Michigan and coal ash

**maxx** · September-03-10, 01:29 PM

http://www.michigan.sierraclub.org/n...l#CoalAshLeaks
"...'We applaud the DNRE for holding Consumers Energy accountable,' Miller said. 'We cannot allow Consumers Energy to brazenly sweep its toxic coal ash problems under the rug.' The notice of violation comes on the heels of national pressure to put coal ash residues under federal law as hazardous waste. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently issued two approaches: one would regulate coal ash as toxic waste and another would essentially leave the level of regulation up to individual states. The EPA is conducting hearings in locations around the country as well as taking comments..."

Oh great. Doesn't the mafia still take care of a lot of our toxic waste?

Heard on NPR's Science Friday: Living next to a coal ash dump is like smoking a pack of cigarrettes a day.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201009031

**oladub** · September-03-10, 06:23 PM

I don't know any of these people but am aware of their efforts. They successfully defeated an ash pit. This story is a rough outline of what it takes to rise up and say 'no'.

Death of the dump

There are some things not in the story. Prior to this situation, the ash was largely mixed into concrete for road building. The EPA stiffened air pollution rules requiring a higher percentage of ash to be captured. The result was ash that was more consentrated with other pollutants which previously had gone up in smoke. The chemical content was so high that it could no longer be used in road material because it screwed up the concrete. That is why it had to be put into dumps. The EPA made no provision in it's air pollution control law for what to do with the new waste this law generated. Air pollution was traded for soil and water pollution.

The power company was just going to dump it on good farmland. The DNR was only obligated to monitor the waste for 15 years. Outraged citizens did their homework and pressured the power company ito backing off. Among other things, the citizens discovered that Germans had discovered a method to recycle some of the waste into road material so that removed a large percentage of ash waste.