. There is a population of 19,556 people who live in and around the superfund site (Vincent).

The Buffalo Creek flood of West Virginia is believed to be the most devastating coal relate disaster in West Virginia history. The flood occurred in the Buffalo Creek area of Logan County on February 26, 1972 when three dams broke and released 132 million gallons of water and coal waste known by miners as “gob,” and is a thick sludge-like material. The gob contains many toxic chemicals and pollutants such as mercury and arsenic that are left behind from the coal mining process. The wastewater would lie in settling ponds and dams until it could be properly disposed of. The water that was left over from processing coal would be disposed of in two different ways. Some of the water would be pumped from the dam back to the “tipple”, otherwise

The Delaware River creates a natural boundary between western New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. The river serves as a recreation attraction and a major source of drinking water for many areas in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In the upper part of the Delaware River Watershed, oil and gas companies are attempting to drill for natural gas by method of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking). Many residents in New Jersey have protested the proposition of hydro fracking and have gone to the internet to raise awareness and money to prevent hydrofracking in the Delaware River Watershed with the websites, delawareriverkeeper.org, environmentnewjersey.org, savethedelaware.wordpress.com and keeptapwatersafe.org.

Supporters from New Jersey and around the Raritan Bay decided to take the problem to the government and protest that the factories/companies are responsible for this mess. The factories/companies that are the most responsible would be for polluting the Raritan Bay that threw their waste or extra products to get rid of it; those are responsible, don’t believe that they, but there are documents that prove that they are responsible. The townships near the bay, has decided to either get the factories to pay for the $79 million dollars to clean the bay or go to court for like $5 million dollars for the lawsuit. And of course, the factories don’t believe that they have caused this HUGE mess, they decided to go to court instead of taking ownership of the mess and clean the

Coal ash also contains selenium which is already needed in our body, but excess amounts can lead to impaired vision, paralysis, and even death. The ash contains a lot of lead, exposure to lead can cause numerous issues in your brain affecting your nervous system and can cause brain swelling. Arsenic which is found in the ash can be harmful, if ingested it can lead to nervous system damage and cardiovascular issues. If arsenic that is found in the ash is absorbed through the skin can cause skin cancer. Coal ash contain boron also can cause damage to the intestines and even death. The EPA is responsible for protecting the environment from these types of spills, but in the case of properly disposing the ash the EPA ruled that coal ash was classified as a non-hazardous material leaving it up to the companies to dispose of it as they want

Did you know that oil companies are demolishing North Dakota’s environment by dumping drilling waste onto the land and in waterways? First, oil companies are taking truckloads full of drilling waste at a time and just dumping it to the side of the road illegally! This is mainly happening in the western corner of North Dakota but will most likely affect all of North Dakota. Eventually, this will affect all of North Dakota, by the drilling waste killing the animals or plants that other animals need to eat to survive. Then, oil companies also go and dump the drilling waste into the waterways. So, pretty soon all the western corner of North Dakota won’t have freshwater lakes and rivers. They have been doing this since 2014, so who knows what

Two wastes that resulted from this production were coal tar and purified waste. Coal tar was a formation of less volatile chemical compounds. Coal tar’s sole purpose was for roofing and road building material. Scientists taking coal tar as a starting point developed other uses. Manufactured gas plants were creating more coal than they could find buyers for and eventually formed an emulsion with water. The tar produced spills and leaks over decades of operation. Chemicals found in coal tar were anthracene, fluorene, napthalene, pyrene and many others (dec.ny.gov). Sulfur and cyanide compounds that were being removed through purifier beds consisting of lime or wood chips formed purifier waste. Reactions took place between the gas and purifier material corroding gas pipes, stoves and lighting fixtures. Purifier beds would eventually fill up with tar and become unusable. Having to dispose of the material, the waste had a strong odor and the wood chips would ignite if left uncovered. The purifier waste would either be shipped to landfills or fill low-lying areas on premises. The cyanide compound found in purifier waste contaminated groundwater away from the burial location. The water that became affected was highly acidic and caused harm to fish and

The 500,000 cubic yards of spilled ash will remains in the river because workers simply can 't get it all out. And while people warned against swimming, tubing and other activities near the disaster site because of the risk of contact with toxic ash, the agency and state officials are now saying that the remaining coal ash presents minimal health risks -- though they 're still recommending that people wash off after leaving the water.

Coal in the United States has long been the #1 producer of energy. Massive seams of coal are found in the Appalachian Mountains, and our reliance on this fossil fuel has meant devastation for many mountain residents and over 500 mountains. As our society advances, the need for more energy advances. What were once beautiful rolling hills are now flattened plateaus reminiscent of a landscape you would see in the desert. We as a nation have only short-term interest in our environment, and choose to ignore the many warning signs this planet continues to offer us. Left in our path of destruction are the many residents of Appalachia and a landscape that begs us for forgiveness.

Water contamination is the next major concern of environmental groups. The Environmental Protection Agency, the governmental regulatory agency created in 1970 to manage the enforcement of environmental policy, states its concerns in a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2009 (United). Specifically addressing mines in West Virginia and Kentucky, the EPA expressed serious concerns over water pollution from strip mining (“EPA”). The rupture of an ash dike at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, TN on December 22, 2008 granted credibility to the EPA’s concerns. In an article published by in Environmental Health Perspectives, Rhitu Chatterjee comments on the poisonous substances contained in ash produced from processing coal, listing

Fracking wastewater disposal is something that society is waking up to in large numbers across the country. From pollutants of the wastewater, spills, pipelines, storage ponds, and earthquakes there are a multitude of issues created by the disposal of this fracking byproduct. As a result companies and populations alike need to be aware of the risks, hazards, and solutions associated with these chemical wastes. By generating corporate awareness and responsibility as well as communicating with the public there is potential for the oil operations to thrive will still keeping the public safe and healthy. The public good is one which is often over looked or ignored because writing a settlement check at the end of litigation is often considered cheaper and easier than finding solutions and implementing them to begin with. Throughout this discussion there will be evidence to support ideas that public interest can coincide with profit.

Proper, sustainable disposal methods of coal ash or fly ash proposed by the scientific community include the recycled use of this byproduct from coal-burning energy plants and the transfer of current coal ash ponds unequipped with the proper monitoring equipment to be transferred to a certified location where it can be stored and accessed for future recycling attempts. To be properly equipped the site must contain the following: synthetic bedding liners, leachate collection systems and ground water monitoring. These systems and this solution have been proven to reduce the environmental threat these facilities impose onto the environment; proven to improve the environment by reducing greenhouse emissions with the replacement of coal ash for