Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) echoed that notion at an Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing two days later. Matheson's top campaign contributor for the current election cycle is Ceramatec Inc., a materials science company in his Salt Lake City district that is exploring new ways to recycle coal ash.
The company, whose political action committees and individuals have donated $10,000 to Matheson's campaign according to nonpartisan watchdog Open Secrets, has conveyed to Matheson through several forums that a hazardous designation would cripple its recycling programs, Ceramatec chemist Chett Boxley said in an interview.
'Hybrid' designation?
On the other side are environmentalists and construction industry stakeholders who maintain that a hazardous-waste designation won't doom ash recycling efforts.
"It's really hard to say how markets react and what ultimately happens once you have that kind of designation," said Scot Horst, senior vice president of the U.S. Green Building Council. "I know, just from talking to people, that that's what the fear is, but EPA has the ability to make a ruling any way it wants.
"It could say that beneficial use isn't a hazardous material, but the waste is, and I suspect that's the work that they're trying to figure out."
The council offers incentives for builders to use the ash in concrete in its famous LEED program for certifying "green" buildings, and those incentives would remain in place even under a hazardous determination, Horst said.
RCRA gives EPA flexibility to craft a "hybrid" hazardous designation that would set strong disposal standards but make exemptions to encourage recycling, Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans said.
Evans argues that other materials classified as hazardous wastes -- such as spent solvents and steel production byproducts -- enjoy robust recycling programs, and there is no reason to believe coal ash could not as well.
"People are acting as if this is the first time that hazardous waste would ever re-enter the stream of commerce," Evans said. "That's really far from true."
Reprinted from Greenwire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
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Add CommentThe primary consideration with regard to the regulation of coal ash should be first and foremost the public health based on its effect in any use, on the environment (air, earth and water). The purpose of the EPA is to protect the environment and the public health. It is not to protect the interests of corporate profits or operations, except to distinguish what should be allowed to them on condition that it does not compromise the environment or the public health.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd then, if and when the use of recycled ash is proposed, and perhaps allowed, a complete report that includes studies that clearly demonstrate on a scientific basis, that that reuse in any form will not endanger the environment or the public health. That report should be available in full to the public.
Burning coal ash as a "recycled fuel" for energy plants should not be allowed.
It is time that we admit that old fuels should be phased out. They should to transition their operations into the newer methods of producing energy with safe, environmentally friendly methods. For example: why wouldn't they begin to develop plants that recycle our abundant dump wastes-to-methane-gas fuelled plants? In fact, I would not be opposed to government grants to help them in this transition.
Every large city, or a network of small cities could use their own garbage to produce electricity for their own needs, thus elminating the costly expense item of waste disposal from their municipal budgets by converting it to fuel for energy production. Why would these coal-burning corporations not see the promising future in the development of these plants for themselves, and begin to work with thse municipalities toward this goal?
I think 10 billion a year in profit is the main concern not to want coal ash regulated. It has been scientifically proven that coal ash is a deadly byproduct of coal and should never come in contact with any living tissue. The states that are swamped in coal ash have epidemic porportions of disease and illnesses. In West Virginia, there is so much disease and illness caused by coal and coal ash that you cannot afford health insurance...if you can even get health insurance in the state -- which you cannot.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStop the coal ash and clean it up and health insurance costs will dramatically drop.
If turning coal ash into concrete neutralizes the deadly chemicals, then by all means, turn it into concrete. In either way, we need to quickly get away from burning fossils for energy.
This is just another example of the irresponsible coal companies trying to keep as many of their costs externalized as possible. As long as they are not held accountable for the damage they cause they will continue to cause it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is no question as to whether or not coal ash waste is hazardous or not. The question is are we going to let these companies continue to profit by selling their hazardous waste instead of properly disposing it?
Ultimately the best solution here is to get off of coal power as soon as possible. When an industry can only stay "competitive" with cleaner, healthier alternatives by profiteering off of poisoning people, it's time to shut that industry down.
Coal contains: URANIUM, ARSENIC, LEAD, MERCURY, Antimony, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Selenium, Barium, Fluorine, Silver, Beryllium, Iron, Sulfur, Boron, Titanium, Cadmium, Magnesium, Thorium, Calcium, Manganese, Vanadium, Chlorine, Aluminum, Chromium, Molybdenum and Zinc. There is so much of these elements in coal that cinders and coal smoke are actually valuable ores. We should be able to get all the uranium and thorium we need to fuel nuclear power plants for centuries by using cinders and smoke as ore. Remember that, to get a given amount of energy, you need on the order of 100 MILLION TIMES as much coal as uranium. That means the coal mine has to be 100 million times larger than the uranium mine, not counting the recycling of nuclear fuel. Unburned Coal also contains BENZENE, THE CANCER CAUSER. We can keep our mountains and forests and our health by switching from coal to nuclear power. We could get all of our uranium and thorium from coal ashes and cinders. The carbon content of coal ranges from 96% down to 25%, the remainder being rock of various kinds.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisChinese industrial grade coal is sometimes stolen by peasants for cooking. The result is that the whole family dies of arsenic poisoning in days, not years because Chinese industrial grade coal contains large amounts of arsenic.
I have zero financial interest in nuclear power, and I never have had a financial interest in nuclear power. My sole motivation in writing this is to avoid extinction due to global warming.
Please see: http://www.ornl.gov/ORNLReview/rev26-34/text/coalmain.html
Hey Patrick,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's kind of stupid to be putting a picture of half burned "charcoal" briquettes, somehow relating this to the existence of real mineral "coal" ash. Why not use a picture of any one of the enormous piles of real mineral "coal" ash that you could potentially find next to any one of hundreds of coal fired power plants in the US?
Hopefully you realize that the ash from "charcoal" briquettes used for cooking our food does not contain anything near the same levels of carcinogenic, radioactive heavy metals like Cadmium, Thorium, or Uranium, as does ash from mineral "coal" used in the production of electric power.
SCIAM, this is another example of what I would call "poor production quality" from the your media source, and/or the work of another of your "stupid sciencewriter bylines"
SKB
GO Pandonodrim!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSKB
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