Environmentalists say some coal plants have no limits on dumping toxic waste into waterways

Seventy percent of U.S. coal plants "that discharge coal ash and scrubber wastewater into waterways have no limits on toxic substances commonly found in these discharges -- substances like arsenic, boron, cadmium, lead, mercury and selenium," according to a report by five environmental groups, Rachel Morgan reports for the Beaver County Times, just outside Pittsburgh. About 33 percent of the plants are not required to monitor or report the discharge of the metals to governmental agencies or the public. (Times photo by Bob Donnan: Toxic metals have been dumped into Little Blue Run in southwestern Pennsylvania)

The report by the Environmental Integrity Project, Waterkeeper Alliance, Sierra Club, Earthjustice and Clean Water Action looked at 274 coal plants, finding that 26 percent "discharge coal ash or scrubber waste into rivers, lakes, streams that are already classified as impaired waterways due to poor water quality," Morgan reports. Half the plants are operating with an expired Clean Water Act permit.

In April the Environmental Protection Agency announced a range of proposed options regarding pollution and wastewater discharges from steam electric power plants into U.S. waterways, Morgan reports. "There are about 1,200 steam electric power plants that generate electricity using nuclear fuel or fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas in the U.S. Of those, about 500 are coal-fired units, the main source of the pollutants that would be regulated. Power plants smaller than 50 megawatts will not be subjected to the new regulations."

"The coalition is calling for the EPA to adopt Option 5, which would prevent nearly all the toxic waste from these plants from being dumped into waterways, and would reduce the pollution by more than 5 billion pounds annually," Morgan reports. "The second choice is Option 4, which would eliminate ash-contaminated discharges, and reduce annual pollution by 3.3 billion pounds, they said." (Read more) To view the full report, and look at findings in each of the 274 plants examined, click here.