Jul 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Georgina Gustin St. Louis Post-Dispatch



Residents from up and down the Mississippi River came to St. Louis on Thursday to question a federal proposal that would use toxic coal ash to strengthen levees, a move that environmental groups say poses a threat to the region's main waterway.

Earlier this year, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that it was exploring the possibility of injecting a mixture of lime and coal ash -- a by-product of coal combustion containing heavy metals -- into 11 levees along the river, including two in the St. Louis area. The levees were built from the 1930s to 1950s from local clay, but in the last 50 years they have weakened, making the levees unstable and causing more than 800 reported slides.

The plan recommended by the corps would inject a slurry of lime and coal ash into the levee slopes to stabilize them. Corps engineers say the mixture is particularly suited for filling in cracks that have formed over the decades.

 But environmental groups are questioning the process, saying that putting a known toxic material into levees close to a major waterway is too risky. At a public hearing Thursday in downtown St. Louis, many underscored their worries.

"I've seen a lot of yesterday's solutions that are today's problems," said Tom Ball, addressing the group. "... If this turns out to be toxic in the long run, how do we get it back?"

The coal ash and lime injection method has been effectively used to strengthen levees along a 17-mile stretch of river near Memphis, Tenn., for the last 15 years.

"When the ash mixes with lime, it becomes a cement product," said Jessica Bush, a corps engineer. "... We believe it will hold the toxic material inside of it."

But corps engineers acknowledged Thursday that they didn't know whether any water quality testing had been done in the Memphis area to determine whether toxic materials had gotten into the water.

"When a levee breaks, this can contaminate the water," said Catherine Edmiston, of Abingdon, Ill., in Montgomery County. "... That's the water supply for many, many people."

Coal ash is not regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but the agency is considering whether to classify it a hazardous waste, in which case, the corps said, it would re-evaluate its proposal.

The energy industry has pushed federal regulators to either classify coal ash as nonhazardous waste or to establish a special designation that would allow the industry to recycle the material in industrial applications.

The corps is also considering three other alternative methods; and although it did not specify the costs of each method, project manager Gary Lowe said the coal ash slurry process would cost "hundreds of millions" less than the others. Lowe said, however, that public safety was the corps' primary focus.

Lowe also stressed that Thursday's hearing was the first step in the process. Next, the proposal will be evaluated by an independent external review board.

At a regional conference on flood preparations, also held Thursday at a hotel downtown, a corps administrator said the corps has conducted a full survey of Metro East levees, installed warning devices and checks them daily. Col. Tom O'Hara, St. Louis district commander, said the corps conducted test bores every 300 feet along the 63 miles of Metro East levees and scanned the length with electronic devices that can detect flaws underground.

With the Mississippi River running high most of this year, O'Hara said, "we have people walking those levees every day." The river has been near or slightly above flood stage at St. Louis for much of the time since March.

O'Hara said the goal was to maintain protection sufficient to a 100-year level of protection until money could be found for an estimated $300 million or more in repairs that would bring the Metro East system to a 500-year protection level.

Tim O'Neil of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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