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The term "coal ash" made headlines this week after a dam broke at a power plant site in Wilmington, North Carolina. State.
The factory that was shut down, owned by Duke Energy, was a growing concern since last week after heavy rains associated with Hurricane Florence caused the erosion of a landfill. Coal ash on the site, spilling ashes on a road.
What is coal ash?
Coal ash is the powdery substance that remains after burning coal.
What remains after burning coal includes fly ash, residual ash and sewage sludge, said Lisa Evans, legal counsel for Earthjustice, an environmental law organization.
The mud, which is created from sprayed solutions inside the exhaust stacks to capture the harmful chemicals that cause acid rain, sulfur dioxide and oxide. nitrogen, falls to the lowest.
Why is it dangerous?
Remnants of burnt coal include arsenic, boron, lead and mercury, which are known carcinogens and degradation organs. among other effects on health.
Is ash really retained in ponds?
No, according to Ms. Evans. That's the familiar description of these basins, but it's really a misnomer given their size, she said.
"It's a difficult thing to have a word because the E.P.A. calls it "surface deposition," she said.
The largest of them is 1,300 acres in Pennsylvania, with a more typical size of about 100 acres, she said. There are about a thousand such ponds in the country, although their numbers are probably higher because not all have been inventoried, she added.
What is the problem with these basins?
Historically, these ponds were essentially unpaved pits that stocked "an alphabet soup of toxic chemicals for human health," Ms. Evans said.
Data collected by the Federal Agency for Environmental Protection revealed that 95% of them had fled into rivers and groundwater.
How is the storage of coal ash regulated?
E.P.A. The rules that came into force in 2015 required that basins be inspected for structural stability, have groundwater monitoring systems and that sites be cleaned up in case of contamination.
The rules, however, did not apply to power plants that had been removed, allowed unlicensed deductions to operate indefinitely, and regulated ashes as non-hazardous solid waste, said Ms. Evans.
The coal industry and environmental groups have sued federal regulators. The industry thought the rules were too strict and environmental groups thought they were not going far enough.
After President Trump took office, E.P.A. entertain with "the speed of lightning" a petition to roll back the rules.
A federal court of appeal, however, has recently rendered a decision arising from the trial, sending the E.P.A. "Back to square one" to revisit parts of the regulations regarding uncoated coal ash ponds and those of the retired mills, said Ms. Evans.
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