Clean Water Currents|Online, Summer 2009, Volume 37, No. 2

Surely you've seen the ads. They are scattered around the internet and splashed across our newspapers and magazines. Their commercials interrupt our favorite television shows and invade our local radio station's airspace. Yes, the ads are everywhere. But that doesn't make them true.

No PR campaign, no matter how well executed, can make coal clean. It's simply not possible.

Advocates for "clean" coal argue that technology exists-almost-that will allow coal-fired power plants to capture their carbon emissions and store the climate-changing gas deep under ground. Technically, this is true. Realistically, this would be extremely expensive, and wouldn't even begin to address most of the impacts felt by water. From mines to power plants, the process of wresting energy from coal is dirty and unhealthy for our waters, our communities and ourselves. 

Early in the morning on December 22, 2008, an ill-maintained dam failed near the Kingston Fossil Plant, a coal-fired power plant along the Emory River in Tennessee. The dam had been holding back decades worth of hazardous coal ash and sludge. When the dam collapsed, an estimated 1.1 billion gallons of coal waste burst into the Emory River, sending a wall of contaminated water and coal sludge downstream. Three homes were destroyed and uncounted fishes, mussels and other wild creatures were killed.

No one knows what the long term impacts might be. Already, water samples collected by Appalachian Voices have revealed frightening levels of contamination. For example, arsenic was present at 30 to 300 times the allowable limits and lead was present at 2 to 21 times the legal limit for drinking water. In fact, every water sample collected by Appalachian Voices had elevated levels of arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel and thallium. The TVA claims their own water samples reveal acceptable levels of contamination for drinking water. Whether or not you believe their results, the question remains: Did they drink the water? Would you?

The TVA spill was an accident, but potentially toxic coal mining waste is intentionally dumped into mountain streams, creeks and waterways every day. Already, more than 2,000 miles of mountain streams and waterways have been contaminated or totally destroyed by waste from mountaintop removal coal mining, a method that literally removes the tops of Appalachia's mountains in order to expose the coal seams that lie beneath the surface.

Approximately 500 mountains in Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia have already fallen victim to coal companies and their destructive mountaintop removal operations. Those mountaintops, stripped of their coal, are dumped into once-pristine valleys and stream beds. There, heavy metals and chemicals leach into the soil and groundwater, destroying the health of the local environment, wildlife and surrounding communities.

Traditionally, the US Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for reviewing and approving or rejecting permit requests for mountaintop removal coal mining. But, on March 24, the EPA took what could become the first step towards claiming additional oversight of this process. In two separate letters, the EPA reminded the Army Corps that it has veto power over the mining permits. More than 150 applications for new surface coal mines could be delayed as the EPA reviews the potential impacts to mountain streams and wetlands. The coal industry is in an uproar, but we are celebrating-we need more scrutiny of the coal industry, not less. This is the first step towards a better regulated coal industry, which is the only way we can ensure our waters are clean and our communities are healthy.

Poisoned rivers and contaminated wells are bad, but coal's worst legacy is something that will touch us all. Coal is the leading source of greenhouse gases. This is where "clean" coal technology is meant to help. But, of the approximately 600 coal-fired power plants in the United States, not a single one is capturing and storing its global warming pollution. This is not likely to change soon, if ever. We cannot begin to seriously address climate change until we are willing to wean ourselves off coal.

Coal's advocates argue that it is the cheapest energy we can produce in the United States. We disagree-the costs of burning coal for electricity are more than we can afford. Dead fish, destroyed mountains and ruined ecosystems are just some of the taxes coal collects from our communities. How do we put a price on clean and healthy water? And, how much would you want to be paid before drinking a glass from the Emory River?

We shouldn't need to choose between clean water and reliable energy. We can have both. The answers lie in alternative and renewable energy sources-solar and wind, for example-and increased energy conservation. It will take some work, but we think clean water is worth it. Don't you?

In this issue of Clean Water Currents|Online:

For California Woman, Protecting A River Can Cost You A Job
Heather Wylie traded her job for a river. And, given the choice, she'd do it again.

During the summer of 2008, Wylie joined a handful of protestors for a canoe and kayak trip down the LA River, earning the wrath of her employers and the attention of a nation. Why? At the time, Wylie was a biologist with the US Army Corps of Engineers. The agency had just declared the LA River as not navigable--a designation that put the watershed at risk and would have set a.dangerous precedent. Wylie and her compatriots were making their voyage to prove the Army Corps wrong. If their fleet could make the journey, they reasoned, then the LA River must be in-fact navigable, a critical first step in retaining Clean Water Act safeguards for the LA River system.

Restoring the Clean Water Act Must Top Congress' Agenda
Restoring the ability of the Clean Water Act to protect water resources must top Congress' water agenda. Supreme Court and agency decisions put at risk Clean Water Act protections for headwater, intermittent and ephemeral streams that supply drinking water systems that serve more than 110 million Americans. In total, 59 percent of the nation's waterways and millions of acres of wetlands are currently at risk.

What You Won't See In Those 'Clean Coal' Ads: Dirty Air, A Wall of Sludge, Poisoned Rivers
Surely you've seen the ads. They are scattered around the internet and splashed across our newspapers and magazines. Their commercials interrupt our favorite television shows and invade our local radio station's airspace. Yes, the ads are everywhere. But that doesn't make them true.

No PR campaign, no matter how well executed, can make coal clean. It's simply not possible.

Advocates for "clean" coal argue that technology exists-almost-that will allow coal-fired power plants to capture their carbon emissions and store the climate-changing gas deep under ground. Technically, this is true. Realistically, this would be extremely expensive, and wouldn't even begin to address most of the impacts felt by water. From mines to power plants, the process of wresting energy from coal is dirty and unhealthy for our waters, our communities and ourselves.

How Safe is Your Bath Tub?
Children's bubble baths should be clean, safe and fun. But No More Toxic Tub, a report published in March 2009 by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics in partnership with Clean Water Action and other organizations, found contaminants and other hazardous ingredients in numerous popular shampoos, soaps and body care products marketed to babies and children.

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