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Report Finds Widespread Contamination at Nation's Coal Ash Sites (washingtonpost.com)
Nearly all 250 coal-fired plants in operation in the U.S. have leaked chemicals and contaminated the local groundwater supply with toxins [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; you can check the alternative source, and original report (PDF)], according to a report released this week by environmental groups Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice. From a report: The report found that 91 percent of the nation's coal-fired power plants reported elevated levels of contaminants such as arsenic, lithium, chromium and other pollutants in nearby groundwater. In many cases, the levels of toxic contaminants that had leaked into groundwater were far higher than the thresholds set by the Environmental Protection Agency, the groups said.
The examples span the country. At a family ranch south of San Antonio, a dozen pollutants have leaked from a nearby coal ash dump, data showed. Groundwater at one Maryland landfill that contains ash from three coal plants was contaminated with eight pollutants. In Pennsylvania, levels of arsenic in the groundwater near a former coal plant were several hundred times the level the EPA considers safe for drinking. The voluminous data became publicly available for the first time last year because of a 2015 regulation that required disclosures by the overwhelming majority of coal plants.
The examples span the country. At a family ranch south of San Antonio, a dozen pollutants have leaked from a nearby coal ash dump, data showed. Groundwater at one Maryland landfill that contains ash from three coal plants was contaminated with eight pollutants. In Pennsylvania, levels of arsenic in the groundwater near a former coal plant were several hundred times the level the EPA considers safe for drinking. The voluminous data became publicly available for the first time last year because of a 2015 regulation that required disclosures by the overwhelming majority of coal plants.
The green lobby is so fanatically anti-nuclear they'd prefer we continue burning coal than switch to nuclear. We could have stopped burning coal decades ago if it weren't for them standing in the way of progress.
Now they want us to switch to expensive, inconsistent, polluting renewable. I say polluting because renewable cause significant pollution during mining of the vast resources required to construct of large wind/solar farms, cause further pollution during manufacture and then yet more during disposal after their short lifespan is up.
Despite the obvious benefits of nuclear, the green lobby continue with their irrationality. A quick google search reveals an anti-nuclear article by Earthjustice, who carried out this study:
https://earthjustice.org/blog/2009-september/renewable-nuclear
The green lobby's anti-nuclear stance has done massive damage to the environment, and for that reason alone we should ignore them. We need an adult debate based on rational decision making, not fanatical, tree-hugging hippies.