Nearly one week after the worse spill of coal ash in the nation’s history, it’s time to start thinking about where other vulnerable dump sites might lie. One possibility: the the Cumberland Park Project near Narrows, Virginia, along the New River.
The project was conceived by an organization called the Giles County Partnerships for Excellence, and American Electric Power. The idea is to use coal combustion wastes from a nearby power plant as foundation fill to create a 30-acre site along the river for commercial use. Proceeds from the sale of the site are supposedly going to support the schools in Giles county. But according to the Roanoke Times, no one from the Giles County schools district sits on the partnership’s board.
And the project has the potential to pose environmental and human health risks along the historic and environmentally sensitive New River. It turns out that the coal ash is being dumped in an unlined site within the flood plain of the New River — and in close proximity to the water table. This was made possible by a loophole in Virginia law that is allowing American Electric Power to dump the waste without essential safety precautions — because it is being put to “beneficial use.”
As we now know in the aftermath of the Tennessee catastrophe, coal ash can be contaminated with toxic heavy metals such as arsenic and lead, and even radioactive elements. And when it comes in contact with water, those contaminants can leach out to poison the environment and drinking water supplies. The EPA now says that lagoons and landfills filled with coal combustion waste may present a cancer risk that is 10,000 times greater than federal rules allow, yet it has failed to issue regulations.
For a map of the area, go here
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I live right beside this mess. Board of Supervisors for Giles County refuses to pass any regulation to prevent another coal ash dump in this County. Appalachian Power Company is a big supporter in this county and they don’t want to piss them off. So at the risk of damaging the environment, killing plant and wild life that lives in and on the New River, they let the power company do what ever they want. The earthend berm here is “different than the one in Tennessee”. Dirt is dirt, no matter how you stack it up. Then we have to live with the dust off this coal ash dump. Their solution is to water it down once or twice a month. Originally their speach to the Board of Supervisors was that it would be watered down daily. The dust is what causes lung, and breathing problems. I hope everyone working on this project gets cancer. and all their supporters. As for me, I am moving. My tax dollars are not going to pay for this clean up when it happens. And, I fear that it will be very soon. They never fixed the water leak that was going into the first big hole they dug. And a leak is what has caused all of the collaspes of the earthened berms, is it not. Just wait and see.
When I visited the site, I was shocked at the dump’s proximity to the river and people living right next store. This is clearly a disaster waiting to happen.
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