According to 2002 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data made public by two environmental groups- EIP (Environmental Integrity Project) and Earthjustice, if you live near coal waste or ash dumps, you might be inviting potentially life-threatening diseases, including cancer
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EPA data analyzed
“Can living next to one of these dump sites increase your risk of getting cancer or other diseases?” questioned director of the EIP and a former EPA official, Eric Schaeffer. “The Environmental Protection Agency thinks so, especially if you live near one of those wet ash ponds or surface impoundments,” clarified Schaeffer.
“Unlined waste ponds can result in exposures up to nine times the federal standard for lead, and there are additional toxic metals that exceed thresholds which are generally established to protect people,” Schaeffer further said.
Moreover, going by the findings of the EPA data, nearly one in 50 people using water from wells located near the coal ash ponds are at a higher risk of getting cancer and non-cancer diseases, Schaeffer disclosed. People eating fish from rivers or ponds with contaminated surface water were at much greater risk of getting cancer and non-cancer diseases, he cautioned.
“EPA is estimating risks of up to one in fifty excess cancers due to arsenic leaking into drinking water wells,” said Schaeffer, adding that “the problem there will come from either recreational exposure or from eating contaminated fish.”
EPA blamed
The fact that the EPA was well aware of the health risks to people living near sites of ash wastes and dump sites, and even then did not release the information for nearly seven years, is a cause of grave concern for environmental groups.
The research goes on to add that EPA was well aware of many dumping and ash sites in Kentucky where the risk of cancer and non-cancer diseases was quite high. But, EPA did not bother to regulate the material as a potential health hazard.
According to Donna Wong-Gibbons, a public health expert at Plains Justice ( an Iowa nonprofit group), “The EPA's findings make it clear that coal combustion waste disposal practices are an unacceptable threat to human health. Now that this information has finally been made public, it is past time for the EPA to start protecting Iowans by regulating this toxic coal waste.”
The list released by the two environmental groups, EIP and Earthjustice, names 210 ash dumping sites in United States out of which 11 coal ash ponds are in Georgia.
“We now have the full picture about coal dump sites across America, and it is not pretty. The EPA's data show the disposal of coal ash, especially in unlined ponds, results in alarmingly high risks of cancer and diseases of the heart, lung, liver, stomach and other organs, and can seriously harm aquatic ecosystems and wildlife near disposal sites,” Schaeffer went on to add.
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