Date: January 26, 2009
Source: The American Coal Ash Association
The American Coal Ash Association (ACAA) has named a new executive director in the midst of its heated battle with environmentalists over the regulation of coal ash after major spills at three Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) sites has raised public environmental health concerns. Thomas H. Adams, a concrete industry veteran, replaces David C. Goss, who is retiring from the association. The ACAA is launching a major offensive to lobby Congress in a campaign to counter environmentalists' efforts to label coal ash as hazardous waste, arguing that coal ash recycling can be an important carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction management strategy under the Obama administration's green energy and climate change plans.
Environmentalists argue that EPA hazardous waste determination for coal ash would actually help the coal ash industry by making ash recycling mandatory and moving industry away from so-called "wet" storage of the material. The coal ash industry is based on developing uses for recycling coal ash, such as using coal ash as a cement substitute. ACAA officials are holding meetings with lawmakers as well as newspaper editorial boards to counter the notion of coal ash being "toxic" and "hazardous," arguing that while coal ash does include heavy metals and substances such as arsenic, the quantities are negligible and have been proven small enough not to pose a health risk in need of more stringent regulation by EPA. This is an assertion that EPA has supported in reviews and rulemakings in the past. ACAA is also promoting the carbon savings that come from using coal ash in the construction of major infrastructure projects, which could prove useful under an Obama plan to address infrastructure development.
Environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (FOE) are using the TVA disaster as an argument for a nationwide transition away from coal as a fuel source. The TVA spill also grabbed the attention of House and Senate lawmakers who have introduced legislation that would require new safety protocols. A bill offered by House Natural Resources Committee chief Nick Rahall (D-WV) -- the "Coal Ash Reclamation, Environment, and Safety Act of 2009" -- outlines new design and engineering guidelines for containing liquid coal ash to avoid TVA-like spills.
Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said at a January 8 hearing that Congress needed to take up the issue and the move away from wet storage to dry coal ash storage.
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