Sunday, August 15, 2010

"60 Minutes" does coal ash

In a story Coal Ash: 130 Million Tons of Waste recycled from October 2009, Lesley Stahl talked about coal ash from Dominion being used as fill in a golf course in Virginia.
Workers with the coal ash were told to wear impervious gloves and respirators. Also, dangers of coal ash leaching into the water supply.

There are 130 million tons of coal ash per year, and half of it is recycled as "beneficial use." School room carpeting, kitchen counters, and agricultural products.

One post related to the Oct. 4, 2009 show is titled Leslie Stahl of 60 Minutes Interviews Lisa Jackson About the Safety of Coal Ash. To date, Jackson, once of NJ DEP, is protecting us from bed bug pesticide (but not bed bugs), but is not protecting us from coal ash. Go figure. On Jackson's screwup on bedbugs:
EPA screws up on Propoxur
and of the fruits of Jackson's confusion: Bedbug City: 1 in 10 New Yorkers has grappled with bedbugs in their home .

Coal bottom ash (that part of coal which is NOT burned and stays as a combustion residue) contains oxidized forms of various inorganics, including arsenic, beryllium, boron, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, selenium, strontium, thallium, and vanadium . Likening it to dirt (which generally has a variety of oxidized organics (eg humic acids in top soil) is a bit silly.

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