-State officials haven't yet drafted recommended changes. But Crissman said the Sierra Club's recommendations - that ash be dumped only in lined landfills, groundwater monitoring be required at disposal sites and developers held accountable for contamination clean-ups - "look pretty good."

----- Forwarded by Paula Carrell/Sierraclub on 04/12/2010 10:49 AM -----

The state largely ignores millions of tons of ash from coal-fired power plants that threatens to contaminate N.C. groundwater, lakes and streams, the N.C. Sierra Club says in a report today.

Coal ash has gotten increased scrutiny since a massive spill of ash sludge in Tennessee in late 2008. Ash contains potentially toxic metals such as arsenic, cadmium and mercury.

The Sierra report, like an Observer article in December, focuses on the use of dry ash to fill gullies and prepare roadbeds and building sites. More than 800,000 tons of ash was used for so-called structural fill statewide last year, the report says.

Those sites don't have to be lined to keep toxic material out of groundwater and aren't regularly checked to find whether they're tainting water. Property deeds often don't show that ash has been dumped, as state law requires.

Ash is known to have contaminated water in Robeson, Nash and Northampton counties, according to state records, the report said. More often, it said, no one looks for contamination.

"Wherever the state has looked, there have been problems for the most part," said Molly Diggins, the Sierra Club's state director.

"The data is thin because there are no regular inspections or reporting. It's hard to get a full understanding when you don't have a full perspective of potential problems."

Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Catawba, Gaston, Iredell and Rowan are among 20 N.C. counties with structural fill, records show. Iredell has 17 sites, more than any other county, the report said.

State scrutiny has increased in recent months, the report says, with violations found at 28 of the 48 sites inspected. Most violations cited a lack of vegetation or soil cover over the ash.

Paul Crissman, chief of the state's solid waste section, said his staff first recognized the need for more oversight of structural fill sites since it began finding violations in the mid-1990s.

"It led to our being convinced that the Sierra Club is correct and that we need to make new regulations," he said.

State officials haven't yet drafted recommended changes. But Crissman said the Sierra Club's recommendations - that ash be dumped only in lined landfills, groundwater monitoring be required at disposal sites and developers held accountable for contamination clean-ups - "look pretty good."

A key question in light of state budget problems, he said, is how to pay for additional oversight.

The Sierra Club views ash as a further indictment of coal-fired power plants, which it believes should be phased out.

Duke Energy says it stopped using ash for structural fill in 2003. Limiting disposal to lined landfills would stop the use of ash in making concrete and cement products, it says, effectively doubling the amount that has to be disposed.

"We would support discussions on additional groundwater monitoring for an entire coal-fired power plant site which would encompass on-site ash basins, landfills and structural fills," Duke said in a statement.

The Environmental Protection Agency is weighing tougher coal-ash regulations, including whether to label ash as hazardous waste. That designation would be expected to greatly increase oversight and disposal costs.

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