Group: EPA must act on coal ash because Consumers Energy is polluting Lake Huron

The delayed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule on coal ash disposal must be released because groundwater contamination has already spread at more than 100 dumps across the country, the Environmental Integrity Project said this week.

As evidence of the pressing need for EPA action the group pointed to the Consumers Energy Karn/Weadock complex near Bay City where arsenic levels 44 times the federal limit have been detected in groundwater beyond the ash dump. The ash piles at the plant are a major source of arsenic pollution in Lake Huron.

According to state documents, groundwater contamination from the two impoundments has resulted in elevated levels of arsenic, boron, and lithium. Mercury and phosphorous are also identified as constituents of concern although no exceedances of standards were provided in the information reviewed. A groundwater mound has developed beneath the impoundments, and as a result the contamination is flowing into both the Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay. Arsenic levels up to 0.997 mg/L have been measured in the groundwater between the berm of the impoundment and Lake Huron (MDEQ, 2009a). The contamination plumes are estimated to extend 100 to 500 feet from the dike of the Karn Landfill and 100 to 300 feet from the dike of the Weadock Landfill.

The area where the Saginaw River flows into Saginaw Bay has been designated an Area of Concern (AOC) by the International Joint Commission, which is a joint American and Canadian board that addresses issues regarding the Great Lakes and Boundary Waters area. An AOC is declared due to impairments of beneficial uses by contamination, which, in the case of the Saginaw Bay AOC, includes damage to fish and wildlife populations and restrictions on drinking water consumption. The AOC is a result of multiple sources of pollution, but studies have found that the Karn and Weadock Landfills are major contributors of arsenic contamination to the AOC (MDEQ, 2005).

The discussion of the Consumers Energy plant is part of a new report — Thirty-one New Damage Cases of Contamination from Improperly Disposed of Coal Ash Waste — in which EIP gives details about coal combustion waste sites that are known to have contaminated groundwater, wetlands, creeks or rivers.

Following the billion gallon Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill in December 2008, EPA promised to release new regulations for coal ash disposal by the end of 2009.

A 2007 EPA risk assessment estimated that as many as 1 in 50 residents near unlined coal ash disposal sites could get cancer as a result of groundwater contamination.