Earthsky Interviews
Private: Ash Pollution
01-13-2002 - Biodiversity
_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”:http://www.fs.fed.us/ 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”:http://www.nfwf.org/. 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”:http://www.uga.edu/srel/home.html, University of Georgia
“Southern Research Station”:http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/index.htm – U.S. Forest Service
“Savannah River Site”:http://www.srs.gov/general/srs-home.html
“Plant Health Care, Inc.”:http://www.planthealthcare.com/
“American Coal Ash Association”:http://www.acaa-usa.org/
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.