About this site
Industrial Waste, Coal Fly Ash, Bottom Ash, FGD, Foundry Sand, Slag, etc…
Over 71 million tons of fly ash were generated in the US in 2005, of which industry claims that almost 30 million tons were “beneficially reused” (1). Where did that coal fly ash go? Industries are working hard to change the image of “industrial waste” from toxic metal-laden byproducts and residues into marketable products in order to avoid costly waste management/disposal and increase profits. Some industries want to do this by putting their wastes into roads and building materials and consumer items. They are trying to convince regulators and the public that these industrial byproducts, such as coal combustion wastes, are safe to be used in concrete, carpet backing, agricultural and horticultural soils, fill, road base, deicer, cosmetics, and a slew of other applications.
This site is intended to be a resource for tracking industry and government efforts and actions on industrial wastes such as coal combustion wastes (fly ash, bottom ash, FGD, slag) and foundry sands. This is not a comprehensive site for all information or regulations governing these wastes; rather it is intended to be a source of information for some of the perhaps lesser known industrial waste applications and end uses. Many environmental groups and states are urging much-needed and long-overdue regulation of coal combustion waste disposal sites by EPA… While this site will give some coverage to that urgent and critical issue, more space will be allocated to the increasing problem of growing volumes of industrial wastes that avoid any regulation or oversight at all by being “recycled” into “products”. Repackaged in these ways, the same wastes can come into contact with humans and the environment without anything like a label, a protective liner, groundwater monitoring program, etc.
We want to track and call attention to these changes and trends, so that decisions are made with an informed public’s consent and after full examination of the potential human health, ecological, and worker health and safety risks of these applications.
Contact Us
Please contact us with article submissions, suggested links, comments, or other ideas for this site:
industrialwastewatcher (at) yahoo dot com
Notes:
(1) EPA relies on industry generated data on coal combustion waste generation and reuse schemes to develop goals and track “progress” for its own strategic plan. The American Coal Ash Association 2005 survey of coal combustion waste generation and use is available at <http://www.acaa-usa.org/PDF/2005_CCP_Production_and_Use_Figures_Released_by_ACAA.pdf>. For background, see also EPA’s strategy for the Coal Combustion Products Partnership program <http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/conserve/action-plan/act-p2.htm>, as well as EPA’s Strategic Plan, which includes a national goal of increasing use of coal combustion ash <p.62, http://www.epa.gov/ocfopage/plan/2006/goal_3.pdf>. Note that EPA’s strategic plan goal is not based on reducing harm or environmental impacts from coal ash, or testing the safety of potential applications of coal combustion waste, but rather on just increasing fly ash use in any application.
