Coal-Fired Power: a Threat to Our Water

Coal-Fired Power: A Threat To Our Water

Coal-fired power plants are a threat water supplies A power plant with once-through cooling draws and public health. Coal plants use substantial hundreds of millions, and in some cases billions, of amounts of water for their cooling systems, and gallons of water each day from the closest lake, large numbers of fish are killed when this water is river, or ocean, and indiscriminately sucks in sucked out of local sources. The water that is whatever aquatic life is near the intake pipe. In eventually discharged from coal plants contains this process, fish and other aquatic life are toxic metals and other harmful chemicals that smashed and mutilated against crude screens or pose a threat to human health and wildlife. The are sucked into the cooling system itself. Once- water is also released at a higher temperature through cooling systems draw water from a nearby than local waterways, killing additional fish and water-body and then discharge it at an elevated wildlife. Moreover, mercury released from temperature, causing severe ecosystem smokestacks further contaminates water supplies destruction. Even with the reduced water usage of and endangers people and other creatures that closed-cycle cooling technology, there is still rely on those sources. demand on local water supplies and harm to fish and other wildlife.

Water Intake Coal plants use millions of gallons of water for Wastewater their cooling systems, reducing the amount After water is processed in a coal plant's cooling available for drinking, agriculture, and ecosystems. system, it is discharged directly into surface water, Coal plants with once-through cooling are among along with heavy metals and other toxic the most water intensive energy sources. Each of pollutants, which can be extremely harmful to these plants withdraws between 20,000 and humans and aquatic life, even in small doses. 50,000 gallons for each megawatt-hour (MWh) of Exposure to toxics like mercury, lead, and arsenic electricity it produces. A coal plant with closed- can cause birth defects, cancer, and other health cycle cooling recirculates cooling water, reducing problems. These pollutants do not degrade over withdrawals and fish kills, but these plants still time and many bio-accumulate, increasing in consume between 480-1,100 gallons per MWh.1 concentration as they travel up the food chain, resulting in long-term damage to aquatic Recirculating systems require more energy to ecosystems. operate the cooling system, making them less efficient and potentially generating more heat- trapping emissions overall.

Drought and warm weather put water supplies and coal plants at increased risk, as the need for drinking water and agriculture compete with thirsty power plants. A lack of water can even force a power plant to cut back or shut down generation. Hot weather can also make incoming water too warm, forcing plants to reduce output when it is needed most.

1 Macknick, J. R. Newmark, G. Hearth, and K.C. Hallet. 2012. Operational water consumption and withdrawal factors for electricity generating technologies: a review of existing literature. Environmental Research Letters 7(4). have debilitating effects on their health and compromise their future.

Coal ash dumps are also subject to catastrophic failure. For example, on December 22, 2008, a dam holding back millions of tons of coal ash in the United States failed at the Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, TN, flooding the surrounding residential area with more than one billion gallons of toxic sludge—enough to cover more than 3,000 acres one foot deep.4 Testing showed extremely poisonous levels of arsenic, mercury, and other toxins.5

Nothing can make coal ash disposal 100 percent safe, but surface impoundments, or “wet dumps,” are the most dangerous – compared to dry storage, which still has a risk of toxic dust and water contamination, but carries less of a risk of catastrophic failure.

Mercury Coal Ash Burning coal releases toxic mercury into the air Coal ash is the leftover material after burning coal, that then rains down into rivers and streams. This and it also contains high levels of toxic heavy poison then accumulates in the food chain, metals such as arsenic, cadmium, and hexavalent eventually making its way into our bodies when chromium. Exposure to toxics in coal ash can cause we eat contaminated fish. Mercury is a powerful increased risk of cancer, learning disabilities, neurotoxin that can damage the brain and nervous neurological disorders, birth defects, reproductive system. Mercury is of special concern to women failure, asthma, and other sickness, as well as who are pregnant or thinking of becoming poison and kill fish and wildlife. pregnant, since exposure to mercury can cause developmental problems, learning disabilities, and When coal ash comes in contact with water, a delayed onset of walking and talking in babies and soup of hazardous pollutants can leach out of the infants. waste and poison our water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found some coal ash ponds pose a 1 in 50 risk of cancer to residents drinking arsenic-contaminated water.2 Our air can be made unhealthy by toxic ash particles blowing from landfills and ponds, causing asthma, lung irritation, and even premature death.3 The toxic chemicals in ash threaten our vital organs, particularly those of children, and can

4 US EPA, Potable Water Sampling Results Kingston Fossil Fly 2 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste Ash Response. (January 4, 2009). Available at and Emergency Response, Office of Resource Conservation and http://www.epa.gov/region4/kingston/pdf/10644911.pdf Recovery. “Human and Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Wastes.” Draft EPA document. P.ES-7 (April 2010) 5 US EPA, TVA Kingston Fly Ash Release, Lab Analytical Results for Surface Water Samples. (January 1, 2009). Available at 3 Id http://www.epa.gov/region4/kingston/pdf/10644913.pdf