Coal Ash Spill Ruled Negligent

By: Duane Craig


Hundreds of property owners who have taken the Tennessee Valley Authority to court over the 2008 spill of contaminated sludge near Kingston, Tenn., were pleased with a judge’s opinion that TVA is liable for damages stemming from the spill, according to this report.

Still, many admit they will never recover what they lost and that any settlements will not change the damage that’s been done. The spill released 5 million cubic yards of ash that was being stored in a containment pond. The material contained all the by-products released from the burning of coal, including “arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and other metals.” The sludge flowed into a river and contaminated land all along its course, ultimately making the waterway unsafe for many of the uses residents previously enjoyed. After more than $1.2 billion has been spent on the cleanup, there remains more to do. A half million cubic yards of ash have settled onto the river bottom where it will simply remain, potentially be capped, or be removed.

TVA had claimed there was nothing it could have done to prevent the failure since there were things beyond its ability to control that precipitated the catastrophe. The judge, however, called into question the utility’s handling of the ash, writing that it did not follow its own procedures, policies and practices which caused it to miss the warning signs of impending failure. By not recognizing those signs the utility failed to take actions that could have prevented the disaster.
To date, the utility has purchased 180 of the affected properties and settled 200 other claims. Still, there is a case load involving more than 800 plaintiffs in the court system.

The Environmental Protection Agency published a list of the coal ash surface impoundments that have high hazard ratings. The list is published to help local responders and community officials adequately plan for other such disasters. As of April 2012 the agency had identified 676 places where coal ash is being stored and found 45 of those to be highly hazardous.

States with the heaviest concentrations of these ticking time bombs include Arizona, North Carolina and Ohio. Arizona’s problems are located in Cochise and Joseph City while North Carolina’s problems are more widespread at Spencer, Eden, Terrell, Belmont, Walnut Cove, Arden and Mount Holly. Ohio has potential spills in Brilliant, Cheshire and Waterford. Kentucky also has its share of troubled impoundments including Harrodsburg, Ghent, Louisa and Louisville.

Other states with troubled coal ash impoundments include Montana, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia.

Cleanup at Aircraft Manufacturing Site Enters Final Stages

The contamination story on a 26-year-old site is winding down to what could be the final public comment period. The site, called the Boeing Wichita Site in Wichita, Kan., now has a draft Corrective Action Decision that tells what remediation will finally close the book on pollution left over from years of airplane construction, according to this report.

The site at 3801 Oliver St. and the surrounding area was home to aircraft manufacturing beginning in the 1930s. In 1985, Boeing noticed contamination while it was performing an environmental investigation. Originally, the source of the contaminants was suspected to originate solely at a Cessna plant nearby. But as more test wells were drilled, it became apparent the pollution was widespread. Next, private water wells came up contaminated in the 31st and Clifton Street area. The primary contaminants detected were tetrachloroethene (PCE); trichloroethene (TCE); cis-1, 2 dichloroethene (cis-1, 2-DCE); vinyl chloride (VC); benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene(s) (BTEX); and chromium, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment documents.

To its credit, Boeing took an aggressive and active part in the investigations and remediation over the years, no doubt helping to prevent the site from falling under the Superfund program for lack of cleanup funds. The company currently operates “179 recovery wells, 195 monitoring wells and 9 air stripper sites.” It installed a “300-foot long by 30-foot deep groundwater interceptor trench to recover off-site groundwater contamination immediately upgradient of two springs ... at the northwest edge of the site,” and installed “more than a dozen air-strippers to remove TCE dissolved in recovered groundwater which is then discharged to the Arkansas River through a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit or is treated at the Spirit Industrial Waste Treatment Plant (IWTP) and recycled for use in the Spirit plant.”

Besides continuing the air stripping operations, remedial action will also include bio-remediation in place and the maintenance of permeable reactive barriers to mitigate further spread of existing soil-based contamination. In cases where it’s necessary, remedial soil removal and disposal will be on the cleanup agenda.

by: Duane Craig

Westlawn, MA Residents Learn of Contamination

September 24, 2010 - Contaminants at the Parker Street waste site extend onto the Westlawn housing development but pose no imminent hazard to people who live there, environmental and health officials told residents at a meeting at Keith Middle School Thursday night.

But as Jacqueline Torres sat, confused, after the brief presentation, she illustrated a problem that's much easier to spot: officials who say people are in no immediate danger and residents who don't feel safe.

"Like any other parent, I'm worried — worried and concerned," said the mother of three, who said she has a 21-year-old daughter at Westlawn in remission from cancer of the lymph nodes. "She went through so much with the cancer, I don't want her to get sick because of any other reason."

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56 years after contamination, officials offer free inspections of NJ residents' home sites, as well as free blood tests for chromium

April 27, 2010- With the removal of chromium-laced soil scheduled to begin next month at a site on Garfield Avenue in Jersey City, city officials are urging residents to participate in a blood-testing program. The Chromium Cleanup Partnership held a meeting last week for residents who live near 900 Garfield Ave. at the Mary McLeod Bethune Life Center on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

The partnership, headed by court-appointed site administrator Mike McCabe, consists of representatives from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Jersey City and PPG Industries, the company responsible for overseeing the remediation of 20 chromium-contaminated sites in Hudson County.

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More Midland County Texas residents worried about chromium in water

September 25, 2009 - Midland County residents living near properties with chromium contaminated water wells said at a TCEQ open house meeting Thursday they fear it’s only a matter of time before they too are dealing with the toxic substance in their water.

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Texas Homeowners Affected by Contamination to See Lower Property Evaluations

September 3, 2009 - MIDLAND COUNTY - A small victory for some Midland county residents dealing with contaminated well water.

Their property values are being lowered by 25% because of the chromium problem.

13 people filed appeals with the Midland Central Appraisal District to get those values reduced after a round of tests showed the dangerous chemical at more than 50 times the acceptable federal level.

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Midland, Texas wells contaminated with chromium

July 10, 2009 - Texas environmental officials are still trying to determine the extent of the contamination. Later this month, they will ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to consider the site for federal Superfund status.

After that, efforts will begin to find who dumped the dangerous chemical, which appears to have been in the area for years, according to one environmental investigator.

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Chromium contaminated water in Midland County Texas

June 11, 2009 - The worries continue to pile up for residents living off Cotton Flat Road after officials discovered chromium contamination several weeks ago.

"The plume is extensive. It's probably at least a mile long it has very very high concentrations," Bob Bowcock, lead investigator working with famed Environmental Activist Erin Brockovich, said the team has found the source of contamination.

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Erin Brockovich Speaks Out For Texas Residents

June 10, 2009 - "Don't drink the well water." That's the message for Midland County homeowners Tuesday from the famous environmental activist, Erin Brockovich-Ellis. Brockovich said the levels of chromium are so high in private wells, she and her colleagues are working with the state in their ongoing investigation.

It's not a Hollywood movie, but high levels of chromium 6 in well water is something the real Erin Brockovich knows a thing or two about. The contaminated water in Midland County affected more than two dozen residents and that was plenty of reason to talk directly with Midlanders.

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Extent of contamination worries neighbors in Massachusetts town

May 21, 2008 - MANCHESTER — Six months after a family found heavy metals in the soil at their Pine Street home, neighbors are concerned that the extent of contamination of the property remains unknown.

And they're also worried because there's no schedule yet for the testing and cleanup of the site, which authorities believe to be an area where the town regularly dumped and burned trash in the 1950s.

Last fall David and Julie Gesner moved out of their yellow two-story Colonial at 156 Pine St. after discovering high levels of lead, arsenic, chromium and cadmium in the soil when they investigated local rumors that their property had been the site of a landfill where garbage and debris were routinely burned.

The Gesners notified the state Department of Environmental Protection and last month the agency ordered a cleanup of the site, including testing to determine the extent of contamination. The town, as well as the Gesners and Manchester resident Michael Bresnahan, who sold them the house, were all named as parties potentially responsible for the cleanup.

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Riverside, California cement plant's neighbors react to news about toxic carcinogen in the air

April 16, 2008 - The air above the TXI Riverside Cement Plant was blinding white Tuesday, blocking out the blue sky. For as long as Mary Alfonso, 79, can remember, dust from the factory has been a feature of life on "the Hill" just above it.

The dust was annoying, and people in the neighborhood assumed it wasn't good for them. But despite complaints over the years, they said, no one ever cleaned it up completely.

On Tuesday, residents of "the Hill" learned that the South Coast Air Quality Management District had found high levels of hexavalent chromium, a toxic carcinogen, in dust blowing from the outdoor "clinker piles" of the century-old plant in the Rubidoux area. And to add insult to injury, no officials had notified them.

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Scientists want to test New Jersey homes for toxic chromium

December 8, 2007 - On Dec. 1, scientists held an informational meeting at the Monumental Baptist Church on Lafayette Street in Jersey City about their ongoing study to see if area homes are contaminated with chromium that has been dumped in Jersey City or used as fill for construction projects.

The study, known as the Hudson Chromium Exposure Route and Pathway Investigation, is being conducted by the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute in Piscataway, NJ. The study started last year.

The results will be used by the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to determine the amount of chromium in the air at these dumpsites, and if caps placed on chromium waste sites are still protecting the public.

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