State environmental regulators say the poisonous coal ash that washed into the Price River throughout flash flooding in east-central Utah final week poses no health or security considerations.
Officials on the Utah Department of Environmental Quality concluded Friday no consuming water was affected and the river is protected for recreation and irrigation use.
They say Rocky Mountain Power ought to have the ability to deal with any future storms just like the one which discharged the contaminants from the utility’s retired coal-fired energy plant.
Scott Hacking, a state environmental engineer, advised The Salt Lake Tribune (http://tinyurl.com/j9pzflw) an estimated 2,700 cubic yards of coal ash made it into the river.
Hacking stated contractors who have been engaged on-website when the storm hit final Thursday reported that 2 inches of rain fell in about 40 minutes earlier than the flood.
Tests confirmed heavy metals have been elevated close to the spill website. But Hacking says the flood waters helped dilute the concentrations and none exceeded state water high quality requirements.
Coal ash is the waste left behind after coal is burned. It’s made up of heavy metals, together with iron, lead and arsenic.
Rocky Mountain Power shipped coal ash from its Carbon energy plant to Panther Canyon from the 1960s till the plant closed in April 2015. Since the plant’s closure, the corporate has been working to grade and cap the landfill for everlasting closure.
Hacking stated the corporate had put in a short lived 48-inch culvert meant to route stormwater away from a pile of coal ash that development crews have been in the method of shifting. When the flood hit, particles plugged this culvert, permitting floodwater to scrub over the ash.
Rocky Mountain Power has that short-term culvert functioning once more and has positioned a backhoe subsequent to the culvert to maintain it away from particles ought to any further flooding happen. The backhoe will stay in place till the ash is resurfaced and capped in about two months. At that time, Hacking stated, Rocky Mountain Power plans to reconnect the landfill’s everlasting stormwater controls.
Hacking stated the DEQ is happy with the utility’s response to the incident. He stated the state company believes the landfill’s stormwater amenities have been designed and sized correctly, however thwarted by nature.
But not everybody agrees.
Matt Pacenza of the Healthy Environmental Alliance of Utah says it is a part of a troubling sample. His group is suing Rocky Mountain Power in federal courtroom alleging that the utility mishandles coal ash waste at its Huntington plant and violates federal environmental legal guidelines.
“Several inches of rain isn’t an extraordinary act of God,” Pacenza stated. “And I’m pretty sure God didn’t tell Rocky Mountain Power to spray coal-ash-contaminated water on fields immediately adjacent to Huntington Creek. What we see is a company that has repeatedly demonstrated carelessness with hazardous coal ash wastes at multiple facilities. Utahns should be concerned.”
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