Eco-activists, regional groups joining forces over fly ash

Sep 1 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Susan Hylton Tulsa World, Okla.

Environmental activists and groups in the region are joining forces in their push for federal regulation on the disposal of fly ash, the byproduct of coal-burning power plants.

Representatives from the Sierra Club in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana; an emergency room physician; and the Texas group Neighbors for Neighbors held a teleconference Tuesday to further their position that the Environmental Protection Agency should adopt tough rules that would treat fly ash like hazardous waste instead of household trash.

The EPA is considering two options as it prepares for a series of public hearings on the issue. The Region 6 hearing is set Sept. 8 in Dallas.

The first option would define coal combustion residuals as a special waste under hazardous-waste standards. They would be regulated when disposed of in landfills or surface impoundments.

Under the second option, coal combustion residuals would remain classified as nonhazardous solid waste, and the EPA would develop national minimum criteria governing facilities for their disposal.

The environmental groups assert that the federal government should step in because state governments are doing an inadequate job of monitoring coal-ash disposal sites.

Opposing federal regulation are the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the coal industry.

The DEQ's position is that fly ash is suitably managed under existing state laws and that beneficial uses of fly ash could be thwarted by the stigma

of its being considered hazardous waste.

Tom Morris, an operations superintendent for American Electric Power-Public Service Company of Oklahoma, has echoed that concern.

He said plant operators contract with LaFarge -- a supplier of cement, aggregates and gypsum -- to buy most of the ash.

Morris said AEP-PSO goes to tremendous efforts to make sure the fly ash it doesn't sell is watered down and doesn't blow from the site.

The DEQ also considers the treatment of coal ash in Bokoshe a beneficial use despite having cited the owner, Making Money Having Fun, for violating air-quality laws during its seven years of operation.

A recent study released by the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club showed that the ground water at more than three dozen fly-ash disposal sites across the country, including AEP-PSO's Northeastern Station in Oologah, is contaminated by arsenic and heavy metals.

AEP-PSO officials say there is no evidence that the contamination has moved off site to the Verdigris River or public/private water wells and that they are working to improve water conditions on-site.

Susan Hylton 581-8381

susan.hylton@tulsaworld.com

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