Maryland resident says fly ash contamination ruined her life

December 11, 2009 - Gayle Queen is afraid her organs may fail, and her doctor says she's already in bad shape. The Gambrills resident testified on Capitol Hill Thursday that improper disposal of coal combustion waste, often referred to as fly ash, contaminated the water supply in her neighborhood and ruined her quality of life.

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Deal reached in Maryland well contamination suit

January 5, 2009 - A class-action lawsuit against Maryland’s largest power company was settled on December 30 when a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge approved an estimated $54.4 million settlement over a case involving fly ash dumped in a Gambrills, MD, mine, The Daily Record recently reported.

A Gambrills family filed a lawsuit in November 2007 against Constellation Energy, contending that their neighborhood’s drinking water was contaminated with coal ash, as WaterTech Online® reported. Constellation Energy and the operator of its fly ash dump site were fined $1 million by the Maryland Department of the Environment in October 2007 for contaminating drinking water in private wells.

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Tennessee Valley Authority says ash spill triple amount of original estimate

December 27, 2008 - The Tennessee Valley Authority now says three times more coal ash and water escaped Monday from the failed retention pond at the Kingston Fossil Plant than first estimated, and initial testing in the Emory River indicates nearby waters are polluted above regulatory limits for drinking water.

A TVA official said Friday the agency revised the spillage figure after an aerial survey with a radar system using laser light.

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Tenn. residents fear impact of sludgy ash spill

January 1, 2009 - The spill at Kingston Fossil Plant, which was the world's largest coal-burning power plant when it opened in 1955, occurred when walls of an above-ground storage pond gave way. The ash waste, which was stored in a massive "dredge cell" 55-60 feet high, turned into a gooey sludge containing arsenic and heavy metals.

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Massive coal-ash spill causes river of sludge and controversy

December 25, 2008 - What may be the nation's largest spill of coal ash lay thick and largely untouched over hundreds of acres of land and waterways Wednesday after a dam broke this week, as officials and environmentalists argued over its potential toxicity.

Federal studies long have shown coal ash to contain significant quantities of heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and selenium, which can cause cancer and neurological problems. But with no official word on the dangers of the sludge in Tennessee, displaced residents spent Christmas Eve worried about their health and their property and wondering what to do.

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A collapsed retaining wall spews millions of gallons of fly ash across the Tennessee valley

December 24, 2008 - A disaster that occurred early Monday morning has ruined the holidays for some residents of Knoxville, Tennessee. A retaining wall at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston coal-fired power plant collapsed, spewing 2.6 million cubic yards of fly ash across Tennessee.

According to the TVA, 400 acres of land are submerged 6-feet deep in the toxic substance. The sludge that burst out of the holding pond for power plant waste ripped an entire home from its foundations and flooded 11 other homes in the area. In addition, a train was also heavily damaged.

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Virginia Residents near Chesapeake golf course fear fly ash runoff

September 2, 2008 - Karen Fox is no stranger to fly ash, or to flooding.

She and her family live on Murray Drive in a roughly 40-home community on a single street just south of Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville. Their well is in the backyard.

This spring, Fox and many other people who live nearby, all in homes with wells, learned that the golf course was contoured with 1.5 million tons of fly ash, a powdery residue laden with heavy metals, left from the burning of coal for electricity. The ash came from Dominion's coal-fired power plant in Deep Creek.

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High levels of lead, arsenic found in wells near golf course in Virginia

July 18, 2008 - Well tests conducted on a golf course sculpted from 1.5 million tons of fly ash have revealed elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other contaminants, prompting the city to request help from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

At a hastily called meeting Thursday evening with residents who live near Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville, top city officials disclosed results of tests from three groundwater monitoring wells on the site, which showed some contamination in an aquifer, about 20 to 25 feet underground.

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"Fly ash" may be contaminating residents' water in Chesapeake Virginia

April 7, 2008 - There are major environmental health concerns in Chesapeake. Residents' fears stem from the new Battlefield Golf Course.

The 217-acre course is made with more than 1.5-million tons of "fly ash" which is the by-product left behind when coal is burned to make electricity. It contains heavy metals like arsenic, lead and uranium.

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