Posted on 07/18/2018 10:53:36 PM PDT by Olog-hai
The Trump administration on Wednesday eased rules for handling toxic coal ash from more than 400 U.S. coal-fired power plants after utilities pushed back against regulations adopted under former President Barack Obama.
Environmental Protection Agency acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the changes would save utilities roughly $30 million annually.
The move represents the latest action by Trump’s EPA to boost the struggling coal industry by rolling back environmental and public health protections enacted under his predecessor.
It pushes back the deadline to close problematic ash dumps and gives state regulators flexibility in how they deal with the massive waste piles that result from burning coal for electricity. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Good!
They would have eased stack emissions for Hillary’s detention/processing camps had she won.
Fly ash brick are being used all over the world, and have been for centuries I believe? Fly ash makes great, light and easy to cut fireproof bricks.
The materials engineers need to find an economic use for the coal firebox ash. It can be done; no doubt in my mind. The travesty is hauling it off to a dump somewhere and having heavy metals leached out of the dump site by rain and polluting ground water. Where there is a will there is a way, and the industry has to find a means to make this a marketable product.
I agree. They used our bottom ash for mixing asphalt at a plant I work in in the Midwest. There’s a way to use the ash. Just need to be worth the money to use it.
...gives state regulators flexibility in how they deal with the massive waste piles that result from burning coal for electricity. …
Leaving the issue at the STATE level.
I'm not that familiar with the energy industry. I AM familiar with agri-business in America.
When I was in college a long, long time ago the Mississippi River downstream of a slaughter house would turn red when they discharged blood and guts during the day. No need for that.
I have a friend who is a manager in the "By-Products" division at a turkey processing plant and they use EVERYTHING including the beak, hehehe. They grind and dry the guts and use it as fertilizer. The make blood meal, bone meal, feather meal; they use everything! While they might not sell it at a profit and in fact they sell some of it for not much more than the freight costs, they save millions by avoiding disposal issues and costs.
Americans are innovators and they need to find a way to put their ash problem into a marketable product. Saves money in the long run and drives the tree kissers crazy when their issue goes away, hehehe.
“Pollution is a resource out of place.”
More AP anti-Trump bias. Well what did you expect, honest journalism? With the AP, you ain’t gonna get it.
Now they will keep on employees and be able to contribute to County Tax monies.
We (they) have. We use the different sizes on our private roads in the country. Cost is half of gravel and it does not get sticky when wet. It is dusty when it gets dry though
The reason for the use of the by products is that the beef industry cannot recycle parts of bovine back into the food chain for animals as other livestock. This is supposedly because of mad cow disease.
I remember growing up, my father would run my brother and I around to dead cattle skeletons and we would load up all of the bones. We would then sell the bones for bone meal. Great cash for my brother and I. The government eliminated this.
I agree. My son wrote a paper on this for a college application. (He was accepted but not offered financial aid, so he decided not to go there.) He’s working on a degree in Chemistry because he wants to be part of finding solutions for these very serious environmental problems.
“We use the different sizes on our private roads in the country.”
I can remember putting our clinkers on the driveway.
Excellent. More costly and economically destructive Gaia Worshipping regulations eliminated. I think deregulation even more than the tax cut is what’s driving the economic upsurge. Compliance costs for business had doubled in the previous decade. That’s why the economy never really recovered under Obama.
It pushes back the deadline to close problematic ash dumps and gives state regulators flexibility in how they deal with the massive waste piles that result from burning coal for electricity. …
...
That would seem to be more important that the $30 million save.
Hehehe. I like that!
Some great information in this string! They were struggling with disposal of all the taconite tailings in Northern Minnesota but they are using it to surface gravel roads, successfully I believe?
Growing up and living much of my life in the cold, Upper Midwest, we burned wood as a primary or supplemental heat source. When you cleaned out the ash drawer over the weekend you didn't throw it away: you spread it right on top of the snow on the garden out back. Add a little 10-10-10 in spring and till it all in.
Digging a hole and burying it is seldom a good long term solution for a problem. Whatever you have on hand, find a use for it.
Fly ash works almost like cement, at least that from the Wyoming coal fields does. The bottom (clinker) ash works great as a base for paving roads.
Our local town, thirty years ago, decided to repave and curb and gutter all the streets in town, using bottom ash for a base.
During the process, one summer some local woman came down with a summer cold and decided the ash was the problem. She raised enough hell that the city stopped and no longer uses ash. Today the paved roads, curbs and gutters are non existent, all because of ONE WOMAN’S COMPLAINTS.
I am retired in Southeast Asia and masonry construction is predominate. The ash block is light, can be cut with a hand saw and is easy to shape. They use it extensively for non-load bearing partitions within a home. Paint or plaster over it and you have the finished product. The builders wouldn't be using it if it wasn't cost effective.
I've never seen any big piles of bottom ash around the coal fired electric generating plants on the coast so I would expect they are putting it to good use somewhere? They don't waste much around these parts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.