They point the finger at states' environmental protection agencies, claiming they "are not adequately monitoring the coal combustion waste" and they call on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to impose strong new regulations.

In Virginia, the agency that regulates water quality is the Department of Environmental Quality. Bill Hayden, spokesman for DEQ, said most of the environmentalists' data are decades old.

"It's my understanding that most of that information came from the 1970s and '80s," Hayden said. "There were some problems back then, but we don't have any problems now."

Hayden said the DEQ regularly inspects the ash containment areas to prevent the waste from leeching into the ground water and has not seen any indication of contamination at Clinch River or Glen Lyn.

"We have no environmental concerns with either one of those facilities," Hayden said. "They're being operated according to the regulations and according to their permits, so we really don't have any problem with what they're doing."

The environmental organization representatives named as contact people for the report could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. In a written statement, Jeff Stant, coal combustion waste initiative director for the Environmental Integrity Project, acknowledges that he's making a case for federal regulation and direct EPA involvement.

According to the statement, he said the report illustrates "very real and dangerous harms that are prohibited by federal law but are going on in a largely unchecked fashion at today's coal ash dump sites."

He goes on to say, "Leaving enforcement to the same states that have refused to do their jobs for the last 40 years is simply not a responsible course of action."

John Shepelwich, spokesman for Appalachian Power, said the environmentalists' report is nothing more than a summary of decades-old documents.

"I think that they [the environmental groups] certainly have an objective, and that is to create concerns about the coal ash issue during a time when the EPA is having these hearings," Shepelwich said.

"Certainly they have an issue [disagreement] with the storage of coal ash, and what I'm saying is their information about the two plants and the references are incorrect," Shepelwich said.

"It somehow spins the message that we're handling a byproduct of coal combustion in an unsafe manner, and that it is somehow infiltrating ground water supplies, and that's not the case based on anything that we can tell you or that DEQ would tell you."

The Clinch River plant did have an ash spill, Shepelwich said, but it was back in 1967, and the area of the river that was affected is now fully recovered and home to increasing populations of sensitive mussel species.

He said the power plant's ash is stored in dry landfills, not ponds.

"The [ash] pond that they mention at Clinch River is no longer in use," he said. "In fact, it no longer exists."

dmccown@bristolnews.com -- (276) 791-0701

To learn more:

--The environmental groups' study: www.environmentalintegrity.org

--Public hearings and EPA's proposal: www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/ccr-rule/ccr-hearing.htm

--American Electric Power's viewpoint: www.aep.com/about/coalCombustion/coalash.aspx

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