Report Says Fly Ash Sites Leak Chromium Into Water
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
2 February 2011
By Don Hopey,
Two southwestern Pennsylvania fly ash disposal sites are among 28 such
sites in 17 states that have contaminated groundwater by leaking toxic,
cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, according to a new report by
Earthjustice and two other environmental groups.
Unsafe hexavalent chromium levels were found in groundwater near a
landfill used by Allegheny Energy's 1,710-megawatt Hatfield's Ferry
power plant in Greene County; and around an unlined pond and landfill
near the GenOn's Seward power plant in New Florence, Indiana County,
the report found.
Another Pennsylvania fly ash disposal site, an unlined pond used by
PPL's Martins Creek power plant in Northhampton County, in the eastern
end of the state, was also on the report's list.
Hexavalent chromium was made famous by the 2000 film "Erin Brockovich."
The report released Tuesday calls for tighter drinking water limits for
chromium and federal regulations designating coal fly ash as a
hazardous waste. The report was released on the eve of scheduled Senate
testimony by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa
Jackson about the public health concerns of contaminated drinking water
and hexavalent chromium exposure.
"It is now abundantly clear that EPA must control coal ash disposal to
prevent the poisoning of our drinking water with hexavalent chromium,"
said Linda Evans, Earthjustice senior administrative counsel.
Studies by the EPA, the state of California and the agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry have found that exposure in drinking
water to small amounts of hexavalent chromium can increase human cancer
risk.
Hexavalent chromium, the most toxic form of chromium, comprises almost
all of the chromium that leaches from coal ash disposal sites,
according to government and industry studies cited by Tuesday's report.
Such chromium first made headlines in 1996 when Erin Brockovich sued
Pacific Gas & Electric for poisoning the water supply of Hinkley,
Calif., and won damages totaling $333 million for the town's 600
residents.
The study report by Earthjustice, Physicians for Social Responsibility
and the Environmental Integrity Project found the threat of groundwater
contamination by the chromium compound is present at hundreds of
unlined coal ash sites in the U.S. It also notes that while many of the
leaking ash disposal sites have undergone some federal Superfund or
state remediation, in most cases the groundwater contamination has been
left in place and there have been few attempts to monitor migration of
the contaminated plume or protect well water users in the area.
Hexavalent chromium contamination at the Hatfield's Ferry power plant
fly ash landfill was measured at 104 parts per billion, slightly above
the federal drinking water standard of 100 parts per billion, but 5,200
times higher than a California proposal to reduce that state's drinking
water standard to 0.02 parts per billion.
David Neurohr, an Allegheny Energy spokesman, said Tuesday he couldn't
comment on the Earthjustice report because he hadn't seen it, but added
that "we operate the landfill in compliance with DEP regulations."
The highest concentration of hexavalent chromium groundwater
contamination from GenOn's 525-megawatt Seward power plant was measured
at 330 parts per billion, three times the federal drinking water
standard and 16,500 times above a proposed California standard.
Laurie Fickman, a spokeswoman for Houston, Texas-based GenOn, a recent
merger of the electric power providers RRI and Mirant, said the company
will review the report but offered no additional comment.
Coal ash, the waste produced by coal-burning power plants, also
contains arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury selenium and other
cancer-causing chemicals.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.