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Jun 29, 2009 11:59 pm US/Eastern
EPA Report Raises Concerns About Coal Ash Ponds
SHIPPINGPORT (KDKA) ―
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First Energy, which operates a coal-fired power plant along the Ohio River, traps the fly ash and sulfur dioxide in the combustion process and pumps it through an underground pipe into the Little Blue Reservoir.
KDKA
The Environmental Protection Agency has released a report identifying 26 communities in 10 states where coal ash storage dumps pose a potential hazard to public health and safety.
Included in that list is the Shippingport area in Beaver County where First Energy Corporation has a coal-fired plant and has built an ever growing storage pond and dam where coal ash and other waste products from the plant are collected.
The EPA said the sites are hazardous not because of any defects but because they are near populated areas.
According to the study, the high hazard potential means there will be probable loss of human life, if there's a significant dam failure.
Local environmental activist Lisa Graves Marcucci said the EPA report should serve as a warning for people living in the Shippingport area to urge their congressmen and senators to push for regulations regarding coal waste since there are no regulations now.
There was mixed reactions among the people who live near the coal ash pond.
Teletha Ambrose of Greene Township, who lives adjacent to the storage pond, says she's not the least bit concerned about any problems.
In Hookstown, near Shippingport, Terri Smitsky, a mother of three small children, says the EPA report is "scary."
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