Ash Pollution
DB: This is Earth and Sky with a natural approach to coal ash pollution.
JB: To generate electricity, most power plants burn coal. One byproduct is coal ash, with millions of tons produced each year worldwide. Coal ash is typically kept in giant pits, like the one at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. This one pit spans 18 acres, but not much grows there. Rainwater regularly seeps through and carries acids and toxic metals into the water table.
DB: Researchers with the U.S. Forest Service and Plant Health Care, Inc., are experimenting with the use of trees and root fungi to intercept this toxic water. Trees can act as pumps ? they’ll drink up water with their roots and breath it out into the air. Researchers hope to use trees to keep toxic water from seeping out of the pit.
JB: In a recent study, hundreds of loblolly pine seedlings were planted on the pit’s compacted, toxic ash, but not one survived. Next, the researchers plowed another plot – so the roots could penetrate – but the trees died there, too. In the third plot, they plowed, added compost and treated the roots with a beneficial fungus.
DB: Plot number three thrived. The trees are expected to help keep toxic rainwater out of the water table. Tree litter will eventually build up a forest floor that’ll slowly detoxify the ash. Thanks today to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth and Sky.
The following people were inteviewed for today’s show. Our thanks to:
Dr. Christopher Barton
Soil Scientist
USDA Forest Service,
Southern Research Station Center for Forested Wetlands Research
Dr. Donald Marx
Chief Scientist
PHC Reclamation Company, inc.
St. Helena Island, SC
More Resources:
Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia
Southern Research Station – U.S. Forest Service
Intersting report titled ““Sub-lethal Effects of Coal Combustion Wastes on the Biology of Organisms”“:http://www.uga.edu/srel/framecoalashmain.htm by William Hopkins, et. al.
Additional Teacher Resources
U.S. Geological Survey: Pollution Prevention: Cleaning Up Coal Burning
This brief report discusses how coal burning pollution can be treated by improvements in coal burning technologies. Also explored are the recent advances in coal burning technology as well as those being developed.
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy, Fossil Energy Education Activities: Cleaning Up Coal
Coal is our most abundant fossil fuel. The United States has more coal than the rest of the world has oil. There is still enough coal underground in this country to provide energy for the next 200 to 300 years. But coal is not a perfect fuel. This site explains the environmental damage done by burning coal in a format that caters to younger children, it also discusses the alternatives to burning coal and technology being developed that allows coal burning to be a cleaner processes.
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Progress: Phytoremediation Remedying Pollution from the Roots Up: New Technology Solar Powered, Aesthetically Pleasing, and it Works
Can a remedial technology be “green”? Is there an effective solar powered, aesthetically, pleasing way to clean up numerous contaminants in soils and groundwater? This report explores the various options of groundwater restoration using trees and their respective root systems.
