Editorial: Bad news for Giles County
A bill to better regulate the use of coal fly ash as fill material is moving in the Senate, but it won’t apply to a proposal for Giles.
There’s bad news and good news -- and then some more bad news -- for opponents of a project to dump fly ash on the banks of the New River in Giles County. The first bad news is the death of a House bill that would have required liners and monitoring wells for fly ash dumps in flood plains -- even those used as fill for a construction project like the one in Giles. The good news is that a similar bill in the Senate passed a committee vote.
The other bad news is that the bill was amended before it passed committee: It would apply only to projects proposed after July 1. In other words, Giles County residents concerned about the fill will be getting no help from the General Assembly. That’s extremely unfortunate, because these residents are fighting against a monumentally bad idea.
The idea is being pushed by the Giles County Partnership for Excellence -- which claims affiliation with Giles County schools, despite the lack of any official school representation on its board. The partnership wants to use about three year’s worth of coal ash from the nearby Appalachian Power Co. Glen Lyn plant to create a level, 30-acre building site in Narrows. Coal-burning power plants produce hundreds of tons of fly ash residue every day. The powdery material contains low concentrations of toxic heavy metals such as arsenic. Ordinarily, those disposing of it would have to protect nearby groundwater sources from contamination. The storage site would need to be lined and monitoring wells would be required to make sure the metals weren’t leaching into nearby streams, rivers or the underground water table. But because the fill proposed for Giles has a “constructive purpose,” those requirements are waived, even though the site is just off the New River and the potential for contamination is high.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which noted two dozen cases of fly ash dumps contaminating wells and groundwater, is preparing to review its rules for disposal of coal fly ash.
The Senate bill requiring monitoring wells and liners for fly ash dumps should become law, but it shouldn’t be limited to dumps in flood plains. The potential for the leaching of heavy metals exists wherever it rains. But even if the bill passes, Giles residents -- and anyone downstream of Giles County -- are apparently out of luck.
Giles County supervisors have asked the project’s backers to install liners and monitoring wells even though they aren’t required. But that’s just a request, and supervisors have no leverage over the project. The only public body that could have influence over the partnership pushing this project is the Giles County School Board. The partnership supposedly exists to serve the schools, and proceeds from the sale of the site will supposedly go to the schools. The school board is supposed to be represented on the partnership board, but, for unexplained reasons, is not.
That’s unacceptable. School board members need to step up, now, and exert the influence they are supposed to have.