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EPA gets busy

W hether it's because the Environmental Protection Agency is operating under a more environmentally friendly administration or because of a lawsuit, the agency has announced -- after many years of delay -- that it will revise standards for water discharges from coal-fired power plants to reduce pollution.

Either way, the decision is good for our drinking-water supply. The standards now in effect were issued in 1982 and are hopelessly out of sync with today's electric power industry.

Florida has fewer coal-fired power plants than many other states, but it only takes one to contaminate nearby waterways. When the EPA adopts the new standards they will be applied by the state.

Plant in Alabama stops taking coal ash drainage

The Tennessee Valley Authority's cleanup of a December 2008 coal ash spill at its Kingston plant has hit a snag 500 miles away, just before the treated wastewater reaches Mobile Bay.

A wastewater processing company in Mobile, Ala., Liquid Environmental Solutions, Friday stopped accepting shipments of runoff wastewater from an Alabama landfill that is receiving the coal ash laced with arsenic, mercury and some other heavy metals.

The Dallas-based company's senior vice president, Dana King, said in a statement that the shipments have been stopped due to local concerns even though the company has "properly accepted, tested and treated the non-hazardous Perry County landfill wastewater."

Tests too limited

The Nov. 5 article A scourge unsettled: Dominican Republic town blames U.S. firm for birth defects reported the view of former Deputy Environment Minister for the Dominican Republic, Hector Rene Ledesma, that tests conducted by Greenpeace in 2004 had shown the dumped ashes to be ``safe.''

Our report of June 2004, based on analysis of just four samples received by our laboratory, cannot be used to draw such a general conclusion. Our report clearly stated that, while we did not detect signs of significant toxic metal or arsenic contamination in those samples, it could not be assumed that the ashes we received were representative of all the ashes dumped in the Arroyo Barril region.

We went on to stress that dust and chemical hazards other than those we tested for could well arise from the presence of the dumped ashes, an issue that demanded then, as it does now, thorough investigation by the relevant authorities. Until such investigations are completed, any assessment of health and environmental impacts

Haitians begin to return to unprepared capital

A half-million Haitians who fled their shattered capital after the earthquake are starting to return to a maze of rubble piles, refugee camps and food lines, complicating ambitious plans to build a better Haiti.

Haitian and international officials had hoped to use the devastation of Port-au-Prince - a densely packed sprawl of winding roads and ramshackle slums that is home to a third of Haiti's 9 million people - to build an improved capital and decentralize the country.

An estimated 500,000 people fled to the countryside in the days after the quake, many on buses paid for by the government to move quake survivors away from the heart of the destruction. Hundreds of thousands more are camped atop the rubble of their homes, or packed into makeshift camps.

Plant in Alabama stops taking coal ash drainage

The Tennessee Valley Authority's cleanup of a massive 2008 coal ash spill at its Kingston plant has hit a snag 500 miles away, in Alabama.

Liquid Environmental Solutions, a wastewater processing company in Mobile, Ala., on Friday stopped accepting shipments of runoff wastewater from an Alabama landfill that is receiving the coal ash laced with arsenic and heavy metals.

The Dallas-based company's senior vice president, Dana King, said in a statement that the shipments have been stopped due to local concerns even though the company has "properly accepted, tested and treated the non-hazardous Perry County landfill wastewater."