1,300 U.S. coal ash dumps are unregulated

KINGSTON, Tenn., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Some 1,300 dumps like the coal ash pond that sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 Tennessee acres exist in the United States, an analysis finds.

Like the one in Kingston, Tenn., most are subject to no federal regulation, and few have state oversight, even though they contain heavy metals including arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to threaten water supplies and human health, the analysis concluded.

Some industries use the ash for "beneficial" purposes like construction fill and mine reclamation. But in 2007 50 tons went to agricultural uses, such as improving soil's ability to hold water, despite a 1999 EPA warning about its high levels of arsenic, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing a coal industry estimate.

Fly ash, one of coal combustion's residues, used to be released into the air, but pollution-control equipment mandated in recent decades now requires it be captured in the form of solid waste.

It is held in huge piles in 46 states, near cities like Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa, Fla., and next to Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River, the Times said.

Studies show the ash can leach toxic substances that can cause cancer, birth defects and other human health problems and can decimate fish, bird and frog populations.

"It's such a large volume of waste, and it's so essential to the country's energy supply -- it's basically been a loophole in the country's waste management strategy," epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Burke of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told the Times.