Frances Beinecke: Household Trash is Managed Better Than The TVA's Coal Ash

Americans have been assaulted on the airwaves with ads about so-called " clean coal ." What happened in East Tennessee, where a breach of a coal ash pond at a power plant send a billion gallons of toxic sludge into nearby communities, proved once again just how false that myth is. But it also revealed something many Americans didn't know: our government has failed utterly to regulate the 1,300 coal ash dumps across the country. The New York Times quoted a specialist as saying: "Your household garbage is managed much more consistently" than this toxic coal ash. While your municipal government does a good job of handling your trash, the Environmental Protection Agency is supposed to protect Americans from hazardous waste. Coal ash fits the bill. Coal ash is what's left over after the combustion process that produces electricity. It contains high levels of arsenic and other heavy metals such as cadmium and chromium. Among the greatest concerns is arsenic, which causes bladder, kidney, ... (link)