Coal Plants Prove Beyond Toxic - Polluting Without Consequence or Restriction

Harmless natural alternatives like green coal remain unavailable, while a new report shows coal operations all over the country are polluting at alarming rates.

(COTTAGE GROVE) - Environmental experts from Waterkeeper Alliance, Sierra Club, Earth Justice, the Environmental Integrity Project and the Clean Water Action organizations, recently came together to review technical data from 386 separate coal-fired power plants across the country.

They determined that The US Clean Water Act has for the most part, been almost completely ignored by power companies and governing agencies charged with permitting, managing and preventing such abuse.

Coal plants have become by far the largest source of toxic water pollution in the country. Of the 274 coal plants that discharge coal, ash, and "scrubber wastewater" into waterways, nearly 70 percent (188) have no limits on the toxins most commonly found in these discharges, which contain arsenic, boron, lead, mercury, and other dangerous toxins.

The group found that these toxic chemical wastes are freely dumped directly into rivers, lakes, streams and bays without any accountability, and that most Americans don't seem to know a thing about it.

Of these 274 coal plants, 102, (more than 1/3), have absolutely no requirements nor guideline or expectation to monitor or report discharges of these toxic metals to any of the state or federal government agencies, or the general public.

Another scary discovery was that a total of 71 coal plants surveyed by the groups were found to be discharging toxic water pollutants into rivers, lakes, streams and bays, that have already been declared impaired due to poor water quality which in turn releases them from any hazard material or DEQ violations.

Furthermore they determined that 3 out of 4 plants are dumping toxic metals into impaired waterways, and that 59 of them actually have no permit that limits the amount of toxic metals it can dump. But the most surprising and yet disturbing of their findings is that nearly half of the coal plants surveyed, a total of 187, are actually operating with an expired "Clean Water Act permit" yet still continue contaminating without any repercussion at all, and are making money while they do it. 53 of these power plants are operating with expired permits which allow them to do business. Some of the permits expired five or more years ago.

Coal mining continues today all across America. Cloud Peak Energy is headquartered in Wyoming and is one of the largest U.S. coal producers and the only pure-play Powder River Basin (PRB) coal company. Cloud Peak Energy specializes in the production of "low sulfur, subbituminous coal".

The company owns and operates three surface coal mines in the PRB, the lowest cost major coal producing region in the nation. The Antelope and Cordero Rojo mines are located in Wyoming and the Spring Creek Mine is located near Decker, Montana. Cloud Peak Energy also owns rights to substantial undeveloped coal and complimentary surface assets in the Northern PRB, further building the company’s long-term goal to get into position to serve Asian export and domestic customers. This group also received $500 from Union Pacific Railroad.

"Union Pacific Railroad’s coal team is committed to providing coal transportation to the utility, industrial and export markets. Every year, we ship more than 200 million tons of coal from mines in the Southern Powder River Basin, Utah, Colorado, Southern Wyoming and Southern Illinois." their website proudly boasts.

Over recent years, many alternative options to coal have been explored in regards to filling our energy needs; from fracking to switching to crude oil or natural gas dependence, but out of all of them, cannabis activists have insisted that cannabis alone is in fact the only annually renewable crop capable of producing carbon-neutral bio-charcoal, also referred to as "Green Coal", and in the same quantities as existing coal supplies. By following that direction, green coal would actually supersede our need for coal and other fossil fuels, eliminating those but creating even more and safer job opportunities as well as provide the best possible help replenishing the quality of all life including our earth, as well as the ozone and that we also wouldn't need to deforest anymore of our land for pulp based products in addition to providing enough medicine to cure the world of cancer, all in one season...

The ignorance continues, but it can't go on forever!

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