 | By Corrina BeallLegislative Coordinator |
Toxic coal ash has stepped into the spotlight as the latest threat to Virginia’s environment. Between major environmental disasters haunting recent memory, proven contamination at multiple Virginia coal ash containment sites and public uproar fueling huge demonstrations and even civil disobedience arrests on the capital steps, action seemed inevitable in the General Assembly this year. Alas, legislators will leave Richmond having done nothing to protect the James and Potomac rivers and the ecosystems they serve, including our own drinking water.
Coal ash is a toxic byproduct of coal-fired power plants, frequently laden with heavy metals including arsenic, mercury, lead, selenium, and hexavalent chromium. At sites along the James and the Potomac, this waste is currently stored in ponds, where it mixes with water to form a gray slurry that can leach into groundwater or run off into streams and rivers in wet weather. Dominion’s long-term storage plan for this coal ash involves leaving it where it is, putting communities at risk of exposure to these toxic substances. Already, testing at several coal ash sites in Virginia have shown heavy metals contamination.
In spite of this, Virginia legislators voted down a bill that would mandate Dominion safely close coal ash ponds in Virginia by 2020 and transfer the toxic waste to dry, lined landfills. The measure failed on a 7-7-1 vote in a Senate committee hearing on February 4.
Senate Bill 537 from Sen. Scott Surovell of Mount Vernon would have required utilities to transfer solid coal ash waste to dry, lined landfills instead of merely “capping in place,” where the waste is covered over in the existing unlined pits with no assurances that it won’t leach into groundwater. Sites would then be required to undergo remediation in line with existing federal mine reclamation standards to ensure they don’t pose any further threat to our environment or public health.
Senator Bill Stanley (R-20) crossed party lines to vote with all but one Democrat in support of the bill, citing his firsthand experience of the costly impacts from coal ash storage failure. Nearly two years ago, a spill in North Carolina dumped nearly 40,000 tons of coal ash and millions of gallons of toxic wastewater into the Dan River from a Duke Energy site. This toxic sludge made its way 70 miles downstream, into Stanley’s district. Stanley represents the communities of Danville and several other townships located on the banks of the Dan, where the spill coated the bottom of the riverbed and impacted drinking water in Southside Virginia.
Even with Stanley’s vote, however, the measure failed to make it out of committee because of an abstention from Sen. Roslyn Dance (D-16) of Petersburg, whose district contains Virginia’s largest coal-burning power plant. Monitoring at the Chesterfield County site, where an estimated 8,400 tons of coal are burned daily, has already revealed elevated levels of coal ash contamination in surface and groundwater, making Dance’s vote especially surprising. A coal ash spill from this site in Dance’s backyard would inflict untold harm on the James River and everyone who depends on it downstream.
Clearly, Virginia needs to act, and the General Assembly wasted its chance this year to be proactive. Our legislature has an obligation to protect public health, and coal ash waste will continue to pose a serious threat unless there is a proper plan in place.
Following the spill, North Carolina enacted legislation requiring utilities to remove coal ash waste from ponds similar to those in Virginia and transfer it to dry, lined landfills. In North Carolina, legislation came only after a disaster occurred. Virginia should enact commonsense safeguards before the next environmental disaster can happen.