{"id":3069,"date":"2019-04-29T12:59:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T16:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/?p=3069"},"modified":"2019-05-08T11:29:29","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T15:29:29","slug":"coal-ash-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/2019\/04\/29\/coal-ash-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"Coal Ash Catastrophe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hundreds of protesters and activists took over the Capitol grounds in Richmond, Virginia, in resistance against Dominion Energy’s plan to dump treated coal ash wastewater into the James River in April 2016.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

By Jasmine Fernandez<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

With its nearly 7.5 billion customers in 18 states, Dominion Energy provides heat, air conditioning and power for homes and businesses throughout our nation. But this doesn\u2019t come without a cost.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more than 100 years, as America\u2019s economy was growing, people depended on coal to provide them with economical, reliable energy. Coal ash ponds and landfills\u2014where the coal ash that results from producing electricity at these coal power stations is stored\u2014have been used for decades.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ponds, which\u00a0leak into\u00a0the\u00a0groundwater\u00a0flowing to\u00a0the James River, were set to close in April 2015, in accordance with EPA regulations and Virginia requirements for coal ash storage sites. Before this,\u00a0Dominion had 11 coal ash ponds at four of its facilities and six coal ash landfills at five.<\/span><\/p>\n

Headquartered here in Richmond, Virginia, Dominion depends on several power stations, the largest of which is only about 20 minutes outside of the downtown area, in Chester, Virginia.\u00a0Taking up approximately 1,000 acres, this coal-powered station is capable of generating enough power to provide roughly two million households with electricity.\u00a0I got the chance to visit and tour this station on a rainy April afternoon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Walking through the station’s hallways, I\u00a0spoke with technicians Marybeth Barkley\u00a0and Andrew Perkins, who explained Dominion\u2019s day-to-day functions and showed where the control room, generators and turbines were located within the plant. Obviously proud of their work, the technicians\u00a0gave\u00a0detailed\u00a0descriptions and\u00a0were\u00a0open to\u00a0my questions about the plant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Two Dominion Energy technicians, Marybeth Barkley and Andrew Perkins, lead a group tour of Dominion’s Chesterfield power station. (Photo by Jasmine Fernandez)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

I asked\u00a0Barkley,\u00a0a senior chemistry technician at Dominion\u2019s Chesterfield power station,\u00a0about\u00a0Dominion\u2019s\u00a0wastewater disposal process. As this plant\u2019s cooling medium, the James receives the wastewater that\u00a0remains\u00a0after Dominion has produced its energy and fueled the homes of its customers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u00a0explained that the wastewater must pass through condensers, which are treated with bleach.\u00a0But because\u00a0of potential\u00a0harm, \u201cwe deactivate the bleach,\u00a0because any type of biological kill agents can\u2019t go into the rivers,\u201d\u00a0Barkley said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The condensers are kept from\u00a0accumulating\u00a0green slime\u00a0by\u00a0the bleach, she explained. By adding a chemical called\u00a0sodium\u00a0bisulfite,\u00a0Dominion deactivates\u00a0the killing agent, making the water safe to go\u00a0back\u00a0into the river.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But as safe as the wastewater is said to be, the initial step\u2014transporting\u00a0the\u00a0ash\u00a0from Dominion plants to the ponds\u2014is harmful on its own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I spoke with\u00a0Kwaku Aduse-Poku,\u00a0a\u00a0biodiversity conservation expert and visiting lecturer of biology at the University of Richmond.\u00a0 Passionate about the health and protection of the James,\u00a0Aduse-Poku\u2019s voice\u00a0registered concern\u00a0as he talked about Dominion\u2019s wastewater and what happens once the coal ash leaves Dominion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[The waste water] passes through a wetland, and if its not well-covered, then you can have some of the residue flying over,\u201d he said. \u201cIf any of\u00a0it\u00a0lands in a wetland,\u00a0that\u2019s not good, because this is highly pollutant stuff.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Dominion claims that it makes sure it covers these wetlands well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The effects of coal ash, when it comes into contact with water, are detrimental.\u00a0The toxic heavy metals contained in the ash can leach or dissolve, which contaminates\u00a0nearby grounds and surface waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, the energy giant started the process of shutting down six of its 11 ash ponds\u2014four at Possum Point\u00a0power station in Northern Virginia\u2019s Prince William County\u00a0and two at Bremo\u00a0power station, in New Canton, Virginia.\u00a0Three of the four coal ash ponds at the Possum Point Power Station were reported to have leaked contaminated waste water into nearby Quantico Creek, by the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, which pledges to protect environmental landmarks such as the James.\u00a0By the end of this year, the ponds are expected to be closed for good.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the five remaining ash ponds at four of Virginia\u2019s power stations, Dominion announced four actions it would take\u00a0to shut these down in November 2018. These actions included gathering results from a recycling study, an agreement with the Commonwealth of Virginia to monitor the coal ash, examining groundwater results and having a regulatory filing for costs associated with handling the coal ash.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ponds\u00a0would be effectively closed by removing the water, leaving the toxic ash in place, and distributing tarps and sod on top of the drained ponds.\u00a0This coal ash cleanup is not as easy as it may sound, though\u2014the move\u00a0would cost Dominion\u00a0billions of dollars, which would be passed on to consumers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole idea is to dispose of them properly so that the contact with the groundwater becomes minimal,\u201d Aduse-Poku\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As of now, none of Dominion\u2019s coal ash ponds in Virginia are in use. But five of them still remain.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aduse-Poku believes that the complete removal of these coal ash ponds will improve the health of the James.\u00a0Minimizing the contact\u00a0between\u00a0coal ash\u00a0and\u00a0groundwater will\u00a0significantly\u00a0improve the quality of\u00a0the watershed, including the James.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dominion\u00a0will\u00a0constantly monitor\u00a0the level of heavy metals within the water, Aduse-Poku said, echoing what Marybeth Barkley had told me back at the Chesterfield power station.\u00a0As government regulations and policies become more environmentally stringent,\u00a0she expects\u00a0Dominion\u00a0will continue to deal with the challenge of\u00a0heavy metals, such as arsenic, selenium and mercury.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The map below\u00a0displays the location of\u00a0Dominion\u2019s power stations\u00a0with\u00a0coal ash storage sites.\u00a0\u00a0Also mapped are\u00a0other toxic storage sites, railroads and\u00a0groups\u00a0advocating\u00a0for the river\u2019s health.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A map detailing the current pollution threats to the James River.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jasmine Fernandez With its nearly 7.5 billion customers in 18 states, Dominion Energy provides heat, air conditioning and power for homes and businesses throughout our nation. But this doesn\u2019t come without a cost. For more than 100 years, as America\u2019s economy was growing, people depended on coal to provide them with economical, reliable energy. Read more about Coal Ash Catastrophe<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3753,"featured_media":3072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/files\/2019\/04\/D1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7o53H-Nv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3753"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}