Coal ash rules draw scrutiny in Congress

Nov 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Thomas Content and Don Behm Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Ken Parker, a neighbor of the Oak Creek Power Plant whose home's drinking water well has elevated levels of the metal molybdenum, plans to meet Thursday with Wisconsin's two U.S. senators in Washington to push stricter regulation of coal ash.

The meeting comes on the same week that a bluff containing coal ash gave way adjacent to the power plant, sending ash as well as trailers and pieces of construction equipment down the slope and into Lake Michigan.

About 20 homes in Caledonia and Oak Creek have been supplied with bottled water by We Energies in recent years because of the presence of molybdenum in their well water.

We Energies says its coal ash landfill on the south side of its 1,400-acre power plant site is not the source of the metal, and a study is under way by the state Department of Natural Resources to trace the source.

At issue is a metal that's found in the Earth's crust and is used in industrial processes and found in coal ash. According to the state Department of Health Services, elevated molybdenum exposures have been linked to higher rates of gout.

The other possible source is a former landfill that is a Superfund site that sits west of the affected homes.

Parker, a Caledonia mechanic who lives too far away from the landfill to be supplied with bottled water by the utility, buys his own for his family.

"It's bad enough that we lost property value just because of the general economy, but to lose more of what it's worth, with the fact we can't even drink the water," he said.

The DNR is conducting an analysis of isotopes of the metal to determine whether the Superfund site or the coal ash landfill is the source of contamination.

The trip to Washington was scheduled before this week's lake bluff collapse of a former coal ash deposit at the power plant. Congress is debating whether to enact stricter rules governing the disposal of coal ash from power plants.

The Sierra Club and Earthjustice are coordinating the trip for Parker and residents of communities around the country that are affected by coal ash.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to regulate coal ash in 2009 after a Tennessee Valley Authority ash pond spill in December 2008 flooded more than 300 acres in Tennessee. Coal ash flowed into nearby rivers and killed fish.

Coal ash landfills are common across the country, including Wisconsin. These lined landfills are monitored for contaminants that are found in coal ash, including mercury, cadmium, chromium and arsenic, which are associated with cancer and other serious health effects.

In 2010, EPA said its coal ash risk assessment demonstrated that, "without proper protections, these contaminants can leach into groundwater and can migrate to drinking water sources, posing significant public health concerns."

In its own online update on the bluff collapse, We Energies said, "Health impacts are unlikely from this event. Coal ash is made up mostly of silica, which is similar to sand, and has not been classified as carcinogenic by the Environmental Protection Agency."

But EPA has proposed regulating ash as a hazardous substance -- a rule that prompted the House of Representatives last month to pass a bill that would bar that move. A companion bill is pending in the Senate.

The EPA and regulators in Wisconsin have objected to federal regulation, saying Wisconsin already requires lined landfills and groundwater monitoring for coal ash. In addition, designating the substance as hazardous could reduce the market for reuse of coal ash -- now used in concrete and asphalt -- and spawn the difficult task of building more ash landfills, utilities say.

"What I want to tell them is we need some types of regulation, that it is a contaminant. It's affecting us here in Caledonia," said Parker.