npr broadcast a story about the coal ash spill in Tennessee this morning. The spill occurred a while ago but questions are persisting about the degree of hazard associated with the stuff. Bloomberg also has a story about this incident, but makes a more disturbing claim that wells in the area have been reported to contain levels of "some metals" that exceed safe levels. Yet EPA considers coal ash, which is produced in huge quantities at coal-fired power plants, a special waste that is recyclable into building materials, etc., not really a regular hazardous waste.
Is coal ash hazardous? Does the dose make the poison in this case? I don't have the answers but this story doesn't seem to be going away. Given time maybe the news media will deliver us some more good information. In the mean time I may have to dig into the EPA's web to see what else I can learn.
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