Blog posts tagged with 'coal ash'

The health dangers stemming from coal ash exposure have become more widely known following coal ash spills in Tennessee in 2008 and in North Carolina in 2014. That’s why it should be concerning to hear about the findings of a new study funded by the National Science Foundation and Susan Wind, a former Mooresville, N.C., resident whose daughter and others on the block where they used to live developed thyroid cancer.

Proposed Environmental Protection Agency amendments that would loosen coal ash rules came under scrutiny in an EPA public hearing in Arlington, Va., with environmentalists calling them illegal because of the lack of proper monitoring and protections for the public. The amendments call for an elimination of onsite dry coal ash storage requirements for utility companies, and the relenting of environmental protections on coal ash fill projects greater than 12,400 tons. The latter of the two amendments is the larger concern for environmentalists.

In recent years, climate change has emerged as a critical issue with far-reaching impacts on various aspects of our environment and infrastructure. One area that has gained increasing attention is the heightened risk climate change poses to coal ash ponds. It’s not difficult to find data that showcases the threat of climate change. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that June 2019 was the hottest June ever recorded, with records going back to 1880.