EPRI Research Informs Pending Coal Ash Disposal Regulation
To inform decisions leading to EPA’s final regulatory proposal on coal ash disposal, due in December, EPRI’s Ken Ladwig recently briefed federal agency representatives and Congressional staffers in Washington, DC on sustainable management of coal combustion products (CCPs).  He presented the results of six separate, fast-tracked EPRI supplemental projects performed over the summer related to:

• Composition.  Ash and rocks have similar composition, but ash has slightly enriched levels of trace metals.  FGD gypsum and mined gypsum have similar composition.
• Leaching.  CCPs do not fail EPA’s Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure.  Ash leachate resembles leachate from nonhazardous metal industry wastes.  Risks from CCP leachate are several orders of magnitude lower than risks from nonhazardous municipal solid waste leachate.
• Damage cases. Proven and potential cases of damage related to CCPs typically involve old, unlined facilities that predate 1980.  There are only three off-site exceedances of a Maximum Contaminant Level.
• Mercury and radioactivity. Levels in CCPs present little risk in disposal or use.
• Beneficial use. Savings as a result of commercial use of CCPs in 2007 were 159 trillion Btu of energy, 32 billion gallons of water, and 11 million tons of CO₂ equivalent.  Hazardous waste designation threatens beneficial use.
• Management costs. High management costs associated with designating CCPs as hazardous threaten electricity capacity margin and reliability, with potentially critical impacts in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic and likely important impacts in the Southeast.

Ladwig’s sustainable management of CCPs presentation is available on EPRI’s Coal Combustion Product Management webpage.  For more information, contact Ken Ladwig, (262) 754-2744, keladwig@epri.com.