Toxic Ash: The sequel

Last fall, The Post and Courier published its "Toxic Ash" series that revealed for the first time that giant coal ash pits were tainting groundwater across the state. The series described how the situation was part of a national problem that had largely been ignored during more heated debates over global warming and mountaintop removal.

Then in December, dikes in an ash bond in Tennessee failed after a storm, and billions of gallons of tainted ashed poured out, causing a cleanup that utility executives there say could cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now, an investigative group, The Center for Public Integrity, has released a new report called "Coal Ash: The Hidden Story." The group's report documents how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under heavy pressure from energy and manufacturing interests, determined that coal ash was not "hazardous."

That meant ash could be more easily recycled in cement and other products, but it also meant that much of the material was left in unlined pits where it contaminated groundwater with arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals.

The group's report is likely to add new fuel to legislative efforts to re-examine the disposal of coal ash that emerged after the Tennessee disaster.

Read the Center for Public Integrity's report at: www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/1144

Reach Tony Bartelme at 937-5554 or tbartelme@postandcourier.com.