Duke Study Details the Health Hazards of Coal Ash
Posted August 26, 2009 in Health and the Environment, Solving Global Warming
A few weeks after the December disaster in Tennessee, in which a ruptured waste "containment pond" at a TVA power plant spilled over a billion gallons of liquefied coal ash into the Emory River and over 300 acres of the surrounding community, I blogged about the health dangers posed by the pollution. Back in January, NRDC arranged to have environmental and health scientists from Duke University travel to the disaster site and conduct tests to determine the toxicity of the sludge. Duke's initial findings were that radium and arsenic levels were high enough to pose a risk to people exposed to dust and river sediment in the area of the massive coal ash spill.
Now comes Duke's final study on the potential human health effects from the spill, published in this month's issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology. The study's lead author, Dr. Avner Vengosh, said the research concludes that "although you may stop the emission of toxic elements from coal-fired power plants into the air, they remain in the fly ash that gets stored in power plants' containment ponds, and may still end up in the environment."
This the first peer-reviewed, double-blind research paper to examine potential environmental and human health impacts in the immediate aftermath of the spill, according to Duke officials. It involved laboratory analysis of toxic elements -- including radium, arsenic and mercury -- in ash, sediment and water samples collected from waterways dammed by the sludge spill, as well as and from multiple locations downstream and upstream on the Emory and Clinch rivers.
Soon afterwards, medical researchers from Duke's cancer center and environmental engineers from Georgia Tech joined Vengosh's team to conduct a more detailed assessment of the spill's potential impacts on environmental and human health. Their analysis of ash samples revealed that the spilled sludge contained high levels of toxic metals and radioactivity, including 75 parts per million of arsenic, 150 parts per billion of mercury, and eight picocuries of per gram of total radium. (A picocurie is a standard measure of radioactivity.)
While the sludge remains wet, risk of exposure to its toxic contents via inhalation remains slight, according to Vengosh, but the risk increases as the ash dries up. That's when very small particulates -- essentially contaminated dust -- can be inhaled into the lungs. As Dr. Vengosh explains:
"Our study highlights the high probability that as the ash dries, fine particulates enriched with these elements will be re-suspended in the air as dust and could have a severe health impact on local residents or workers who inhale them. The smaller the particulate, the higher the concentration of trace metals and radioactivity it contains. Particulates small enough to be inhaled into the lungs could potentially have tenfold the concentration of these elements as the samples we measured."
The study points out that exposure to fine particulates can pose risks for people with diabetes, vascular disease or pulmonary diseases or infections.
[UPDATE: More than 100 local residents worried about the health impact of the coal ash spill in Tennessee have signed up for free medical screenings.]
Based on Duke's recommendations, the TVA cleanup reportedly has focused on preventing the spilled ash from becoming airborne by, among other things, using road vacuums and water trucks to suppress dust generation by vehicle traffic, wetting ash areas with truck-mounted water cannons, and establishing vegetative cover for longer-term dust management. TVA, along with state and federal environmental agencies, has also established a comprehensive air-monitoring program in the spill area -- and thus far there have been no reported air quality violations.
In addition, Duke's study shows that some toxic elements like arsenic are highly mobilized from the ash. While high levels of toxic elements were recorded in the tributary water, the study finds that due to massive dilution these concentrations do not exceed maximum contaminant level for safe drinking water in the downstream river water. However, Duke warns that high concentrations of mercury in the downstream river sediment could pose a serious long-term threat for fish populations and aquatic ecosystems in the Clinch and Emory rivers.
The bottom-line, in the words of Dr. Vengosh, is that the TVA spill is a "wake-up call." While this particular disaster sheds light on the significant potential environmental and health impacts of coal ash, it's important to realize that there are hundreds of similar storage ponds like it all over the country.
The EPA has pledged to propose new regulations by the end of the year to treat coal ash -- for the first time ever -- as hazardous under federal law. That's a good thing, and it's about time. You can help NRDC help them along by taking action here.
Above all, the Kingston disaster and the ongoing threat posed by coal ash waste should spur our leaders to think twice about rejecting a new, clean energy path in favor of dirty and dangerous coal power.
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Comments
Susan Holmes — Aug 28 2009 07:14 AM
I read your article about the hazards of coal ash and thought you might be interested in our story. I am from Bokoshe, Oklahoma, which is 30 miles southwest of Fort Smith. We are the quintessential small town USA. We have the unique situation of a fly ash disposal pit outside of our town. The dirty part of coal no one talked much about until Kingston, TN and still seem to ignore. We are a pre-Kingston. Our fly disposal site is one mile from town and the fly ash is transported in trucks to it from the coal fire plant 7 miles down the road. There are 8 trucks running 10 loads each a day. Many rules and regulations are being broken about how it is supposed to be transported in the trucks and disposed of and we have not been able to do anything about it. At this point, we have taken up our own cause and are trying to do something about it. Our website has gone live, http://www.intheairwebreathe.com/
We were told the fly ash was mainly limestone. It is not just limestone. In the immediate area surrounding our fly ash disposal pit, there are 14 families. Out of 14 families there are cancer victims in 13 of them. You can’t tell me there is not something wrong with that. In our local café, you can sit and talk with people from town and the surrounding area. You will hear about another person just diagnosed with cancer, or someone trying to survive cancer for the 2nd or 3rd time. On the other hand, people come in dragging an oxygen bottle behind them they cannot live without. They have never smoked but they have been breathing fugitive fly ash dust for years.
In January, this year the Arkansas DEQ shut down 11 land farms oil & gas waste water disposal sites in their state. At this time many of the Arkansas companies shut down for mismanagement, improper inspections and permit problems are now dumping at Making Money Having Fun fly ash/waste water disposal pit. I estimated approximately 800,000 to 1,200,000 gallons of oil & gas waste water a day being dump into the fly ash disposal pit. If they are actually accepting 200 per day as one of the partner said that would mean up to 8,400,000 gallons per week. We have seen a minimum of eight companies hauling water to the site. The water disposal trucks run 24/7. Having a fly ash problem was bad enough without adding oil & gas waste water into the mix. Especially Arkansas oil & gas waste water. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission permitted MMHF as water permit only. The only oversight they are doing is the salt content of the water. None of the other regulations apply to this site.
A member of our group pasture and holding pond are adjacent to the berm where the fly ash and oil & gas waste water are dumped. Last couple of year he lost numerous calves and I am not sure what the final count will be by the end of this year. They are born looking perfectly healthy but just never stood or took a breath. He has had 5 out of 25 cows suffer cervical prolapsed in a year. Things are happening that are just not normal.
If you get a chance to look at the website, it shows what it is like to have a fly ash disposal site outside of town as well as an oil & gas waste water dump. The video on the website shows what it is like when they dump dry fly ash. It is terrible. Every day we get up, try to figure out what we need to do next. We work towards identifying our problems and finding a solution. I call and email everyone I can to see if they can point us in the right direction to be able to fight the problem. But still no one really talks about it. But we are going to keep fighting until someone does listen.
Susan K Holmes