If you really think that coal is a clean form of energy, why don’t you visit one of the 31 sites identified by a new report by the Environmental Integrity Project, and have a good long drink from the groundwater there? These 31 sites are places where coal ash and sludge have been disposed of, and the Environmental Protection Agency has not reported to be polluted. Yet, an independent analysis of water at the sites found arsenic and other toxic substances at up to 145 times the legal limit.
Here’s the kicker: The dumping at 11 of these toxic coal refuse sites was done in such a way that the coal industry claimed would be clean, and helpful to the local community. They called it “beneficial reuse”.
Can you think of a way in which high levels of toxic heavy metals in the groundwater is beneficial?
