skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Coal-Ash Cleanup Progressing in Other SE States

play audio
Play

Monday, September 12, 2016   

RICHMOND, Va. -As Congress debates the issue, utilities and communities in southeastern states, not including Virginia, are moving ahead with clean up of millions of tons of coal ash in impoundments at power plants.

Until recently, Congress had been deadlocked regarding this legacy of a coal-powered century. In the meantime, groups like the Southern Environmental Law Center have pushed utilities in southern coastal states to take the waste from the big storage ponds and bury it in dry, lined landfills.

Frank Holleman, senior attorney with the center, said cleanup projects are happening across Georgia and North and South Carolina.

"We're moving toward a recognition by communities and utilities that this unlined storage of ash in earthen pits next to waterways just is not a good idea long term,” Holleman said.

Coal ash ponds can leak arsenic, lead, heavy metals and mercury into the waterways where power plants are typically located. Some members of Congress have argued that the coal ash is not that hazardous and should not be treated like hazardous waste. In Virginia, Dominion wants to keep its coal ash where it is, drain and cap the waste ponds.

There are now some signs of motion on the issue at the federal level. The EPA has imposed what Holleman called minimal storage standards and effluent limits. But the senate is considering language that critics charge could undermine those standards.

In the House, West Virginia Congressman David McKinley has proposed legislation he said would increase recycling of the waste. But Holleman said recycling is already happening.

"So you don't need a new law from politicians in Washington,” Holleman said. "Instead, what the proposed legislation's trying to do is weaken the new minimum rules that EPA has put into place."

He said some drinking water sources in South Carolina are seeing 60 to 90 percent reductions in the levels of certain pollutants. The cleanup is especially important near the coast, given sea-level rise from climate change.

Holleman said utilities across the southern coast are committing to cleanup.

"Except for one,” he said. "There's one utility, and that's Dominion at its Chesapeake site, who wants to leave this ash next to a river in the coastal plain."

The center has sued Dominion over the future of the Chesapeake coal ash and now is awaiting a decision from the judge in that case.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021