Estimate of Savings from Coal Ash Recycling Challenged

Environmental groups that want coal ash to be classified as hazardous materials are challenging figures put forth by federal officials setting regulations for the substance.

The groups released their analysis as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency works to develop regulation guidelines for coal ash — a byproduct of burning coal at power plants– which can also be used in materials like drywall and cement.

Coal ash recyclers oppose the hazardous label. Many industry supporters said during public hearings conducted by the EPA that it would place a stigma on the substance and hurt their industry.

The analysis was conducted by the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, and the Stockholm Environment Institute’s U.S. Center, based at Tufts University. It said the EPA greatly inflated an estimate that said coal ash recycling is worth $23 billion annually in pollution avoidance and reduced energy costs. The group estimated the number is closer to $1.15 billion.

“The concern we have is so loudly exaggerating the economic benefit of coal ash recycling,” said Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project. “The noise that creates has sort of drowned out the concern over health and safety of properly disposing this kind of material.”

The EPA is considering the new rules in the wake of the massive Dec. 22, 2008, spill that dumped 5.4 million cubic yards of toxin-laden coal ash sludge into the Emory River and on privately held land beside the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant.

EPA spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara said in a statement that the agency would review the groups’ analysis along with 400,000 public comments officials have received on the subject.

The agency has proposed national rules for disposal and management of the ash, which contains mercury, cadmium and arsenic. Citizens and environmental activists said during public hearings in several cities earlier this year that the ash is a health hazard. The public comment period ended Nov. 19.

TVA has argued in court filings that dust from the ash spill at the Kingston plant west of Knoxville is no more harmful than “dust from a ball field or farm land.”

The EPA’s proposal would classify coal ash as hazardous waste, bringing it under direct federal enforcement. Under a second option, favored by coal and manufacturing industries, the ash would be considered non-hazardous. The proposal also says that regulation of standards set by the EPA would be left to the states and lawsuits filed by citizens.

The groups’ analysis also disagreed with an EPA estimate that recycling fly ash into cement kilns provides a savings of nearly $5 billion in annual energy costs. The groups pointed out that the EPA’s Office of Radiation estimated in a separate report that the total energy costs for that industry topped out at $1.7 billion.

The groups said in a statement that there are at least 50 unregulated coal ash dams around the country similar to the one that failed at Tennessee.