The following is a letter written by Central Kentucky KFTC member Layton Register (shown right) to all House Tourism Development and Energy Committee members after they heard the Clean Energy Opportunity Act, House Bill 167, this last session:

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Dear Representative,

I attended the committee meeting on March 22, 2012, to discuss HB167. It seems very clear to me, and I wish it were to the rest of the committee members, that coal is by no means a cheap source of energy. Coal is cheap for utility companies with coal-fired generators and for the coal companies to supply, but coal is not cheap for the rest of us or for future generations. A very large price is being paid. Please consider what the coal industry and the coal energy producers do not pay in order to mine, process, and burn this natural resource.

•    Property values near coal mining sites become practically worthless due to the dust, noise, and unsightliness, for which the mining companies compensate these property owners nothing.

•    Even after reclamation of a mining site, the land and soil have been disturbed to the extent that these areas are practically useless for property development, agriculture, or forestry.

•    Large, over-filled coal trucks cause dangerous traffic conditions, causing all of us to pay higher auto insurance rates. These same trucks, when not risking the lives of drivers, cause considerable wear and tear on the roadways, the repair and maintenance of which falls on the taxpayer, not the coal companies.

•    There has been study after study linking the coal dust from mining sites to breathing difficulties, cancer, and other serious ailments, treatment for which contributes to our exploding health insurance costs.

•    We have a shared existence with plants and animals. Therefore, what we do in the way of destroying wildlife habitat and permitting the destruction of plants and animals, we are ultimately doing to ourselves. For however much life is valued, it is being sacrificed for the sake of burning coal.

•    Mining and the processing of coal require heavy use of water. Heavy metals and other toxins, i.e. trailings, either are transferred into sludge impoundment ponds or directed into the water supply. Sludge impoundment ponds pose enormous risk to life and property, whether from small leaks or large breaks, such as what occurred in Martin County in 2000, while the water supply requires intensive treatment to be made safe for drinking.

•    When coal is being mined and when it is burned, some of the heavy metals and toxins escape into the air, which also pose health risks in the form of serious, if not fatal, respiratory diseases. The heavy metals and toxins that are trapped by scrubbers and other filtering equipment are commonly transferred into coal ash impoundment ponds, which, like the sludge containment ponds, pose risk to life and property. The cost of cleaning up the spill in Kingston, TN, that occurred in 2008 has climbed to over $1 billion.

•    Whether or not carbon dioxide is toxic is subject to debate. Regardless, that it can be deadly in high enough concentrations there is no doubt. Current levels of carbon dioxide may not be lethal, but there is a great deal of evidence that atmospheric conditions are changing due to carbon dioxide emissions, therefore is it really that inconceivable that worse could happen with increasing levels of carbon dioxide emissions? There will be a price to pay for filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. How much? Time will soon only tell.

So the next time an expert on coal-fired power plants or a coal executive tries to argue that coal is a low-cost energy source, please keep in mind what he or she is not factoring in, since it will indeed likely be a significant amount.

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Layton did not receive a response from any committee member.

A Congressional conference committee will meet May 8 to work out differences in a major transportation funding bill – with the Keystone XL pipeline and coal ash among the major issues to be worked out.

Why are those issues part of a transportation bill?

Congressional Republicans, with some Democratic support, are using whatever bills they can to attach riders that call for the approval of the Keystone pipeline and block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from protecting the public from exposure to toxic coal ash. West Virginia Rep. David McKinley, who sponsored a floor amendment that would prevent the EPA from ever adopting coal ash disposal standards, said that sometimes coal ash is recycled into road construction materials and therefore is a transportation matter.

This amendment passed the U.S. House on a voice vote so we can't tell you how Kentucky's individual members voted. In the past, only Rep. John Yarmuth has voted against legislation that would block the EPA from controlling coal ash disposal.

Approval of the Keystone XL pipeline was in the original House bill, but the Senate bill did not include it. President Obama said he would veto the transportation bill if the Keystone provision is included.

KFTC joined with Earthjustice and other state, regional and national groups to place an ad in Politico. a publication read widely in Washington, DC. The ad, pictured below, asks members of Congress to keep coal ash out of the transportation bill.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has delayed for too long steps to protect communities from toxic coal ash, so a group of state and national groups, including KFTC, threatened today to sue the federal agency.

The groups delivered to EPA officials a Notice of Intent to Sue letter on January 18. It gives the agency 60 days to respond before the groups can file a lawsuit.

“With many coal ash dumps located in populated areas, the public depends on EPA to do everything possible to protect our health and keep our communities safe,” said KFTC member Mary Love. “We need strong standards so we can not only clean up communities that have already been poisoned but make sure these toxins never again leak into our homes and communities."

Coal ash contains a toxic mix of arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium, mercury, selenium, cadmium and other dangerous pollutants that results from burning coal.

The coal ash dump at the Cane Run Power plant in Louisville

"Imagine this toxic ash embedded in your child's lungs," said Kathy Little, who participated on a national tele-press conference announcing the action. Little lives just a few hundred yards from a coal ash disposal site in Louisville.

"It's a horrible feeling. This ash is everywhere," she said, adding that she has to use a special cleanser to get the ash off her home and furniture. "We have no buffer zone. Homes are within 50 yards of the coal ash landfill and pond."

Three years ago, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced plans to set federal coal ash rules by year’s end. In May 2010, the EPA proposed a hybrid regulation to classify coal ash either as hazardous or non-hazardous waste. After eight public hearings across the country and more than 450,000 public comments, the agency decided to delay finalizing the rule amid intense pressure from the coal and power industries.

Numerous studies, including some by the EPA, show the inadequacy of current coal ash practices to protect public health and the environment. The documentation shows coal ash poisoned aquifers and surface waters at 150 sites in 36 states, including in Kentucky,

Despite this, the EPA continues to fail to updates federal coal ash standards, even though the law requires them to at least conduct a review every three years.

The legal action would force the EPA to set deadlines for review and revision of relevant solid and hazardous waste regulations to address coal ash, as well as the much needed, and overdue, changes to the test that determines whether a waste is hazardous.

The action was filed by Earthjustice on behalf of Appalachian Voices (NC), Environmental Integrity Project, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, French Broad Riverkeeper, Moapa Tribe Band of Paiutes (NV), Montana Environmental Information Center, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Prairie Rivers Network (IL), Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (TN) and KFTC.

“Politics and pressure from corporate lobbyists is delaying much needed health protections from coal ash,” said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans. “The law states that the EPA should protect citizens who are exposed to cancer-causing chemicals in their drinking water from coal ash. As we clean up the smokestacks of power plants, we can’t just shift that pollution to the waste and think the problem is solved. The EPA must set strong, federally enforceable safeguards against this toxic menace.”

Notice of Intent letter

On Friday, about 50 KFTC members rallied at Rep. Hal Rogers office, sending a message that the region deserves good jobs, clean water and air, and safe and healthy families. 

We know that a healthy environment is an important piece of building a good future for ourselves, especially in the 5th district, as we learn more about the health impacts of mountaintop removal mining and poisoned water. 

And yet, Hal Rogers is standing in the way. He's using his role as the chair of the House Appropriations Committee to undermine the important role of the Environmental Protection Agency by slashing funding and attaching 'riders' to budget bills that prohibit the EPA from enforcing clean water and clean air programs, especially those that control the most harmful impacts of coal mining, burning and coal ash disposal.

TAKE ACTION

Can you take a second to tell Rep. Rogers that we deserve stronger safeguards to ensure clean water and air?  It's simple.  On his website is this survey:

Go, weigh in, and share this post on Facebook (click the blue button down below) to get your friends to back us up!

The mountain of coal ash at LG&E's Cane Run Power Plant in Louisville. Photo by Beth Bissmeyer

WFPL-FM, a public radio station in Louisville, aired a three-part series on coal ash this week. Reporter Erica Peterson helped document the health problems that coal ash, escaping from Louisville Gas & Electric's coal-burning power plant and coal ash landfill located in residential neighborhoods, are causing for area residents.

The series can be accessed in whole or individual parts:

Part 1      Part 2      Part 3

The series is available to other public radio stations in Kentucky through the Kentucky Public Radio network. If your local public radio station has not broadcast the coal ash series, please ask them to do so.

During debate in the U.S. House of Representatives on a budget resolution, Rep. John Yarmuth defended the people and land of Appalachia. He asked his colleagues to vote against an amendment that would de-fund the U.S. EPA's authority to implement rules to keep coal companies from poisoning the waters that flow through communities where coal is mined.

You can view Yarmuth's floor speech here.

The amendment was one of number Republican-sponsored amendments to keep the EPA and other federal agencies from doing its job. It was directed specifically at EPA's guidance on in-stream conductivity. Since many streams in eastern Kentucky are already so badly polluted, under the rule no new pollution could be permitted until the streams recover.

Despite Yarmuth's effort, the amendment passed 235-185.

A similar amendment – to de-fund EPA’s authority to veto valley fills permits under the Clean Water Act – also passed, 240-182.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler also voted against the amendments but Kentucky's four Republican representatives – including Rep. Hal Rogers whose constituency is being poisoned by this pollution – voted for the amendments.

Another amendment that passed would "prohibit the use of funds by EPA to develop, propose, finalize, implement, administer, or enforce any regulation that identifies or lists fossil fuel combustion waste as hazardous waste subject to regulation." This targets an EPA effort to start protecting communities – such as the neighborhoods around a coal ash dump expansion in southwestern Jefferson County – from exposure to coal ash toxins.

In this case, Rep. Chandler joined the Republicans in passing this amendment, 239-182.

As you may know, our first White House Forum on Environmental Justice will take place on Wednesday, December 15 from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Due to overwhelming interest in the event and to provide access to those unable to attend the Forum, we will be streaming the event live on the White House website. The live video stream will be available at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

In addition, we will be hosting a live chat from 12:50 p.m. to 1:35 p.m. with Nancy Sutley, Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Sutley will take questions from students and young environmental justice advocates from Occidental College and around Southern California, as well as from the public via Facebook.

Questions can be submitted on the White House Facebook page on December 15.

 "We are here today to ask the EPA to create strong and vigorous regulations for coal ash. Kentucky families are at risk from coal ash and strong regulations are long overdue."

That was KFTC Chair K.A. Owens, one of several hundred citizens, including many KFTC members, who testified, rallied and marched Tuesday to demand that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency do its job and protect communities from toxic coal ash. These actions came in response to the EPA's request for comments on its proposed coal ash safety standards at a regional public hearing held in Louisville today.

KFTC, Sierra Club, Kentucky Alliance, Valley Watch and Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light organized a series of events around the hearing including a press conference, rally and march.

At the press conference, Patty Wallace made the connection between Monday's Appalachia Rising! day of action in Washington D.C. and the public actions around coal ash clear for all media present.

"I represent 7,000 members of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth. I understand that several hundred of them are in Washington and 100 were arrested last night. They were just standing up for Appalachia ... that's why we're here today. We want to the EPA to join us in building New Power, creating clean energy. I want the EPA to help preserve my vision of Appalachia," she said.

Citizens – many who live near coal ash dumps – testified all day and evening before the EPA panel in support of the federal government strictly controlling coal ash as a hazardous waste. EPA and scientists have determined that exposure to coal ash toxins results in serious human health impacts including a higher risk of developing cancer.

"We are here today to ask the federal government, by means of the EPA ... to protect us from an internal threat.  The EPA knows that coal ash is a poison. We ask it only to believe its own findings on this issue, and to do its duty," said Wendell Berry.

In his testimony, Steve Wilkins asked EPA to not only pass strict coal ash safety standards, but also to enforce the standards in Kentucky rather than allow state agencies to have control.

"Kentucky has already demonstrated that it cannot be entrusted to oversee the handling of coal ash. Kentucky has been very protective of any potential threat to the coal industry and that protection follows coal throughout its life cycle. Coal – the industry – is coddled while miners, mountains, waterways, communities, whole regions are sacrificed in pursuit of profits."

Some of the testimony against strong regulation claimed that doing so would eliminate the possibility that coal ash could be used in many everyday products, as it is right now.

The Kentucky Coal Association organized a gathering to oppose the safety standards, which legislators Leslie Combs, Rocky Adkins, Brandon Smith, Jim Gooch and Fitz Steele attended. In his comments there, Smith noted that the EPA has the responsibility to protect people's health only if it doesn't interfere with economic opportunity.

Nearly 300 citizens rallied outside the hearing at 5 p.m. and marched through downtown to the corporate headquarters of Louisville Gas & Electric, chanting things like "What do we want?" "New Power" "When do we want it?" "Now!" The rally and march drew attention to the fact that Louisville residents are battling a proposed expansion of an ash dump at LG&E's Cane Run Road power plant right now.

In front of LG&E's headquarters, KFTC member Jes Deis, who lives near the Cane Run plant, spoke about her vision for something better for her children's future.

"I can't see why we would spend our resources, to expand [the coal ash dump] when we can do something else. The possibilities are endless. We can put that money and energy somewhere else and my kids can have a better place to grow up."  

KFTC will have an informal coffee meeting at the Douglass Loop Heine Brothers coffee shop on Wednesday, October 13 at 6 p.m. to discuss follow-up steps to the public hearing. EPA is not expected to release final standards until later this year and is accepting public comments through mid-November.

• WHAS-TV
  
• The Courier-Journal
• Associated Press in the Daily Comet
• WLKY-TV
• WDRB-TV
• AlterNet
• Business First
  

More than 30 years after it was temporarily exempted from national solid waste regulation laws, coal ash remains largely unregulated – but that is about to change. The U.S. EPA is soliciting public feedback on recently proposed coal ash standards and is expected to adopt some this year. If appropriately stringent controls are adopted, the industry will be forced to protect the public from exposure to coal ash toxins.

EPA  just posted the proposed rules on the federal register website and is soliciting public comments until early September. KFTC is requesting that a public hearing about these proposed regulations be held in Louisville.

To learn more about the issue, read here.

Further, Louisvillians are actively opposing a proposed 60-acre coal ash landfill currently under consideration right now for the LG&E Cane Run power plant. LG&E wants to get this expansion passed before new, more strict regulations are implemented. Eventually reaching a height of 14 stories, the proposed impoundment is located in the middle of south-end neighborhoods and is adjacent to many homes.

Learn more about the Jefferson County campaign here.

UPDATE: At Tuesday's public hearing (see more below) the Army Corps of Engineers announced they have extended the deadline and are accepting written comments on the Smith plant's dredge & fill permit until June 18. Comments may be be submitted to the Corps via email: lrl.regulatorypubliccomment@usace.army.mil 

Click here for information to help you compose your comment.

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More good news on the Stop Smith campaign. Tuesday night, about 125 people attended a public hearing on a proposed permit that would allow East Kentucky Power Cooperative to impact Kentucky waterways and wetlands with coal ash. Of the 32 people who took the microphone, 31 opposed EKPC's plan to build a new coal-burning power plant in Clark County.

This "dredge and fill" permit - also called a 404 permit - would allow EKPC to impact more than 14 miles of streams including 210 stream channels and nearly 5 acres of wetlands, burying about half of these waterways that feed into the Kentucky River under toxic coal ash.

Many speakers focused on the dangers of mercury in the coal ash and other potential long-term effects. The Army Corps of Engineers will consider the comments in deciding whether to grant the permit.

John Patterson, who owns land adjoining the site, said he worries about his family and how the plant will affect future generations. "This is something that, quite frankly, is scaring me to death."

Patterson said Kentucky has an opportunity to be a leader in innovative energy technology. "The eyes of the nation really are upon us," he said.

Miranda Brown, also a Clark County resident, worries about her drinking water. "94 percent of my drinking water comes from the Kentucky River," she said. Brown gets her water from Winchester Municipal Utilities, which has intakes near the site where coal ash will be dumped.

"The people of Clark County know better than to defecate in our own water. Can we trust the Army Corps of Engineers to do the same?" Brown asked.

Only one speaker, William Quisenberry of Winchester, expressed support for the plant, saying it would bring good jobs and that he trusted EKPC and the state to keep the plant safe. But many other speakers disagreed, saying energy efficiency and renewable energy would produce many more jobs. They also cited the recent Gulf oil spill and the Kingston coal ash spill as examples of industry and government not doing their jobs to ensure safety.

Allies KFTC, Kentucky Environmental Foundation and the Sierra Club offered free mercury testing at the hearing to call attention to the already high mercury levels in Kentucky waterways.

If you missed the hearing, you can replay KFTC's live blog of the event, and watch video clips from the hearing at this link: http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2010/06/08/live-blogging-smith-404-permit-hearing

For more information about the hearing, follow these links:

Winchester Sun article: http://www.winchestersun.com/stories/2010/06/09/loc.105845.sto

Lexington Herald Leader article: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/06/08/1298302/dozens-oppose-proposed-power-plant.html

WKYT video clip: http://www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/95923954.html

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More photos from the hearing: