Kentucky coal ash disposal site is among most contaminated in nation, report finds
A coal-fired power plant in Kentucky has one of the nation’s highest levels of groundwater pollution from a coal-ash disposal site, according to a report released Monday by two environmental groups.
There were unsafe levels of various pollutants reported in groundwater at 14 power plants in the state, but the Ghent Generating Station on the Ohio River in Carroll County had the 10th highest level of contamination among 265 coal plants or disposal areas in the U.S., according to the report.
The level of lithium in water at monitoring wells at Ghent, operated by Kentucky Utilities, was 154 times greater than the safe level, and there also were elevated levels of arsenic, chromium, cobalt, lead, radium and other pollutants, the report said.
Lithium can cause kidney damage, decreased thyroid function and other health problems, according to the report released by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice.
The report found that the groundwater beneath 91 percent of the coal plants with available information are contaminated by at least one pollutant from coal ash, the product left behind by burning coal to generate electricity.
Utilities typically put the ash in ponds or landfills at or near power plants. Metals and other substances in the ash can leach out.
The analysis showed that that groundwater at 52 percent of the coal plants in the U.S. with available data contained unsafe levels of arsenic, a cancer-causing substance, and that there were unsafe levels of lithium at 60 percent of the sites, the report said.
“This is a wake-up call for the nation,” Lisa Evans, senior attorney for Earthjustice, said in a news release. “Using industry’s own data, our report proves that coal plants are poisoning groundwater nearly everywhere they operate.”
The study used data on groundwater monitoring at coal-ash storage sites that utilities were required to publicly report last year for the first time.
Other Kentucky sites listed in the report included coal-ash sites in Clark, Mercer, Pulaski, Mason and Lawrence counties owned by Kentucky Utilities, East Kentucky Power Cooperative and Kentucky Power, as well as sites in Northern and Western Kentucky owned by other utilities.
The reporting showed elevated levels of pollutants at Kentucky sites that included arsenic, mercury, selenium, chromium cobalt, radium, and molybdenum.
Kentucky Utilities officials hadn’t finished reviewing the report from the environmental groups Monday, so couldn’t comment on the findings, said Daniel Lowry, a spokesman for Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities.
“We take aggressive measures to protect our communities’ land and water resources, and we continually invest in our facilities to comply with local, state and federal environmental regulations,” Lowry said.
KU is in the process of closing and capping all its ash ponds and impoundments, moving instead to dry storage in landfills, Lowry said.
Nick Comer, spokesman for East Kentucky Power Cooperative, said the company is in compliance with the federal rule governing disposal of residual material from coal combustion.
The contaminants detected at East Kentucky Power’s ash-disposal units did not exceed federal groundwater protection standards, Comer said.
Monitoring over the last year at Kentucky Power’s Big Sandy plant, which no longer burns coal, indicated ash-disposal sites are not having an impact on groundwater, according to company spokeswoman Melissa A. McHenry.
The company is committed to operating all facilities in a way that meets or exceeds all regulations and “protects pubic safety and health,” McHenry said.
Researchers for the environmental groups analyzed information that utilities were required to publicly release in 2018 for the first time.
There was information available for 265 coal plants or offsite ash storage areas, covering more than 500 ash ponds or landfills in 39 states and Puerto Rico. The data covered about 75 percent of the coal plants in the country.
Information for other sites was not available either because utilities closed ash disposal sites before the new federal rule governing coal ash took effect in 2015, or because they were exempt from the rule or got an extension on reporting.
The information available for analysis came from monitoring wells near ash sites, not drinking-water supplies.
Researchers couldn’t analyze whether drainage from ash sites is endangering the safety of drinking water nearby because utilities don’t have to test private water wells, the report said.
However, it cited several cases of runoff from ash contaminating drinking water.
In one case, pollutants from ash landfills contaminated more than 30 wells nearby. Wisconsin Power bought at least 25 homes and tore them down, the report said.
Contaminated water also can drain into lakes, streams and rivers, causing a threat to aquatic life, the report said.
Few coal-ash ponds have waterproof liners to keep pollution from leaking into the water table, according to the report.
At the Ghent station, for instance, there are five ash ponds with no lining. One 146-acre pond is in direct contact with groundwater, according to the report.
The report said it would be best to dig out the ash from that pond and move it to a dry landfill with a lining.
The problem of contamination from coal-ash disposal is worse than the available information indicates because the federal rule does not regulate older sites that have been closed, even though they can contaminate water, the report said.
The environmental groups argued the Trump Administration is moving to weaken cleanup standards and delay deadlines to close ash ponds.
“At a time when the Trump EPA — now being run by a former coal lobbyist — is trying to roll back federal regulations on coal ash, these new data provide convincing evidence that we should be moving in the opposite direction: toward stronger protections for human health and the environment,” Abel Russ, the lead author of the report and attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, said in a news release.
The groups called for tougher rules on coal-ash sites, including regulating all the sites, not just the active ones; requiring utilities to test for contamination in drinking water wells and waterways near ash sites; and requiring utilities to excavate ash sites near the water table.
“Leaving coal ash in groundwater, where there is nothing to prevent continuous leaching of toxic pollutants from the ash, is a recipe for disaster that will render aquifers and nearby surface water unsafe for generations,” the report said.
This story was originally published March 4, 2019 at 2:59 PM.
