Report: 2 coal ash sites in Iowa leach contaminants

CEDAR RAPIDS - An environmental group says two Iowa plants are among 20 coal ash dump sites causing groundwater and soil contamination in 10 states.

The Environmental Integrity Project identified the Prairie Creek Generating Station in Cedar Rapids and the Fair Station in Muscatine in its report issued Tuesday.

“Those who think these (health) threats should go unaddressed are wrong,” Jeff Stant, director of the group's Coal Combustion Waste Initiative, said during a conference call with reporters.

Stant said Congress is considering legislation to roll back oversight of toxic coal-ash pollution.

Health risks vary, depending on the contaminant identified, but at least five sites report groundwater levels that exceed health advisories for three or more contaminants, including Prairie Creek.

Prairie Creek showed arsenic levels of 28 parts per billion, above the 10 parts per billion health advisory level, along with elevated levels of boron, manganese and sulfate, according to the report.

The boron level, at 37 parts per million, is more than 10 times the health advisory for drinking water consumed by children within a 24-hour period.

Scott Drzycimski, a spokesman for Alliant Energy, which operates the Prairie Creek plant at 3300 C St. SW, said Alliant was reviewing the report.

He said it appeared the group was referencing the Stoney Point landfill on the west side of Cedar Rapids, where ash was landfilled for decades before the site was closed in the 1990s.

Alliant continues to monitor the site and submit data to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Drzycimski said the DNR would notify Alliant if action was warranted.

As for the Fair Station plant operated by Central Iowa Power Cooperative, the report cited selenium, manganese and sulfate all above health advisory levels.

A representative for CIPCO could not be reached Tuesday afternoon.

To compile the report, the Environmental Integrity Project made requests through the Freedom of Information Act to obtain groundwater monitoring data from 2008 to 2011, groundwater quality results from the date of well installation, maps showing the locations of groundwater wells, information about compliance boundaries, hydrogeologic reports, groundwater monitoring plans and any records of enforcement actions related to groundwater.

Residents living near coal ash sites in several states spoke out during Tuesday's call.

Yma Smith, 55, who lives near a coal ash site in Labelle, Penn., said her family has to buy bottled water to drink.

“The only ones I see benefiting from this today are morticians,” she said.

A letter to Congress from 2,309 residents near the sites reads in part: “We know Congress has already heard from industry lobbyists, big contributors, and state bureaucrats. We live near these dumps, and put up with their pollution year after year ... We know what it is like to suffer through the daily onslaught of blowing ash, drink water from faucets contaminated with ash leachate, and see our wetlands and creeks poisoned with toxic metals like arsenic. Do our lives matter to you?”

Other states included in the report were Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

See the full report here:

www.environmentalintegrity.org