|
Source: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15941979&BRD=2626&PAG=461&dept_id=536271&rfi=8
There are better ways to handle culm piles To the Editor: The waste coal-to-diesel refinery won't make culm banks disappear, as your editors apparently believe. According to the project's own permits and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, the plant will take in about 4,700 tons of culm a day and will generate about 2,000 tons each day of solid wastes, which will likely be dumped throughout the county. The slag, soot, sludges and other solid wastes will ultimately leach toxic metals into the groundwater. There is debate over how much they'd leach, but based on the track record of the waste coal ash dumps in the region, it's likely that these smaller waste piles will do more damage than the culm piles they'll be replacing. There are cleaner, safer ways to handle culm piles. They can be used to fill the pits that require reclamation, as the surface mining laws require for new mining. This would minimize the acid drainage damage done from these piles. An even cheaper solution would be to plant beach grass on the piles, so that they can be stabilized and can — within a handful of years — support native plants growing in them. As ActionPA pointed out in the DOE hearings, this can be done for only 6-10 percent of the cost of traditional culm pile remediation.
Dan Pascavage |
Return to Coal-to-Oil Refinery News Page
Return to Schuylkill Taxpayers Opposed to Pollution (STOP) Homepage