Friday’s dirty quote

“We burn so much coal in this country for electricity that every year that process generates 130 million tons of waste - most of that is coal ash.”  Lesley Stahl on “60 Minutes”

Last weekend, Lesley Stahl of CBS’s newsmagazine show “60 Minutes” did an in-depth look at the dangers of coal ash, one of the by-products of coal production. Coal ash contains many toxic metals, including arsenic, which unchecked, can leak into ground water and be extremely hazardous to breathe.  A story on the Scientific American from a few years ago declared coal ash as more radioactive than nuclear waste saying, “fly ash (another name for coal ash) emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy.”

You might remember the hazards of coal ash from last December when a giant spill in Tennessee released 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic sludge into local waterways - the largest environmental disaster of its kind in the US. Stahl’s report started with that story, then moved on to how coal ash is not labeled a hazardous waste by the EPA, and is currently being used as filler in everything from golf courses to carpeting in schools to kitchen counters.  It’s a fascinating report, and yet another reason why we need to move away from coal and towards alternative energy sources.  Watch the report below:
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