By Robert Zullo, News from the States
Coal ash, what’s left over after coal is burned to generate electricity, is one of the largest waste streams in the U.S., with hundreds of millions of tons of it lying in hundreds of sites across the country.
However, a lot of that ash, which can contain a host of toxic metals, isn’t just sitting around in landfills or disposal pits, it’s also been a cheap source of fill material, with 2 million tons of it being used for that purpose in 2021 alone, according to the American Coal Ash Association, a trade group.
EarthJustice, an environmental group, citing the association’s numbers, says 180 million tons of coal ash has been used for fill since 1980. Ash has been used on everything from a golf course in Virginia to playgrounds in Tennessee and much of an entire Indiana town.
But in a draft risk assessment published last month by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of a proposed broader revision of its coal ash management rules, the agency now says using coal ash as fill may create elevated cancer risk from radiation.
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