Coal Ash effect on ground water everyone please read... (Atlanta: appointed, buying)

[bellhead]

Hundreds attend Brunswick meeting to bash coal ash storage | SavannahNow

Make it a point to get to one of these meetings, currently Ga. Power wants to put these coal ash pits close to major rivers and do it as cheap as possible. This could render either the Savannah River or the aquifer undrinkable.

Coal Ash Waste | Beyond Coal

The largest spill ever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingst...h_slurry_spill

[counterclockwise]

The map left one pit out near Rincon. About 200 miles of dirt roads in Effingham County was paved with ash from this facility about twenty years ago and the source of this ash was from a storage area NOT OWNED by Ga Power. The material is called Fludized Bed Combustor Ash. It differs from the fine ash from power generation plants. It often contains lumps of all shapes and sizes.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by counterclockwise

The map left one pit out near Rincon. About 200 miles of dirt roads in Effingham County was paved with ash from this facility about twenty years ago and the source of this ash was from a storage area NOT OWNED by Ga Power. The material is called Fludized Bed Combustor Ash. It differs from the fine ash from power generation plants. It often contains lumps of all shapes and sizes.

One of the largest storage sites is at Plant McIntosh in Effingham, less than 100 yards from the Savannah River. If we ever have a 100 year flood, all the coal ash will flow down stream to Savannah.

[counterclockwise]

Originally Posted by bellhead

One of the largest storage sites is at Plant McIntosh in Effingham, less than 100 yards from the Savannah River. If we ever have a 100 year flood, all the coal ash will flow down stream to Savannah.

Yes, and there is another big pile at a nearby industry to contribute to the disaster. The water treatment plant operated by the City of Savannah will likely be impacted. Guess who is going to pay for cleaning it up? Look at the line items on your electric bill.

[don1945]

Some politicians have caught flack recently for their suggestions that coal needs to be replaced with more environmentally friendly options and that coal miners and their families see this as a threat to their livelihood. I get it, this is all those people know and it is scary to think you will be out of a job. However, let's face it, coal is 15th century technology and we know a lot more about how this dirty fuel (and it's byproducts) affect our earth.

It is surprising, but some people will put their immediate needs ahead of their children's future well being and health. I grew up in Pennsylvania in steel producing Pittsburgh. I worked at the Clairton plant, and there was a byproduct of the cooling process called "quench'. It was the steam that rose off of a train car load of steel leftovers, they basically dumped hundreds of gallons of water onto it to cool it off.

This steam rose way up into the sky and ended up settling all over the town of Clairton. The town was gray in color, plant life would not grow in yards, and we could not even drive a nice car to work because the falling quench would settle on the car and eat the paint off. It was as toxic as Hell. Everyone had the same cough, and I would cough up black stuff when I got off of work.

So, the Government came in and wanted the plant to do things to clean up this health hazard. Guess what happened ? Mothers started protesting because they felt it would hurt their husband's paycheck. Here were mothers, who should have been putting the lives of their children first, fighting to keep this filthy process going because they feared for their income !

That is what we are seeing in West Virginia and other coal producing areas right now.

Don

[SavannahLife]

don, your posts is powerful. Thank you. Surprising people would put their health and kids' health behind finding work in new sectors or industries. Then again the world is so ADD and short-term focused now. This will be our Flint, Michigan. We'll be drinking bottled water for months from the National Guard while the state ends up spendings billions to fix it. Of course the companies responsible won't pay a dime. The toothless EPD run by a sycophant appointed by Deal with a degree in political science will probably do nothing. Then throw their own staff under the bus when the blame game begins. I wrote a letter by email. Everyone here that cares should email them, only takes a minute.

I will be happy to be surprised though. Gov Deal did all right when he restored the marsh buffer and so far so good on the Eron Palmetto Pipeline. I am worried though because Georgia Power has a lot of clout. It also does a lot of GOOD work and donating in the community for sure and I am hoping maybe the public can appeal to their good image and try and get them off the pipeline and to get coal ash shipped elsewhere that's less floodprone and less populated or at risk.

From the Sav Morning News article http://savannahnow.com/news/2016-08-...l-ash-storage:

How to comment

Written public comments are welcomed. To be included in EPD’s summary to the Board of Natural Resources, written comments should be received by close of business (4:30 p.m.) on Aug. 20. Written comments may be emailed to EPDComments@dnr.state.ga.us or sent via regular mail addressed to Branch Chief, Land Protection Branch, 4244International Parkway, Suite 104, Atlanta, Georgia 30354.

If you choose to email your comments, please be sure to include the words “CCR Rule amendments” somewhere in the subject line to help ensure that your comments will be forwarded to the correct staff.

The proposed Rule amendments are proposed for adoption pursuant to authority contained in the Georgia Comprehensive Solid Waste ManagementAct (O.C.G.A. § 12-8-20, et seq.).

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by don1945

Some politicians have caught flack recently for their suggestions that coal needs to be replaced with more environmentally friendly options and that coal miners and their families see this as a threat to their livelihood. I get it, this is all those people know and it is scary to think you will be out of a job. However, let's face it, coal is 15th century technology and we know a lot more about how this dirty fuel (and it's byproducts) affect our earth.

It is surprising, but some people will put their immediate needs ahead of their children's future well being and health. I grew up in Pennsylvania in steel producing Pittsburgh. I worked at the Clairton plant, and there was a byproduct of the cooling process called "quench'. It was the steam that rose off of a train car load of steel leftovers, they basically dumped hundreds of gallons of water onto it to cool it off.

This steam rose way up into the sky and ended up settling all over the town of Clairton. The town was gray in color, plant life would not grow in yards, and we could not even drive a nice car to work because the falling quench would settle on the car and eat the paint off. It was as toxic as Hell. Everyone had the same cough, and I would cough up black stuff when I got off of work.

So, the Government came in and wanted the plant to do things to clean up this health hazard. Guess what happened ? Mothers started protesting because they felt it would hurt their husband's paycheck. Here were mothers, who should have been putting the lives of their children first, fighting to keep this filthy process going because they feared for their income !

That is what we are seeing in West Virginia and other coal producing areas right now.

Don

Yeah, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the coal miners in West Virginia. The people they should be mad isn't the federal government or regulators, it's their own local and state leaders who for too many decades have not sought alternative industries and increased education. There's a reason why West Virginia is our poorest state, but it's not because of the collapse of coal mining.

[counterclockwise]

Excerpt from May 4, 2002 Savannah Morning News article titled 'Effingham boom stretches Resources'.
[In an innovative road-improvement program, Effingham County laying ash on its 225 to 240 miles of dirt roads, creating inexpensive hard surfaces. "Our goal is to eliminate all of the dirt roads within two years," Rutherford said.]

[bellhead]

The real reason nobody is buying coal right now has nothing to do with the EPA or Obama, the power companies can generate power using natural gas cheaper than burning coal. If natural gas goes back up then it will switch over. It's economics.

[SavannahLife]

Originally Posted by counterclockwise

..an innovative road-improvement program, Effingham County laying ash on its..roads, creating inexpensive hard surfaces..

a comment here seemed to suggest it may not be such a wise idea:
Worries rising for coal ash buried in Coastal Georgia | SavannahNow

"Effingham County has about 200 miles of roads paved with a similar product from a local industry. I don't know what the difference is because it reportedly contains coal ash too. Some of the material had big ash lumps, strips of plastic, nails, and other trash which created pot holes in the road surfaces. It has turned out to be a nightmare of a maintenance problem. There are about a dozen types of ash roads in Effingham County: Crooked ash, Rough ash, Pockmarked ash, Narrow Ash, Reconstituted ash (available only in wet weather), Heaving ash(Freezing rainy weather only) Chip and Peel (Most common after attempts to re-surface the ash), etc.. It was a wonderful way to get rid of the industrial waste ash by Effingham purchasing it and creating jobs to spread it all over dirt roads. More jobs are on the way when they find out better ways to deal with the mess."


I say, ship it to the desert in a southwest state. Maybe they can use it as part of a solar farm or something. Definitely doesn't belong right next to the Sav River upstream from our drinking water. On roads, I don't know enough about it but the comment above doesn't sound like it is worth it.