- F I N A L R E P O R T -
REVIEW OF THE GLOBAL ADVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS TO GROUND WATER AND AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS FROM COAL COMBUSTION WASTES
Donald S. Cherry, Ph.D.1,
Rebecca J. Currie, Ph.D.2 and
David J. Soucek, M.S.3
Professor of Zoology/Aquatic Ecotoxicology,1
Research Associate of Zoology,2
and Research Assistant of Zoology3
Biology Department
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0406
Prepared for:
Hoosier Environmental Council and Citizens Coal Council
Indianapolis, Indiana 46202
March 28, 2000
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY *
1.0 INTRODUCTION *
2.0 REVIEW OF CCW IN LANDFILLS *
2.1.1 Cedar-Sauk Ash Landfill, Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. *
2.1.2 Rock River Ash Disposal Facility, Wisconsin Power and Light Company, Rock County, Wisconsin. *
2.1.3 Alma Off-Site Ash Landfill, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Buffalo County, Wisconsin. *
2.1.4 Nelson Dewey Facility Alliant, Grant County, Wisconsin. *
2.1.5 Highway 59 Ash Landfill, Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Waukesha County, Wisconsin. *
2.1.6 Edgewater 1-4 Ash Disposal Site, Wisconsin Power and Light Company, Sheboygan County,
Wisconsin. *
2.1.7 Pulliam Ash Disposal Landfill, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, Brown County, Wisconsin. *
2.1.8 Cassville Ash Disposal Site, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Grant County, Wisconsin. *
2.2 Sites in Illinois *
2.2.1 Coffeen/White & Brewer Trucking Fly Ash Landfill, White & Brewer Trucking, Inc., Montgomery
County, Illinois. *
2.2.2 Hennepin Power Station, Illinois Power, East Ash Pond System, Illinois. *
2.2.3 Hennepin Power Station, Illinois Power, West Ash Pond System, Illinois. *
2.2.4 Hutsonville Power Station, Central Illinois Public Service Company, Fly Ash Pond, Central Illinois. *
2.2.5 Vermillion Power Station, East Ash Pond, Illinois Power, Illinois. *
2.2.6 Havana Power Plant, East and South Ash Ponds, Illinois Power Company, Illinois. *
2.2.7 Duck Creek Station, Central Illinois Light Company, Canton, Illinois. *
2.2.8 Wood River Power Station West Ash Impoundment, Illinois Power Company, Illinois. *
2.3 Sites in New York *
2.3.1 Central Hudson Gas and Electric Company, Danskammer Solid Waste Management Facility, New
Paltz, New York. *
2.3.2 Weber Ash Disposal Site, AES Creative Resources, L. P, New York. *
2.3.3 Don Frame Trucking, Inc., Fly Ash Landfill, Town of Pomfret, New York. *
2.4 Site in Massachusetts *
2.4.1 Vitale Fly Ash Pit, Beverly, Massachusetts. *
2.5 Site in Arizona *
2.5.1 Cholla Steam Electric Power Generating Station, Arizona Public Service Company, Joseph County,
Arizona. *
2.6 Sites in Alabama *
2.6.1 Colbert Fossil Plant, Tennessee Valley Authority, Colbert County, Alabama. *
2.6.2 Widows Creek Fossil Plant, Tennessee Valley Authority, Jackson County, Alabama. *
2.7 Sites in North Dakota *
2.7.1 Milton R. Young Station, Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc., Center, North Dakota. *
2.7.2 R. M. Heskett Station, Montana-Dakota Utilities Company, Mandan, North Dakota. *
2.7.3 Coal Creek Station, Cooperative Power Association and United Power Association, Underwood,
North Dakota. *
2.7.4 Coal Creek Wilton Site, Wilton, North Dakota. *
2.8 Sites in Indiana *
2.8.1 CCW Disposal Site at the Universal Mine, Terre Haute, Indiana. *
2.8.2 A. B. Brown Generating Station (SIGECO), Indiana. *
2.8.3 R. M. Schahfer Generating Station (NIPSCO), Indiana. *
2.8.4 Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) Petersburg Generating Station, Petersburg, Indiana. *
2.8.5 Merom Generating Station, CCP Disposal Area 1 Case Study, Indiana. *
3.0 TOXIC RAMIFICATIONS OF CCW CONSTITUENTS *
4.0 TOXIC MECHANISMS OF CCW *
4.2 Elevated Concentrations of Toxic Elements *
5.0 PAST STUDIES AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER PROJECT *
5.2 Expanded Bioconcentration of Trace Elements. *
5.3 Overview of Toxic Consequences *
6.0 RECENT STUDIES AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER PROJECT *
6.2 Hormonal Alterations *
6.3 Oral Deformities *
6.4 Behavioral Consequences *
6.5 Overview *
7.0 OTHER STUDY SITES WITH CCW IMPACTS *
7.2 Belews Lake, Duke Power Company, North Carolina *
7.3 Glen Lyn Plant, Virginia *
7.4 Clinch River Plant, Virginia *
7.5 Columbia Electric Generating Station, Wisconsin *
7.6 Consumers Power J. R. Whiting Power Plant, Michigan *
7.7 Bailly Generating Station, Northern Indiana Public Service Company, Dunes Indiana *
7.8 Tennessee Valley Authoritys Bull Run Steam Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee *
7.9 Chestnut Ridge Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee *
7.9.1 Characterization of Coal Ash Discharge. *
7.9.2 Benthic Macroinvertebrate Assemblages. *
7.9.3 Fish Community. *
7.10 Fly Ash Impacts in East Texas Power Plant Reservoirs *
7.10.1 Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals *
7.10.2 Bioaccumulation of Selenium. *
7.11 Marine Environments *
7.11.1 Sequim Bay, Washington. *
7.11.2 Consolidated Edison Company, New York. *
7.11.3 Other Marine Studies. *
7.12 Other Review Articles *
8.0 OVERVIEW OF CONTAMINANTS IN CCW *
9.0 SUMMARY OF CREDENTIALS FOR D. S. CHERRY, R. J. CURRIE AND D. J. SOUCEK *
9.2 R. J. Currie *
9.3 D. J. Soucek *
10.0 LITERATURE CITED *
LIST OF TABLES
Seeps and Ash Ponds, as Provided by the Hoosier Environmental Council. 14
Table 2. Toxic Thresholds Using the US EPA Test Organisms, Ceriodaphnia dubia, Ceriodaphnia reticulata, and Daphnia magna, to Selected CCW Constituents Measured in Landfill Sites. 19
Table 3. Mean Metal Concentrations in Different Media for Six Sampling Sites in and
Below the SRP Fly Ash Basin. 25
Table 4. Mean Metal Concentrations in Individual Invertebrates, Plants, and Invertebrates
as a Group in the SRP Fly Ash Basin Drainage System. 27
Table 5. Metal Concentration in Various Media from the SRP Fly Ash Basin Drainage
System. 28
Table 6. Metal Concentrations in Sediment and Tissue Southern Toads Inhabiting the
SRP Fly Ash Basin and a Nearby Reference Area. 31
Table 7. Tissue Metal Concentrations in Prey Animals and Banded Watersnakes
Inhabiting the SRP Fly Ash Basin and a Nearby Reference Area. 32
Table 8. Tissue Metal Concentrations in Bullfrog Tadpoles Inhabiting the SRP Fly Ash
Basin and a Nearby Reference Area. 33
Table 9. Metal Concentrations in Sediments in the SRP Fly Ash Basin, the Swamp Below the Basin, and in Bullfrog Tadpoles Inhabiting the SRP Fly Ash Basin, and Reference Areas. 34
Table 10. Metal Concentrations in Water Samples Collected Upstream and Downstream
of a Fly Ash Effluent Released into the River Yamuna, Dehli, India. 37
Table 11. Comparison of the Maximum Concentrations Fly Ash Constituents and their
Effects on Water Quality at Several Sampling Stations of the Bailly Generating Station in and Adjacent to the Indiana Dune National Lakeshore, Indiana 47
Table 12. Selected Trace Elements and other Constituents from the Chestnut Ridge, Oak Ridge Report of 1991. 50
Table 13. Selected Trace Element Concentrations from Up Gradient and Down Gradient Ground water Monitoring Wells Around the Coal Ash Settling Pond during the
1980s (from Turner 1986). 50
Table 14. Summary of some CCW Sites Across the Country and Internationally where
Contaminants Exceeded the US EPA MCL, SMCL or Chronic WQC by One
or More Orders of Magnitude. 62
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) is completing a determination under the federal Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in April, 2000 that will decide if federal safeguards should be required for the disposal of waste generated from the combustion of fossil fuels. Most of the wastes covered by this determination are coal combustion wastes (CCW) generated at power plants. A draft determination completed by EPA in April, 1999, asserted that a paucity of information exists which demonstrates dangers posed by CCW or ecological damages resulting from disposal of this waste. Given ample data demonstrating ground water contamination around monitored CCW disposal sites, citizens are concerned that the final determination by US EPA will allow substantial damages to occur to the environment and eventually human health as a result of lax safeguards on the disposal of CCW.
The authors of this report were asked by the Hoosier Environmental Council and Citizens Coal Council to conduct an assessment of the toxicity posed by contamination from CCW and review studies of resulting ecological damages that may have been overlooked in the draft determination. It is our hope that this review will provide a public record of problems caused by the lax disposal of CCW.
The contamination in downgradient wells at coal combustion waste landfills and retention ponds as well as discharges into nearby surface waters were evaluated. The disposal sites were located in Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Arizona, Alabama, North Dakota, and Indiana. In addition, reviews of studies of ecological impacts at disposal sites included Belews Lake in North Carolina, the Savannah River Project (SRP) in South Carolina, the Glen Lyn and Clinch River Plants in Virginia, the Columbus Electric Generating Station in Wisconsin, Consumer's Power J. R. Whiting Power Plant in Michigan, Northern Indiana Public Service Companys Bailly Generating Station in Indiana, Tennessee Valley Authority's Bull Run Steam Plant and the U.S. Department of Energys Chestnut Ridge Y-12 Plant at Oak Ridge in Tennessee, 13 reservoirs in east Texas, River Yamuna in India, and marine environments in Sequin Bay, Washington, Delaware's Atlantic Coast, the Netherlands' Atlantic Coast, the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, and others.
Pollutants were found in ground water downgradient from disposal sites at grossly high concentrations relative to other contaminated environments. Sulfate levels of 62,000 mg/L exceeded the Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) established by the US EPA by more than 120 times in North Dakota and Indiana. Boron at an Illinois site surpassed the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by nearly 350 times. Iron concentrations surpassed the MCL by 3,090 times at a Tennesee site, 1,300 times at a North Dakota site, and 460 times in two Wisconsin sites.
Toxic trace metal concentrations in ground water and settling pond effluent at ash disposal sites were an astonishing problem at a number of sites. For example, aluminum concentrations of 600,000 m g/L in sluice water at the Oak Ridge site in Tennessee were 6,896 times above the chronic WQC limit of 87 m g/L that protects aquatic life. Aluminum exceeded this limit by 700 times in downgradient ground water at two sites in New York and Alabama. Arsenic, a dangerous contaminant for human consumption, surpassed the US EPA MCL by 10 to 16 times in two Wisconsin disposal sites and 122 times in sluice water at the Oak Ridge site. Concentrations of cadmium, one of the most toxic trace metals to aquatic life, reached 800 m g/L, 727 times beyond the chronic WQC of 1.1 m g/L in the Bailly Power Plant's settling pond which drains into the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Cadmium concentrations reached 1,226 m g/L in downgradient ground water at a fly ash landfill site in Wisconsin, surpassing the chronic WQC by 1,114 times and the acute WQC by 314 times. Concentrations of zinc, another trace metal highly toxic to aquatic life, reached 51,850 m g/L at this Wisconsin site surpassing the chronic WQC by 1,103 times and the acute WQC by 162 times.
The toxic ramifications of heavy metal contamination from CCW are immense. The elemental concentrations of cadmium, zinc, iron and aluminum in downgradient wells and settling pond effluent at disposal sites are up to three orders of magnitude higher than levels defined as acutely toxic in short-term laboratory tests. For example, dissolved cadmium at 1,226 m g/L in disposal site water is sixty times more concentrated than its 48 hr LC50 value of 20 m g/L, i.e. the lethal concentration that kills 50 percent of test organisms in 48 hrs. Extreme concentrations of zinc up to 51,850 m g/L are 741 times more toxic in water at these disposal sites than the 48 hr LC50 values for test organisms in the laboratory. Concentrations of iron in water at these disposal sites exceed 48 hr LC50 values by 122 to 340 times. Aluminum concentrations of up to 66,000 m g/L in ground water at landfill sites exceed this laboratory acute toxicity value by 23 times, and concentrations of 600,000 m g/L of aluminum in sluice water exceed the value by 208 times. These concentrations will shock and immobilize US EPA bioassay test organisms almost instantaneously, causing death several minutes or less thereafter.
The toxicity of fly ash occurs when ash particles become enriched with trace elements while collected in electrostatic precipitators of power plants. Trace elements and other pollutants from the combustion of coal in the furnaces cool and condense upon the ash particle surfaces. Iron and trace metals such as aluminum, cadmium, zinc, and selenium can regularly leach or dissolve from ash particle coatings into ground water at such high levels that their measurement will exceed human health and aquatic life criteria by two to three orders of magnitude.
The addition of flue gas desulfurization programs at coal-fired power plants that capture much greater amounts of sulfur compounds and other air pollutants are generating a newer form of CCW, often called scrubber sludge. Extremely high levels of sulfates, chlorides, sodium, total dissolved solids and pH are being measured in ground water downgradient from scrubber sludge landfills.
The toxic impacts of CCW contamination have been well documented in studies of at least ten aquatic ecosystems receiving effluents and/or ground water infiltration from CCW disposal sites. They were reported by this review's primary researcher (D. S. Cherry) at the Savannah River Project (SRP) in South Carolina from 1973-1984. The impacts were acutely toxic upon biota in the aquatic receiving system and several years were required for any degree of recovery.
While these original SRP studies were claimed to be an anomaly by the power industry, this review demonstrates that the SRP is not the only site where excessive concentrations of trace elements and other pollutants from CCW as well as impacts from those pollutants have been documented. The elemental concentrations from fly ash into McCoy Branch, Tennessee, were higher than those measured at the SRP site, and they caused an abnormally high percentage of fish deformities in body structure and fin deterioration. In addition to these two sites, this review documents damages at other CCW disposal sites in Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan and Texas as well as in India and the marine environment.
Newer toxic effects reported in the past five years at the SRP by other researchers reveal insidious, chronic toxicity impacts from CCW upon aquatic life. These include body malformations and metabolic, hormonal, and behavioral disorders that are adversely affecting the remaining hardier organisms from that receiving system.
Selenium, a common yet alarming element associated with CCW contamination, has become known as the silent killer of trace elements to aquatic life over the past 1.5 decades because of its ability to be concentrated up the food chain from water and sediment, to algae, insects and other similar forms, to fish. Selenium levels have exceeded the US EPA chronic WQC level of 5 m g/L by up to 200 times in downgradient ground water at CCW disposal sites in Wisconsin, Illinois and North Dakota.
In two east Texas reservoirs, Martin Lake and Welsh Reservoir, high selenium concentrations (2,200 to 2,700 m g/L) from fly ash settling pond discharges owned by Texas Utilities Generating Co., caused massive fish mortalities in 1978-1979. Selenium body burdens from bioaccumulation in fish ranged from 2,000 to 9,100 ppb causing deterioration of fish blood chemistry, kidney ultrastructure and gill tissue. Several years after the discharge commenced, the fish community structure in these reservoirs remained severely altered between the balance of plankton feeding versus predator fish, as reproductive impairment continued. Substantial bioaccumulation of arsenic, chromium and mercury also was evident in fish found in these reservoirs. As a result, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department initiated a long term, trace metal monitoring program in 13 reservoirs to evaluate the impact of contamination by CCW produced from lignite coal.
A current concern, however, is that the chronic WQC of 5 m g/L is not low enough to prevent bioaccumulation of selenium in the food chain. In 1974, Duke Power Company began discharging fly ash into Belews Lake, North Carolina. Four years of study documented that resulting concentrations of 10 m g/L of selenium in the water eliminated 16 of the 20 fish species found in this reservoir and rendered two of the remaining species sterile (Cumbie and Van Horne 1978; Lemly 1985). Selenium concentrations had bioacumulated by 3,975 times in the tissues of largemouth bass from the levels of selenium in the water and tissues of prey consumed by this species. Subsequent research has concluded that waterborne selenium concentrations of 2 m g/L are hazardous to the long-term survival of fish due to the affinity of selenium to bioaccumulate in reservoir systems (Lemly 1992).
Certain groups are assuming without substantiation that elevated concentrations of trace elements and other pollutants from CCW will be attenuated and/or diluted to safe levels before damage to water supplies can occur. This position ignores the fact that pollutant concentrations have risen to two to three orders of magnitude above safe limits to protect aquatic life (US EPA WQC) in waters exiting these sites. These excessive concentrations cannot be diluted or attenuated without polluting a ground water resource that 117-132 million people use for daily consumption. Many of these people are likely drawing ground water from private wells near CCW disposal sites for daily consumption that is untreated and not being monitored. Even if attenuation does eventually occur, the site studies reviewed in this report indicate that when trace metals such as selenium dissolve into surface water from CCW, damages from bioaccumulation in living organisms occurs at minute concentrations, i.e., less than 10 m g/L in the water.
Furthermore there are many CCW disposal sites, particularly, ash ponds and lagoons at power plants, where impacts are not being examined due to the lack of any ground or surface water monitoring programs. Even where monitoring is occuring, the number of monitoring points is often insufficient and many toxic constituents in CCW, such as trace metals like molybdenum, strontium and thallium, various radionuclides and organic compounds are not being monitored. For these reasons, the authors of this review believe that the scope and severity of impacts from the contamination of ground waters and aquatic ecosystems by CCW is seriously under-acknowledged.
There are a number of ecological impact studies that should have been conducted longer in this country relative to the 12-year effort at SRP, but were not. Still, four studies substantively document acute and chronic toxic impacts from exposure of organisms to CCW effluents and infiltration in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Sites where several years of research have been conducted in the mid-1970-1980's and the recent studies from 1995 to the present at SRP have established a very important data base of toxicity from CCW that is shedding new light on the immense impact that CCW disposal is having upon life in aquatic receiving systems.
Unfortunately most of the other field-oriented ecological studies were funded for short periods and terminated for reasons unknown. Furthermore, the long-term impact of contamination from CCW upon human health is unknown. Until more adequate monitoring programs exist and more effort is made to look for and study impacts, assertions of attenuation of harmful impacts from CCW disposal appear to be nothing more than an obfuscation of responsibility by those seeking lax disposal requirements for this waste.
The US EPAs determination governing wastes from the combustion of fossil fuels needs to address the severity of the multi-directional threats that surface waters and ground waters contaminated by CCW pose to human health, cropland irrigation, and aquatic communities in adjacent streams and other receiving systems.
In this report, we review the impact of Coal Combustion Wastes (CCW) on aquatic biota and human health. As cited in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution in November 1999, the World Commission on Water has found that more than half of the worlds rivers are seriously depleted and/or polluted. They added that unless more efficient ways of using water are employed and pollution reduced, the human race will have difficulty meeting the variety of worldly water needs when 2 billion more people are added to the current 6 billion several years from now. Throughout history, the quality of drinking water has been a factor in determining human welfare, and polluted water has caused great hardship for people forced to drink it or use it for irrigation (Manahan 1994).
In the United States, about two-thirds of the ground water pumped is used for irrigation, and other uses include industrial and municipal applications (Manahan 1994). Aquifers supply drinking water to approximately 117 million Americans and supply one fourth of the annual water demand in the country (Chiras 1988). Therefore, ground water is a major source of water for human consumption and must be protected. This source of water has become contaminated by septic tanks, oil wells, agriculture, landfills, CCW disposal sites including landfills and lagoons, hazardous waste holding ponds, and other activities.
An emerging position from the electric utility industry is to dispose CCW from coal fired power plants in active coal strip mines. If underground aquifers directly connected to these mines become contaminated from CCW, the burden of impact without adequate requirements for corrective actions, as are provided in most landfill regulations, falls upon the consumer who must pay the costs to decontaminate the water supply or discontinue its use. To reclaim polluted aquifers, it is necessary to pump contaminated water to the surface, purify it, and then return it underground, a costly process (Chiras 1988). Although the price of coal will be affected by the measures used in protecting water supplies from CCW, the need to protect our dwindling water supplies and the high costs for cleaning up contaminated water justify such measures.
The hazard of ground water contaminated from CCW has a multi-dimensional impact upon human and recreational health, crop lands and aquatic life. Contaminated water from ground water wells is consumed by the public, creating a human health hazard. This ground water used to irrigate croplands may adversely affect sensitive crops and bioaccumulate through animal and plant farm products bought by the consumer. Runoff from irrigated fields can infiltrate into aquatic receiving systems to become a threat to aquatic life and eventually again to human health.
A number of studies in the 1970-1980s have outlined toxic impacts on ground water from fly ash, bottom ash and other coal ash sludges, such as deleterious increases in conductivity, total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), alkaline pH, sodium (Na), selenium (Se), arsenic (As), and trace heavy metals including aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), cadmium (Cd), and zinc (Zn) (Cherry et al 1976; 1979a,b; 1984a,b; 1987; Cherry and Cairns 1986 and Specht et al 1984). In these studies, substantial numbers of sensitive benthic macroinvertebrate groups residing in stream receiving systems were eradicated by coal ash effluent. In an eight-year study of ash effluent impact into a stream/swamp receiving system at the Savannah River Project (SRP) in South Carolina, numerous trace metals (e.g., Fe, Al, Na, Cu, Cd, Se, Zn) were reported to greatly exceed current US EPA Water Quality Criteria (WQC) levels at that time (Cherry et al 1976, 1984b).
The purpose of this review is to evaluate different physical/chemical constituents monitored in ground water wells adjacent to 32 CCW disposal sites from around the country as well as surface water effluents from these sites, and to compare the concentrations of these constituents to Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) and Secondary Maximum Contaminate Levels (SMCL) from the Safe Drinking Water Act, US EPA health advisories for children and adults, and the US EPA Water Quality Criteria (WQC). The WQC are used as water quality standards under the Clean Water Act for protection of aquatic life from acute and chronic levels of toxicity. A second part of this review is to summarize the pertinent ecotoxicological findings of several studies that have documented the adverse impacts that CCW effluents have caused to aquatic life.
2.0 REVIEW OF CCW IN LANDFILLS
Thirteen constituents were found to exceed US EPA MCL, SMCL, and US EPA WQC limits in 32 landfill sites evaluated (Table 1). High constituent concentrations were measured for sulfate (260-62,000 mg/L), TDS (950-36,100 mg/L), boron (0.54-314 mg/L), manganese (0.07-27 mg/L), iron (0.5-395 mg/L), sodium (404-14,000 mg/L), chloride (470-4,600 mg/L), aluminum (430-66,000 : g/L), arsenic (34-800 : g/L), cadmium (3-1,226 : g/L), selenium (16-1,100 : g/L), zinc (184-51,850 : g/L) and pH (9.56-11.8). A summary of the constituents found at elevated levels at each disposal site is presented below followed by a section on the severity of these elevated constituents to aquatic life.
2.1.1 Cedar-Sauk Ash Landfill, Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Ozaukee County, Wisconsin.
This site has four constituents in downgradient monitoring wells that exceeded federal standards for drinking water or protection of aquatic life (Table 1). Sulfate peaked at 2,300 mg/L which was approximately (hereafter signified by ~) 4.6 times greater than the MCL value of 500 mg/L. The highest TDS concentration was 3,290 mg/L or ~ six times greater than the federal limit. Boron reached 140 mg/L which was 155 times the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children. Selenium was second highest here (980 : g/L) relative to the other locations reviewed, which was 196 times greater than US EPA chronic WQC level.
2.1.2 Rock River Ash Disposal Facility, Wisconsin Power and Light Company, Rock County, Wisconsin.
Eight constituents in downgradient monitoring wells exceeded MCL or WQC standards (Table 1). Sulfate and TDS were one to three times higher than the MCL standard. Boron, measured at 14 mg/L, was low compared to that found at the Cedar Sauk Ash Landfill, but still exceeded the 10-day health advisory for children by 15 times. Iron was measured at 7.9 mg/L or 26 times greater than the MCL and nearly eight times greater than the US EPA WQC. Aluminum was found up to 430 : g/L, two and five times greater than the MCL and US EPA chronic WQC, respectively. Arsenic and cadmium were just above federal limits but zinc at 4,900 m g/L exceeded the chronic WQC by 104 times.
2.1.3 Alma Off-Site Ash Landfill, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Buffalo County, Wisconsin.
This site is one of the few to have only three constituents in downgradient monitoring wells exceed federal standards (Table 1). Sulfate reached 1,700 mg/L, ~3.4 times above the MCL. The TDS measurement was high at 2,500 mg/L (conductivity = 4,200 : mhos/cm), which exceeded the federal limits by five times. Boron at 5.7 mg/L, was 6 times higher than the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children.
2.1.4 Nelson Dewey Facility Alliant, Grant County, Wisconsin.
There are nine constituents measured in downgradient monitoring wells and an ash pond that exceeded federal criteria limits, and matched only in number by three other sites. Sulfate and TDS were high at 2,500 and 3,600 mg/L, which exceeded the MCL by 5 and 7 times, respectively (Table 1). Boron was measured up to 30 mg/L, surpassing the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by 33 times. Iron concentrations were measured as high as 140 mg/L in an ash pond which exceeded MCL and US EPA WQC limits by 466 and 140 times, respectively. Aluminum concentrations in the ash pond reached 790 : g/L, nearly four times greater than the MCL and nine times more than the chronic WQC. Arsenic was measured as high as 800 : g/L, which was 16 and four times greater than MCL and US EPA chronic WQC levels, respectively. Selenium reached 320 : g/L, which exceeded US EPA chronic WQC limits by 64 times. Cadmium, not commonly found in high concentrations in ground water downgradient from other disposal areas, was found here (140 : g/L) at 127 times higher than the US EPA chronic WQC level. Values for pH also not high at most other locations reached 11.8 units here, 3 orders of magnitude more alkaline than the federal limit of pH=8.5.
2.1.5 Highway 59 Ash Landfill, Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
Four constituents in downgradient monitoring wells and potable (drinking water) wells exceeded federal standards. These were sulfate, TDS, boron and manganese (Table 1). Sulfate and TDS were measured at 980 and 1,720 mg/L, respectively, but boron had a high level of 50 mg/L, 55 times higher than the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children. Manganese was measured at 0.670 mg/L, 13 times higher than the SMCL.
Four constituents in downgradient monitoring wells exceeded federal standards. These were sulfate, TDS, boron and arsenic (Table 1). Sulfate and TDS were measured at 1,900 and 3,200 mg/L, respectively, while boron reached a high of 66 mg/L, 73 times greater than the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children. Arsenic was measured as high as 540 : g/L, which exceeded the MCL 10 times, and the US EPA chronic WQC by ~three times.
2.1.7 Pulliam Ash Disposal Landfill, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, Brown County, Wisconsin.
This site has nine constituents in downgradient monitoring wells and ash wells (older monitoring wells monitored from 1975-1995) that exceeded federal standards, which are more than any other site but three (Table 1). Sulfate was barely above the MCL (one time) in shallow downgradient, ground water wells and excessive in nearby ash wells at 7,260 mg/L, 29 times higher than the MCL. TDS levels reached 1,750 mg/L in the ground water and 7,917 mg/L in the ash well, exceeding the limit by ~16 times. Boron was high at 28 mg/L and manganese was measured at 0.469 mg/L in ground water and 6.240 mg/L in an ash well. The latter measurement exceeded the federal limit by ~125 times. Iron from an ash well at 142 mg/L was the second highest recorded at any site and was 473 times higher than the MCL. Chloride levels were high at 1,491 mg/L, ~3 fold greater than the MCL and ~6 fold greater than the SMCL. Aluminum and zinc were elevated in an ash well at 7,960 and 1,030 : g/L, respectively. These levels exceeded the US EPA chronic WQC by 91 and ~22 fold, respectively. Alkaline pH in an ash well was somewhat high at 9.56 compared to the limit value of 8.5.
2.1.8 Cassville Ash Disposal Site, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Grant County, Wisconsin.
This site has eight constituents in downgradient monitoring wells and an ash pond that exceeded federal limits. Sulfate and TDS measurements in downgradient wells were 1,470 and 2,124 mg/L, respectively (Table 1). Boron was high in the ground water at 57 mg/L, which surpassed the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by 63 times. Boron in the ash pond was measured up to 10.86 mg/L. This site had the second highest concentration of manganese, 9.9 mg/L, which exceeded the SMCL by 198 times. Iron reached 30 mg/L, a 10-fold increase above the MCL. Zinc, by far, was most highly concentrated at this site, measuring 51,850 : g/L in a downgradient well, and it exceeded the US EPA chronic WQC (47 : g/L) by a remarkable 1,103 times, and the US EPA acute WQC (320 : g/L) by 162 times. The highest concentration of cadmium (1,226 : g/L) was found here in a downgradient well which exceeded the US EPA chronic WQC (1.1 : g/L) by 1,114 times. The pH was somewhat elevated in the ash pond at 9.96, over the recommended SMCL limit of 8.5.
Ten constituents taken in downgradient monitoring wells and seeps exceeded federal standards, and the total number here surpassed all other disposal sites (Table 1). This site had one of the highest sulfate concentrations (10,954 mg/L) measured in ground water at landfills, which exceeded the MCL by nearly 22 fold. The TDS at 7,367 mg/L was one of the higher such values in landfills and exceeded the limit by ~15 times. Boron was measured at 167 mg/L but also was recorded up to 314 mg/L at a downgradient seep, which was the highest concentration recorded from all landfill sites in this review. The latter concentration exceeded the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by 349 times. Manganese ranged from 1.570 mg/L at a landfill well to 5.580 mg/L at the seep, which exceeded the limit by 31 and 111 times, respectively. Iron was high (65.7 mg/L) and at least 65 times higher than the US EPA WQC and 219 times higher than the MCL. Sodium was measured up to 910 mg/L, which exceeded the MCL by 18 fold. Aluminum reached 2,020 : g/L, 10-times above the MCL and 23 times greater than the US EPA chronic WQC. Zinc was measured at 184 : g/L, which exceeded the US EPA chronic WQC by ~four times.
2.2.2 Hennepin Power Station, Illinois Power, East Ash Pond System, Illinois.
This site has three constituents that exceeded federal limits in downgradient monitoring wells, which were sulfate (460 mg/L), TDS (950 mg/L) and boron (14 mg/L) in Table 1.
2.2.3 Hennepin Power Station, Illinois Power, West Ash Pond System, Illinois.
The same three constituents in downgradient monitoring wells that exceeded federal levels at the Hennepin Power Station - East Pond, did so at the West Pond (Table 1). Sulfate, TDS and boron concentrations were 700, 1,200 and 11 mg/L, respectively.
Four constituents in downgradient monitoring wells exceeded federal limits, which include sulfate, TDS, boron and manganese (Table 1). Sulfate levels of 2,450 mg/L exceeded the MCL by nearly five times. The TDS levels of 3,082 mg/L were six times above the limit. Boron was measured at 10.9 mg/L and exceeded the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by 12 times. The manganese concentration at 1.58 mg/L was 31 times greater than federal limits.
2.2.5 Vermillion Power Station, East Ash Pond, Illinois Power, Illinois.
This site has three constituents with concentrations in downgradient monitoring wells that exceeded federal limits, which are sulfate (610 mg/L), TDS (1,500 mg/L) and boron (1.4 mg/L) in Table 1.
2.2.6 Havana Power Plant, East and South Ash Ponds, Illinois Power Company, Illinois.
This landfill is the only site with just one constituent in downgradient monitoring wells, manganese, to exceed federal limits (Table 1). Manganese, at 0.54 mg/L, was 11 times above the limit.
2.2.7 Duck Creek Station, Central Illinois Light Company, Canton, Illinois.
Six constituents in downgradient monitoring wells exceeded federal limits at this site (Table 1). Sulfate was measured at 2,100 mg/L and TDS at 6,400 mg/L, which surpassed the MCL by four and ~13 times, respectively. Boron at 160 mg/L was the second highest concentration recorded at any site, exceeding the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by ~178 fold. Manganese was measured at 8.8 mg/L, or 176 times above the limit. The concentration of iron (21 mg/L) exceeded the MCL by 70 times while chlorides (2,100 mg/L) did so by eight times.
2.2.8 Wood River Power Station West Ash Impoundment, Illinois Power Company, Illinois.
Six constituents in downgradient monitoring wells exceeded federal limits at this site (Table 1). Sulfate (260 mg/L) did not exceed the MCL and was the lowest concentration to exceed the SMCL at any site. The TDS level of 2,000 mg/L was four fold above the SMCL. Boron was measured at 2.4 mg/L. Manganese (9.5 mg/L) exceeded the SMCL by 190 fold. Iron and chlorides were 55 and 710 mg/L, respectively, which exceeded the MCL and SMCL by 183 and ~three times, respectively.
This site has eight constituents that exceeded federal limits in downgradient monitoring wells (Table 1). Sulfate (580 mg/L) and TDS (1,100 mg/L) surpassed the MCL by one time. Boron, measured at 9.32 mg/L, was 10 times greater than the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children. Manganese (2.5 mg/L) and iron (16.6 mg/L) concentrations exceeded the limit by 50 and 55 times, respectively. Aluminum (1,620 : g/L) surpassed the MCL by eight times and the US EPA chronic WQC by 19 times. Arsenic (82 : g/L) barely exceeded the MCL while selenium (62 : g/L) was 12 times higher than the chronic WQC.
2.3.2 Weber Ash Disposal Site, AES Creative Resources, L. P, New York.
This site has five constituents that surpassed federal limits in downgradient monitoring wells (Table 1). Sulfate (1,308 mg/L) and TDS (2,113 mg/L) exceeded the MCL by two to five times. Manganese (27 mg/L) and iron (138 mg/L) concentrations exceeded the SMCL by 540 (SMCL for Mn) and 460 (MCL for Fe) times, respectively. Aluminum measured at 65,200 : g/L was by far one of the highest concentrations found at any site in downgradient ground water. It surpassed the MCL by 326 times and the US EPA acute and chronic WQC by 87 and 749 times.
2.3.3 Don Frame Trucking, Inc., Fly Ash Landfill, Town of Pomfret, New York.
Four constituents in downgradient monitoring wells surpassed federal limits at this site (Table 1). Sulfate (3,156 mg/L) and TDS (5,046 mg/L) concentrations exceeded the MCL by 6 and 10 times, respectively, while manganese (2.12 mg/L) and iron (64.2 mg/L) did so by 42 (SMCL) and 214 (MCL) times.
2.4.1 Vitale Fly Ash Pit, Beverly, Massachusetts.
This site has six constituents that surpassed federal limits in downgradient monitoring wells, but none for sulfate, TDS and boron (Table 1). Manganese (8.9 mg/L) and iron (98.6 mg/L) exceeded the SMCL and MCL by 178 and 328 times, respectively. Sodium (583 mg/L) exceeded the MCL by 11 times. Aluminum (3,000 : g/L) surpassed the MCL by 15 times and the US EPA chronic WQC by 34 times. Arsenic (191 : g/L) exceeded the MCL by ~4 times while selenium (57 : g/L) surpassed the chronic WQC limit by 11 times.
This site has five constituents in ash ponds that exceeded federal limits. A high concentration of sulfate and second highest for TDS in the ponds were measured here at 7,000 and 17,000 mg/L, respectively (Table 1). These concentrations exceeded the MCL by 14 for sulfate and 34 fold (SMCL for TDS). Boron was high at 50 mg/L, surpassing the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by 55 times. Sodium was higher at this site (4,800 mg/L) than anywhere else except the A. B. Brown Landfill in Indiana and exceeded the MCL by 96 times. Chloride concentrations reached 4,600 mg/L, 48 times above the MCL and 18 times above the SMCL.
2.6.1 Colbert Fossil Plant, Tennessee Valley Authority, Colbert County, Alabama.
This site has six constituents that are greater than federal limits (Table 1) in downgradient ground water. Sulfate and boron at 1,100 and 4.6 mg/L, respectively, were greater than the MCL and US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by two and five times. TDS and iron concentrations reached 2,000 and 0.5 mg/L, respectively, while selenium was measured up to 190 m g/L, 38 fold greater than the chronic WQC. The pH was exceptionally high here at 11.7 units.
2.6.2 Widows Creek Fossil Plant, Tennessee Valley Authority, Jackson County, Alabama.
Sulfate, boron and manganese exceed federal limits but not at high concentrations seen at other sites (Table 1). Iron was high at 71 mg/L which exceeded the MCL by 236 times. Aluminum, however, reached 66,000 : g/L in downgradient ground water, higher than the extremely high amount found at the Weber Ash Disposal site in New York. This concentration surpassed the MCL and US EPA chronic WQC by 330 and 758 times, respectively.
2.7.1 Milton R. Young Station, Minnkota Power Cooperative, Inc., Center, North Dakota.
Sulfate levels reached 25,000 mg/L in downgradient monitoring wells which surpass the MCL by 50 times (Table 1). Levels of TDS were measured up to 36,100 mg/L, a concentration that was twice the high value for TDS at the Cholla Steam Electric Power Generation Station in Arizona. This remarkably high concentration exceeded the SMCL by 72 fold. Boron was high at 126 mg/L which exceeded the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by 140 times. Manganese was measured at 10.4 mg/L, 208 times above limits. Iron was exceptionally high (395 mg/L) and doubled the previous high concentration found at the Weber Ash Disposal site in New York. This concentration surpassed the MCL by 1,316 times.
2.7.2 R. M. Heskett Station, Montana-Dakota Utilities Company, Mandan, North Dakota.
There are seven constituents that exceeded federal limits at this site in downgradient monitoring wells (Table 1). Sulfate and TDS were measured up to 18,000 and 11,818 mg/L, respectively, which surpassed the MCL by 36 and 23 times. Boron at 23 mg/L was high and exceeded the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by 25 times. Manganese and sodium reached 2.42 and 1,580 mg/L, exceeding federal limits by 48 and 31 fold. Iron (0.87 mg/L) and chloride (531 mg/L) were marginally elevated.
There are nine constituents that were greater than federal limits in downgradient ground water wells at this site, ranking it among four others as having the most frequent number of exceedences (Table 1). Sulfate at 51,000 mg/L exceeded values found at most of the other sites and was 102 times higher than the MCL. Levels of TDS ranged from 3,160 to 8,212 mg/L, values that surpassed federal limits by six and 16 times. Boron reached a high of 55 mg/L, which was 61 times higher than the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children. Iron and sodium were measured up to 4.8 and 1,580 mg/L which exceeded the MCL by 16 and 31 times. Chloride and arsenic exceeded federal limits by small amounts while selenium (1,100 : g/L) was 220 times greater than US EPA chronic WQC.
2.7.4 Coal Creek Wilton Site, Wilton, North Dakota.
A recent study was developed by Butler et al (1995) in which they address the stabilization of underground mine voids with CCW. Water in the coal is described as having a TDS of 1,480 to 2,327 mg/L. The concentration of trace heavy and soft metals, boron, etc. was not addressed. The leachate composition of Coal Creek fly ash near Wilton, North Dakota was analyzed and high concentrations were reported for aluminum (3,000 m g/L) and pH (11.8). When the composition of water in an underground cavity was sampled for changes in water quality, before, during and after injection with fly ash fill, TDS increased from 1,480 mg/L before injection to 2,327 mg/L after injection. Iron concentrations were not reported throughout the study period.
2.8.1 CCW Disposal Site at the Universal Mine, Terre Haute, Indiana.
Four constituents in downgradient monitoring wells at this site surpassed federal limits (Table 1). Sulfate (1,800 mg/L) and TDS (3,000 mg/L) concentrations exceeded MCL by three to seven times, while boron (77 mg/L) was quite high. It exceeded the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children by 85 times. Levels of arsenic in a pond monitoring well downgradient from the site have risen to levels of 34-140 m g/L, exceeding the MCL by ~3 times.
2.8.2 A. B. Brown Generating Station (SIGECO), Indiana.
Six constituents in downgradient monitoring wells exceeded federal limits at this site in Indiana (Table 1). The sulfate concentration of 62,000 mg/L exceeded the previous high of 51,000 mg/L at the Coal Creek Station in Underwood, North Dakota, and surpassed the MCL by 124 times. The highest TDS measurement was >10,000 mg/L, and at 10,000 alone, it surpassed the SMCL by 20 times. Boron reached a high of 40 mg/L or 44 times higher than the US EPA 10-day health advisory for children. Sodium at 14,000 mg/L was much higher than the previous highest value found at the Cholla Steam Electric Power Generating Station in Arizona, and surpassed the MCL by 280 times. Chloride at 1,100 mg/L exceeded federal limits by four fold while the maximum pH measurement of 11.5 greatly surpassed the federal limit of 8.5.
2.8.3 R. M. Schahfer Generating Station (NIPSCO), Indiana.
Four constituents in downgradient monitoring wells were greater than federal limits at this Indiana site (Table 1). Sulfate reached a high of 27,500 mg/L or 55 times higher than the MCL. Boron at 25 mg/L surpassed the 10-day health advisory for children by 27 times. The highest sodium measurement (11,000 mg/L) was 220 times greater than the MCL, while high chlorides (1,400 mg/L) were at least 5 times greater than federal limits.
2.8.4 Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) Petersburg Generating Station, Petersburg, Indiana.
There are two constituents in downgradient monitoring wells that were greater than federal limits which are sulfate and TDS (Table 1). Sulfate at 1,800 mg/L and TDS at 3,500 mg/L surpassed the MCL by three and seven times, respectively.
2.8.5 Merom Generating Station, CCP Disposal Area 1 Case Study, Indiana.
Seven constituents exceeded federal limits at this site, including sulfate, sodium and chloride (Table 1). Sulfate (900 mg/L) was 1.8 times above the MCL while sodium and chloride exceeded federal limits by 4.8 and 5.2 times, respectively. Aluminum in a leachate sample reached 2,818 g/L, surpassing WQC by 32 times. Cadmium and selenium at 21 and 16 m g/L, exceeded chronic WQC by 19 and 3 times, respectively, while chlorides (1,200 mg/L) exceeded the chronic WQC by 5 times.
Table 1. Maximum Constituent Concentrations (MCC) of Coal Combustion Wastes (CCW) from Ground water Downgradient Landfill Well Sites and, (in parentheses) Nearby Potable Wells, Ash Wells, Landfill Seeps and Ash Ponds, as Provided by the Hoosier Environmental Council. The MCC Were Compared to the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Safe Drinking Water Act - Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) and Secondary Maximum Contaminant Levels (SMCL), as well as the US EPA Water Quality Criteria (WQC) for Protection of Aquatic Life. | |||||||||||||
Maximum Constituent Concentrations |
|||||||||||||
SO4 |
TDS |
B |
Mn |
Fe |
Na |
Cl |
Al |
As |
Cd |
Se |
Zn |
pH |
|
Units |
mg/L |
mg/L |
mg/L |
mg/L |
mg/L |
mg/L |
mg/L |
: g/L |
: g/L |
: g/L |
: g/L |
: g/L |
|
MCL |
500 |
-- |
0.9c |
-- |
0.3 |
50 |
200 |
50 |
50 |
||||
SMCL |
250 |
500 |
0.05 |
0.3 |
250 |
-- |
8.5 | ||||||
WQC-Acutea |
-- |
-- |
3d |
-- |
1.0 |
860 |
750 |
360 |
3.9 |
20 |
320 |
||
WQC - Chronicb |
-- |
-- |
2e |
-- |
1.0 |
230 |
87 |
190 |
1.1 |
5 |
47 |
||
Site | |||||||||||||
Cedar
Sauk Ash Landfill, WI Elec. Power Co., Ozaukee Co., WI |
2,300 |
3,290 |
140 |
980 |
|||||||||
Rock River Ash Disposal Facility - WI Power & Light Co., Rock Co. , WI | 900 |
1,600 |
14 |
7.9 |
430 |
54 |
3 |
4,900 |
Table 1 consists of 5 pages. These will be faxed tomorrow.
3.0 TOXIC RAMIFICATIONS OF CCW CONSTITUENTS
High concentrations of aluminum, cadmium, iron, zinc, and soft metals, such as sodium and selenium, were measured in a number of landfill sites (Table 2). Although they greatly exceeded MCL, SMCL and US EPA acute and chronic WQC limits, it is important to understand how toxic these high concentrations are to US EPA test organisms that reside in stream/pond receiving systems. When one understands the acute threshold (i.e., 48 hr LC50 or lethal concentration that kills 50% of the test organisms in 48 hr) at which test organisms die in laboratory bioassays, there should be some realization as to how threatening the CCW in landfill and ground water wells are to aquatic life.
Table 2. Toxic Thresholds Using the US EPA Test Organisms, Ceriodaphnia dubia, Ceriodaphnia reticulata, and Daphnia magna, to Selected CCW Constituents Measured in Landfill Sites. Acute 48 hr LC50 and chronic endpoints from US EPA 1993a, 1994. | ||||
Constituent | Maximum Concentrations in Landfill Sites | LC50 48-hr | Chronic Endpoint (7-25 days) | Comments |
Aluminum | 66,000
: g/L 65,200 : g/L 7,960 : g/L 3,000 : g/L |
2,880 : g/L | --- | Soucek and Cherry (personal communication, VA Tech, Blacksburg, VA). |
Cadmium | 1,226
: g/L 140 : g/L |
17 - 20 : g/L | 1.3-4.0 : g/L (LOAEC)a | Carlson et al (1986). |
Iron | 395-142
mg/L 138-98 mg/L 64-30 mg/L 21-7.9 mg/L |
1.16 mg/L | 0.16-0.22
mg/L (NOAEC)b |
Soucek
& Cherry (personal communication). Milan & Farris (1998). |
Zinc | 51,850
: g/L 1,030 : g/L 4,900 : g/L 184 : g/L |
70-353 : g/L | 40-140
: g/L (MATC)c |
Soucek & Cherry (personal communication), Belanger & Cherry 1990, Schubauer- Berigan et al (1993). |
Sodium | 14,000
mg/L 11,000 mg/L |
900 mg/L | --- | Latimer (1999). |
Selenium | 1,100
m g/L 980 : g/L 320 : g/L |
-- | 10: g/L in Belews Lake (fish reproductive
failure); 110 : g/L impairment to algae, rotifers and fish |
Cumbie
and Van Horn (1978). Dobbs et al. (1996). |
Total Dissolved Solids | 36,100
mg/L, 17,000-1,100 mg/L |
2,640 -6,448 mg/L | --- | Latimer (1999). |
a
Lowest observable adverse effects concentration. b No observable adverse effects concentration. c Maximum allowable toxicant concentration. |
High aluminum concentrations at four landfill sites ranged from 3,000 to 66,000 : g/L (Table 2). The 48 hr acute toxicity value (Ceriodaphnia) for aluminum was 2,880 : g/L, which indicates that acutely toxic consequences have occurred in downgradient ground water at these landfills. The more egregious aspect is that two landfill sites had aluminum measurements of 65,200-66,000 : g/L, which were ~23 times greater (66,000/2,880) than the 48 hr LC50 determination. Those types of extreme measurements (65,200-66,000 : g/L) are so toxic that the ceriodaphnid test organism would be stressed almost instantaneously when introduced into this level of aluminum concentration and die within a few minutes thereafter.
Another example of extreme toxicity involves cadmium where elevated landfill concentrations ranged from 140-1,226 : g/L (Table 2). The acute LC50 thresholds for ceriodaphnids are 17-20 : g/L while the chronic thresholds are 1.3-4.0 : g/L. A contaminated ground water well concentration of 1,226 : g/L was ~72 times (1,226/17) more toxic than an acute laboratory response and ~943 times (1,226/1.3) greater than a chronic one. US EPA test organisms (daphnids) would be immobilized in this high cadmium exposure within minutes and die less than a minute or two later.
The toxic exposure limits of iron to daphnids are 1.16 mg/L (acute) and 0.16-0.22 mg/L (chronic), while field concentrations ranged from 7.9 to 21 mg/L in downgradient ground water in some landfills to 142-395 mg/L in downgradient ground water at others. These iron concentrations are highly toxic to the US EPA daphnid test organism, and also to the other more sensitive organisms that the agency is trying to protect. An extreme concentration of 142 mg/L exceeded the acute LC50 value (1.16 mg/L) by 122 times while the highest value (395 mg/L) did so by 340 times.
Zinc is acutely toxic at concentrations of 70 to 353 : g/L (48 hr LC50) and chronically so at 40 to 140 : g/L for daphnids (Table 2). The differential between a chronic endpoint of 40 : g/L versus a landfill site of 51,850 : g/L is a spread of 1,296 times (51,850/40) between laboratory organism sensitivity and ground water toxicity. Zinc concentrations in landfill sites of 51,850 : g/L would immobilize and kill the test organisms in minutes.
Sodium concentrations in the receiving system have not been addressed for decades by federal regulatory agencies either because their levels were considered non-toxic or high concentrations were thought not to be found in aquatic receiving systems. This logic simply is not accurate and needs to be addressed here for active mining and CCW influences. An acute 48 hr LC50 of 900 mg/L has been generated recently by Latimer (1999) for Ceriodaphnia. High sodium concentrations measured in landfill ground water wells have ranged from 11,000-14,000 mg/L and the highest concentration exceeded the 48 hr LC50 (900 mg/L) by 15 times (Table 2). The once assumed benign sodium element should be reconsidered as a potentially toxic discharge into aquatic receiving systems across the country when ground water is used for cropland irrigation and runoff occurs into adjacent streams.
High selenium concentrations at some landfill sites ranged from 320-1,100 : g/L. One study in Belews Lake, North Carolina, reported fish mortality and reproductive failure at selenium concentrations of 10 : g/L (Cumbie and Van Horn 1978). In a laboratory study by Dobbs et al (1996), where laboratory mesocosm studies of selenium interaction were conducted between algae, rotifers and fish individually and collectively, toxic impairment occurred at 110 : g/L. Bioconcentration factors (BCFs) were found to be dependent on the test species and ranged between 100 to 1,000. That is, selenium concentrations in the water column over a 25-day period were magnified 100 to 1,000 times in the test organisms above the levels measured in the water. In another laboratory food chain study, Besser et al (1993) determined BCFs of 16,000 for algae, 200,000 for daphnids and 5,000 for bluegills from 1 : g/L seleno-methionine exposures of 48 hours for algae to 30 days for fish.
Data from the study by Dobbs et al (1996) from Virginia Tech presented in Table 2 deserve further amplification here because selenium is a "silent" type of trace element that causes harm through bioconcentration/ bioaccumulation mechanisms. One reason to conduct that study was to address the low concentration of selenium (10 : g/L) that caused long-term reproductive failure to resident fish populations in Belews Lake, a fly ash receiving system of Duke Power Company, NC. The laboratory study conducted at Virginia Tech had continuous flow through separate vessels with each organism, an alga (Chlorella vulgaris), rotifer (Brachionus calyciflorus) and larval fish (Pimephales promelas) feeding on the trophic level above it for 25 days. Algal growth impairment occurred at 81.7 : g/L while rotifer and fish impairment happened at 208 : g/L within 7 days. More importantly, bioconcentration factors of selenium ranged between 600 for algae by day 12 of exposure, 525 for rotifers by day 11 and 280 for fish by day 20. These concerns became more real when related to the much lower background levels of selenium in Belews Lake from fly ash that caused toxicity and a sterility impact to adult fish.
High levels of TDS (>1,100 mg/L) were a frequent contaminant in most landfill sites, having been measured this high in 26 of the 27 sites where it was reported (Table 2). Recent acute toxicity data for TDS from Latimer (1999) reported a 48 hr LC50 value as low as 2,640 mg/L to Ceriodaphnia. Two high TDS measurements of 17,000 and 36,000 mg/L exceeded acute LC50 values by 6.4 and 13.7 times and are considered extremely toxic by causing osmolarity impairment in aquatic test organisms. Again, as with sodium, although the US EPA has no national WQC standards for TDS, toxic consequences associated with TDS from CCW appear to be the norm at a number of landfill sites. This researcher has discussed the issue of high conductivity ($ 6,000 umhos/cm) and TDS ($ 5,000 mg/L) at a number of point source discharge sites with state NPDES permit regulators, but they decline to offer a number or limit without input from the federal level. They also have deferred their answers to the federal mining offices (Office of Surface Mining, Department of Interior Mined Land Reclamation) which indicates that parameters for these potentially contaminated discharges may not be part of many state NPDES permitting requirements.
4.1 Fly Ash Surface Enrichment and Aquatic Toxicity
Fly ash has a high surface area and a negatively charged surface. Preliminary investigations have shown that the physical and chemical properties of fly ash and its alkaline nature may mitigate acid mine drainage (AMD) by neutralizing pH and adsorbing positively charged metal ions (Jackson 1993). Different species of metal ions exhibit maximum adsorbance at a specific pH and some types of fly ash have more adsorbance capacity than others. It has been demonstrated, however, that fly ash must have sufficient alkalinity to prevent the onset of leaching which occurs when this binding potential becomes exhausted. If that happens, there is a return to an acidic pH and an increase in metal content in the water column due to the unloading of fly ash particles.
The fact that heavy metals and other trace elements are associated with fly ash particles has been reported previously from ash obtained from the Glen Lyn Power Plant, located in Glen Lyn, Virginia (Cherry et al 1987). They found that fly ash particles became externally enriched by condensation on particle surfaces of such trace metals as cadmium, copper, chromium, nickel, lead, mercury, titanium, arsenic and selenium while collected inside electrostatic precipitators. Ash particle morphology was evaluated by electron microscopy and surface-subsurface analysis by ion microscopy. Ash samples analyzed included untreated, bottom and fly ash samples plus treated (leached) fly ash to serve as a laboratory control to the particle surface enrichment process. Various fly ash particle total suspended solids (TSS) levels were found to be acutely toxic to juvenile rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri = Oncorhynchus mykiss) depending upon the amount of metals associated with the fly ash particle surface and that which leached off into the water column of the bioassay chamber. At low fly ash particle TSS levels from 9.0-20.5 mg/L, leached concentrations into the aquatic medium for zinc (420-445 : g/L), copper (17-30 : g/L), and cadmium (8-13 : g/L) caused 55-60% mortality to rainbow trout.
Other studies have established that a number of potentially toxic trace elements become coated on fly ash particle surfaces during the electrostatic precipitation process (Natusch et al 1975, Natusch 1978, and Fisher and Natusch 1979). Gaseous fumes from coal combustion rise from the furnaces and condense onto the fly ash particle surfaces in the precipitator where temperatures are cooler. The trace elements prefer to concentrate on finer particles due to their higher surface area to mass ratio (Fisher and Natusch 1979), and there is wide variation among ashes in surface trace element composition (Theis and Wirth 1977). The trace element-enriched ash surfaces are quite soluble in water (Natusch 1978). The amount of leaching that takes place in an ash storage pond depends upon pond pH and retention time, fly ash surface area, fly ash pond volume ratio, temperature, complexing agents, and fly ash origin (Theis and Wirth 1977, Chu et al 1978, Fisher and Natusch 1979, and Dudas 1981).
The water quality in ground water is also highly variable but it can become contaminated with enriched dry fly ash when pumped into empty coal seams filled with the ash. It is important to understand that dry fly ash will be much more elementally enriched than fly ash that has settled over time in a retention pond (Cherry et al 1987). All of the field ecotoxicological studies reported to date deal with the effects of fly ash after its release from a holding pond. It is important to realize that the leaching of trace metals from dry fly ash incorporated underground is likely to concentrate more metals in ground water than leaching of ash materials from ash holding ponds that infiltrate ground water aquifers.
4.2 Elevated Concentrations of Toxic Elements
The quantity of metals associated with CCW is highly variable and site-specific, depending upon the mineralogy at the mine. Cherry et al (1976, 1979a,b, 1984a,b), Cherry and Guthrie (1978), Cairns and Cherry (1983), and Specht et al (1984) have found metal content associated with fly ash discharges to vary widely in power plants evaluated at the Savannah River Project (SRP), in South Carolina, and the Glen Lyn Power Plant in Virginia. High aquatic concentrations on an annual basis (in mg/L) of Fe (16.9), Al (12.9), Na (7.7) Cu (0.401), Zn (0.371), Cd (0.123), and Se (0.107) were found released from a fly ash pond of a coal-fired fossil fuel power plant into a stream/swamp receiving system at the SRP during the mid 1970s (Cherry et al 1976). The US EPA chronic WQC was exceeded for Fe (56x), Al (149x), Cu (33x), Zn (8x), Cd (111x) and Se (2x), based upon WQC development in 1984-1988. These elevated elemental concentrations persisted in the water column, became incorporated into the sediment and then were bioaccumulated by various benthic macroinvertebrates (Cherry and Guthrie 1977, 1978, 1979; Cherry et al 1979 a, b; Guthrie and Cherry 1979a, b; Guthrie et al 1983, 1986). Sediment concentrations of these elements were orders of magnitude higher than in the water column.
5.0 PAST STUDIES AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER PROJECT
5.1 General Bioconcentration of Trace Elements
Several studies were conducted in the 1970s to determine the extent of metal accumulation in the water column, sediment, plants, and organisms of the coal ash basin below the 400-D area power-plant in the SRP. Cherry et al (1976) and Rodgers et al (1978) presented metals data for water column, sediment, mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) and duckweed (Lemna sp.) (Table 3). Samples were analyzed for 40 different elements; however, data for only ten are presented here. These elements were selected based on their toxicity and use in other recent studies conducted in the SRP. Data presented were mean values for six sampling stations in and below the coal ash basin. The two metals found in the highest concentrations were iron and aluminum, both at concentrations well above their acute and chronic Water Quality Criteria (WQC) limits (16.9 and 13.0 ppm, respectively). The average concentrations of cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, selenium, and zinc in the drainage system water column also were greater than their respective acute WQC limits. For example, Cu averaging 0.401 mg/L or 401 m g/L exceeded the acute (18 m g/L) and chronic (12 m g/L) WQC by 22 and 33 times. Zinc (371 m g/L) exceeded chronic WQC (47 m g/L) by eight times while Cd (123 m g/L) did so by 112 times. These levels for Zn and Cd exceeded the acute WQC by 1.1 and 31 times, respectively.
Table 3. Mean Metal Concentrations in Different Media for Six Sampling Sites in and Below the SRP Fly Ash Basin. BCF = BioConcentration Factor (Concentration in Lemna Divided by Concentration in Water). All Concentrations in ppm from Cherry et al 1976, and Rodgers et al 1978. |
Element Water Sediment Gambusia Lemna Lemna BCF
Column in ash basin
Al 13.0 40,657 215.5 46,762 3,597
As 0.058 19.7 0.5 72.7 1253
Ba 0.709 294.2 19.96 426 601
Cd 0.123 1.7 1.3 17.4 141
Cr 0.16 38.4 2.76 65 406
Cu 0.401 51.6 8.45 101.1 252
Fe 16.9 20,912 154.7 13,885 822
Hg 0.036 0.8 0.22 5.6 156
Se 0.107 6.1 9.4 21.4 200
Zn 0.371 6.5 11.79 58 156
In addition, considerable deposition of metals in sediments was evident with nearly all metals mentioned above being at concentrations an order of magnitude higher than those in the water column, ranging from 0.8 ppm for Hg to 40,657 ppm for Al (Table 3). These high metal concentrations in the water and sediment resulted in accumulation of metals in both mosquitofish and duckweed tissue. The mosquitofish tissues accumulated metals at concentrations ranging from 0.22 ppm for Hg to 215.5 ppm for Al. Duckweed accumulated even greater concentrations of the various metals, and bioconcentration factors (BCF, the concentration of a given metal in tissue divided by the concentration in the water column) were calculated for the individual sampling sites (Rodgers et al 1978, Table 3). BCF values as high as 3,597 for Al, 1,253 for As, and 156 for Hg, suggested that duckweed was a sink for metal deposition. The BCF is an environmentally relevant consequence because duckweed serves as a food source for aquatic and/or terrestrial organisms, and metals will accumulate at even greater concentrations in those organisms of higher trophic levels. If that bioconcentration potential is indeed true, chronic impairment consequences can occur. The impacts of elevated metal concentrations in amphibian and reptilian tissues at the SRP will be discussed later in this report.
5.2 Expanded Bioconcentration of Trace Elements
Two additional studies at the SRP coal ash basin (Cherry et al 1979, and Guthrie and Cherry 1976) documented elevated tissue concentrations of metals in several different types of aquatic invertebrates, invertebrates as a group, and plants (Table 4). Invertebrates as a group accumulated higher concentrations of Ba (50.2 ppm), Cd (4.0 ppm), Cr (9.7 ppm), Fe (1202.6 ppm), Se (2.6 ppm) and Zn (14.9 ppm) than did plants (36.3, 1.5, 5.7, 1113.6, 1.8, and 5 ppm, respectively). Investigating accumulation in four individual taxa of invertebrates, midges (family Chironomidae) accumulated the highest concentrations of six of the ten metals (Ba, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, and Zn). Midges generally are collector-gatherers dwelling within the sediments. Two other sediment dwellers, crayfish and Libellula, a dragonfly, accumulated the next highest concentrations of metals in general. The fourth organism studied, Enallagma, a damselfly which is classified as a predatory climber on vascular hydrophytes, generally had the lowest concentrations of metals in its tissues except for Se. Exposure through contact with and/or ingestion of sediments appears to be a primary route of metal accumulation in invertebrates studied in the SRP. In addition to these metal accumulation data, it was observed that invertebrate densities were lowest at the coal ash impacted sampling stations.
Table 4. Mean Metal Concentrations in Individual Invertebrates, Plants, and Invertebrates as a Group in the SRP Fly Ash Basin Drainage System. All Concentrations in ppm from Cherry et al 1979, and Guthrie and Cherry 1976.
Element Enallagma Chironomidae Crayfish Libellula Plants Inverts.
Al 497.3 2599.3 4077.38 2002.24 3985.0 1199.3
As 1.35 1.93 1.36 6.05 4.2 2.1
Ba 15.6 139.6 69.2 31.5 36.3 50.2
Cd 1.0 1.15 15.63 1.2 1.5 4.0
Cr 4.49 38.27 7.66 3.43 5.7 9.7
Cu 20.0 50 19.31 26.84 n/a n/a
Fe 207.0 2333.3 453.17 1004.4 1113.6 1202.6
Hg 0.69 1.6 0.75 0.19 0.5 0.5
Se 2.5 0.7 7.2 2.48 1.8 2.6
Zn 9.4 54 8.33 15.07 5.0 14.9
Further studies were conducted at the SRP site in subsequent years when changes in pH of the water occurred. The pH of the water was 7.4 for the above described data (Tables 3 and 4) due to deposition of bottom ash only. From 1975 through 1977, the mean pH of the water in the basin was 5.4 due to deposition of both heavy and fly ash with acidic pH excursions, and from 1978 to 1982 it was 6.5 due to deposition of both heavy and fly ash. Table 5 presents metals data for water, sediment, plants, invertebrates and fish from these two subsequent periods of time for comparison to the previous two tables. In general, water column concentrations of most metals remained approximately constant over the three sampling periods (e.g, bottom ash siltation, acidic pH from fly ash addition, elemental impacts), except for decreased Se (0.197 to 0.05 and 0.06 ppm) and increased Zn concentrations (0.371 to 3.87 and 1.9 ppm). Zinc concentrations also increased in the sediments at pH 5.4 and 6.5 (48 and 26 ppm, respectively) as compared to pH 7.4 (6 ppm). Other sediment metals concentrations were fairly consistent except that at pH 6.5 Cd increased to 27.5 ppm, compared to 3.4 ppm at pH 5.4 and 1.7 ppm at pH 7.4. BCF values were highly variable but in general were highest at pH 5.4 for plants, and at pH 7.4 for invertebrates and fish. Plants also generally had the highest BCF values of the three groups followed by invertebrates and fish.
Table 5. Metals Concentrations in Various Media from the SRP Fly Ash Basin Drainage System. BioConcentration Factors (BCF) are Presented in Parentheses, from Concentrations in ppm from Cherry et al 1984b.
Data from 1975-1977, pH 5.4
Element Water Sediment Plants Inverts. Fish
As 0.03 25.0 38.0 (1267) 6.0 (200) 1.02 (34)
Cd 0.11 3.4 1.39 (13) 1.29 (12) 0.51 (4.6)
Cr 0.16 40.0 17.0 (106) 0.5 (3.1) 0.5 (3.1)
Cu 0.58 81.0 29.0 (50) 39.0 (67) 13.0 (22)
Se 0.05 2.59 0.29 (5.8) 1.92 (38) 6.4 (52)
Zn 3.87 48.0 16.0 (4.1) 18.0 (4.6) 34.0 (8.8)
Data from 1978-1982, pH 6.5
Element Water Sediment Plants Inverts. Fish
As 0.05 70.0 11.0 (220) 17.0 (340) 1.65 (33)
Cd 0.14 27.5 0.82 (5.8) 0.74 (5.3) 0.6 (4.3)
Cr 0.06 43.0 13.0 (217) 1.0 (17) 1.0 (17)
Cu 0.6 81.0 6.0 (10) 40.0 (67) 12.0 (20)
Se 0.06 5.13 1.27 (21) 3.18 (53) 5.26 (87)
Zn 1.9 26.0 42.0 (22) 19.0 (10) 20.0 (10)
5.3 Overview of Toxic Consequences
Data from these studies illustrated the potential for aquatic plants and animals inhabiting waters impacted by CCW deposition to accumulate metals in their tissues. Effects of metal bioaccumulation may range from direct acute toxicity as evidenced by decreased invertebrate densities (Cherry et al 1979) to other more subtle physiological effects including growth impairment, degeneration of pectoral and caudal fins of fish, oral abnormalities and spinal malformations in bullfrogs, increased hormonal levels in toads, degeneration of digits and feet in salamanders, etc. In the 1970s, investigators were researching the gross acutely toxic effects of CCW that were occurring at the SRP, so more subtle, adverse impairment consequences were beyond the scope of the study at that time. Later in this document, a full review of the new, subtle physiological consequences to a number of species living there will be discussed.
Over the eight-year study at the SRP, bioaccumulation of selected trace elements from CCW occurred in three categories of biota: macrophytes, invertebrates and fish. Arsenic had a BCF of 1,267 times in macrophytes, 340 times in benthic macroinvertebrates overall and 34 times in fish. Chromium was magnified as high as 300 times in macrophytes, 500 times in benthic macroinvertebrates and 150 times in mosquitofish beyond concentrations of these constituents in the water column. Copper was magnified 67 times in macrophytes. Selenium at 87 times, was most highly concentrated in fish. Some heavy metals, such as Cu and Zn, did not bioconcentrate as highly but did reach BCFs of 79 times and 50 times for benthic macroinvertebrates and mosquitofish, respectively. It is important to understand that these BCFs represent an overall mean of elemental analyses from eight years of data collection and were averaged concentrations throughout sampling stations in the overall SRP watershed. Hence, these BCFs do not include specific spikes of elemental concentrations at one time or at a specific sampling station.
From the eight-year study of CCW constituents released by fly ash pond effluent, three major toxic impact pathways were ascertained by Cherry et al (1984b) at the SRP. They found that the initial receiving system impact upon the aquatic biota was due to acidic pH of 3.5-5.5, ash siltation, elevated water column elemental concentrations and bioaccumulation. The high water column concentrations of multiple trace elements (presented in Section 4.1) were a major concern from fly ash toxicity and contamination. It took ~eight years for the aquatic biota, including macrophytes, macroinvertebrates, and fish at the SRP stream/swamp receiving system to recover after the CCW stress was removed. For example, benthic macroinvertebrates started to recover in three years while snails did so after four years. Crayfish, some damselflies (Enallagma spp.), and mosquitofish did so after eight years. Hopefully, all of us would want to learn from the destructive impacts of CCW and realize that the impacted receiving systems studied during the mid 1970s to mid 1980s took several years to recover. We should not have to re-live these environmental impact scenarios in the next millenium, particularly given that such impacts have been documented from further studies in the latter 1990s which will be presented in Section 6.0 through 7.10 of this report.
6.0 RECENT STUDIES AT THE SAVANNAH RIVER PROJECT
This researcher (D. S. Cherry), along with the late Dr. Rufus K. Guthrie, were the first ones to study the fly ash impacts at the SRP, in South Carolina, beginning in 1973. These studies were conducted for over a decade addressing major trophic level components (algae, macrophytes, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish) that inhabited the impacted stream/swamp receiving system (i.e., the Great Savannah River Swamp), and a review of those studies has been presented earlier in this report. We conducted those studies at a fossil fuel power plant located in the "400-D area power house" of the SRP whereby the ash effluent from the holding ponds was released into a 300-m channel, entered the swamp and eventually entered Beaver Dam Creek. Newer studies document chronic toxicity ramification at this site where gross, acutely toxic impacts occurred two decades earlier.
6.1 Bioaccumulation of Trace Metals
Several recent studies have focused upon bioaccumulation of trace metals and related sublethal effects in reptiles and amphibians inhabiting the coal fly ash basin below the 400-D area powerhouse of the SRP. Hopkins et al (1998) measured trace metal concentrations in the sediments of the ash basin and compared them to sediment trace metal concentrations in a nearby reference area (Table 6). Concentrations of As (39.6 ppm), Cd (0.25 ppm), Cu (18.4 ppm) and Se (4.38 ppm) in the ash basin sediments were substantially higher than those at the reference site (0.34, 0.032, 4.04, and 0.104 ppm, respectively). Note that some of these values are higher than those obtained in previous studies from 20 years ago while some are lower, but most metal concentrations are in approximately the same range or order of magnitude (Table 3).
Hopkins et al (1998) then measured metal concentrations in southern toad (Bufo terrestris) tissues, again comparing toads collected from the ash basin to those collected from the reference site. They also transplanted toads collected from the reference site into the ash basin for seven and 12 weeks, measuring the tissue metal concentrations afterwards. Tissue concentrations of both As (1.58 ppm) and Se (17.4 ppm) in toads collected from the ash basin were significantly higher than those in the reference area (0.23 and 2.10 ppm, respectively). Furthermore, toads transplanted into the ash basin for seven weeks had significantly higher tissue As and Se concentrations (1.21 and 5.45 ppm, respectively) than the reference toads, while those transplanted for 12 weeks had significantly higher As levels (0.75 ppm) than the references. Selenium concentrations (3.45 ppm) in the 12-week transplanted toads were substantially higher than the references but the difference was not statistically significant.
Table 6. Metal Concentrations in Sediment and Tissue in Southern Toads Inhabiting the SRP Fly Ash Basin and a Nearby Reference Area. Trans. 7 and Trans. 12 Signify Toads Transplanted from the Reference Pond to the Ash Basin for Seven and Twelve Weeks, Respectively. All Concentrations in ppm from Hopkins et al 1998.
Sediment Toad Tissue
Element Ash Basin Reference Ash Basin Trans. 7 Trans. 12 Reference
Al 15789.4 15939.0 140.1 122.5 70.8 23.4
As 39.638 0.341 1.58 1.21 0.75 0.23
Ba 83.8 27.3 133.64 105.05 71.27 77.2
Cd 0.252 0.032 0.27 0.13 0.15 0.12
Cr 10.87 7.02 1.87 1.68 1.23 1.31
Cu 18.39 4.04 29.5 27.7 22.8 20.8
Se 4.383 0.104 17.4 5.46 3.45 2.10
Zn 27.1 15.9 99.2 268.5 257.3 194.3
Water snakes feed at a higher trophic level than toads and, therefore, potentially may accumulate even greater metal concentrations. Another recent study by Hopkins et al (1999a) investigated the accumulation of metals in the SRP fly ash basin in water snake (Nerodia fasciata) livers and in whole body homogenates of six different potential prey animals including four amphibians and two fish (Table 7). The tissues of prey animals collected from the ash basin generally had higher concentrations of As, Cd, and Se than those collected from a reference pond. Further, while the prey animals from the ash basin had As and Se concentrations ranging from 1.01 to 31.87 ppm, and 9.82 to 26.56 ppm, respectively, the water snake livers had 132 ppm As and 140 ppm Se. Water snakes collected from the reference area had liver As and Se concentrations of 0.23 and 3.62 ppm, respectively. Snakes collected from the ash basin also had significantly increased standard metabolic rates (SMR) as compared to reference snakes, suggesting that they would have less energy available for growth and reproduction.
Table 7. Tissue Metal Concentrations in Prey Animals and Banded Watersnakes Inhabiting the SRP Fly Ash Basin and a Nearby Reference Area. All Concentrations in ppm from Hopkins et al 1999a.
Bullfrog Tadpole Bullfrog Metamorphs Toad Adults
Ash Ref Ash Ref Ash Ref
As 31.87 3.84 15.55 0.27 2.87 0.16
Cd 1.28 0.38 0.80 0.11 0.15 0.13
Cr 9.55 12.8 1.58 1.06 3.27 1.66
Cu 26.18 26.98 13.79 6.33 15.52 19.18
Se 26.56 3.43 26.85 1.55 16.84 1.99
Green Treefrog Bluegill Mosquitofish
Ash Ref Ash Ref Ash Ref
As 1.01 0.29 2.61 0.43 2.89 0.4
Cd 0.28 0.13 0.75 0.01 0.32 0.12
Cr 7.86 5.79 2.38 2.25 1.56 1.65
Cu 19.82 29.1 1.02 0.21 4.97 6.73
Se 9.82 1.12 19.52 2.02 14.28 1.82
Pickerel Largemouth Bass Watersnake
Ash Ref Ash Ref Ash Ref
As n/a 0.33 1.92 n/a 132.0 0.23
Cd n/a 0.06 0.31 n/a 0.5 0.12
Cr n/a 1.11 1.27 n/a 2.0 0.8
Cu n/a 2.62 4.2 n/a 80.0 32.0
Se n/a 1.32 18.32 n/a 140.0 3.62
SMR also was measured in bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) tadpoles collected from the ash basin and from a reference site (Rowe et al 1998a). Tadpoles collected from the ash basin in the spring had a 40.3% greater SMR than those from the reference pond, while those collected from the ash basin in the summer had 86 to 96% higher SMR values than the reference tadpoles. Another portion of the same study involved transplanting bullfrog eggs collected from the reference site into the ash basin and measuring increases in SMR after 25 and 80 days. The transplanted tadpoles were analyzed for metals after 80 days (Table 8), and they had substantially higher concentrations of Cr, Cu, As, Se and Cd (27.25, 55.12, 25.95, 25.27, and 4.32 ppm, respectively) than reference tadpoles (8.58, 17.4, 0.75, 0.83, and 0.64 ppm, respectively). After 25 days, the transplanted tadpoles had a 39% higher SMR compared to reference tadpoles, and after 80 days, the ash basin raised tadpoles had a 175% higher SMR than the references.
Table 8. Tissue Metal Concentrations in Bullfrog Tadpoles Inhabiting the SRP Fly Ash Basin and a Nearby Reference Area. All Concentrations in ppm from Rowe et al, 1998a.
Element Ash Basin Reference
As 25.95 0.75
Ba 240.7 217.4
Cd 4.32 0.64
Cr 27.25 8.58
Cu 55.12 17.4
Pb 10.94 8.76
Se 25.27 0.83
Two recent studies have documented altered hormone levels in southern toads inhabiting the SRP fly ash basin. In the first (Hopkins et al 1997), toads were collected from the ash basin and a reference site, and circulating levels of testosterone and corticosterone were measured. Corticosterone levels (a measure of stress response) were higher in toads from the ash basin than in the reference toads. In addition, testosterone levels were higher in the ash basin toads regardless of month of capture or behavioral state. Similarly, toads transplanted from the reference site into the ash basin had higher corticosterone levels than reference toads after ten days. The elevated corticosterone levels remained in the transplanted toads for 12 weeks.
In a similar study (Hopkins et al 1999b), southern toads collected from the ash basin and from a reference site were injected with either saline (as a control) or adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) as an additional stressor. The objective was to determine efficiency of toad responses to additional stress. Corticosterone levels were measured before and after injections. The reference toads had significant increases in circulating corticosterone after injection of ACTH, but not after saline injection. Conversely, while toads from the ash basin had higher initial corticosterone levels than the references, injection of ACTH did not elicit increased corticosterone production. These results suggested that toads from the polluted site were less efficient at responding to additional stressors; however, tissue metal concentrations were not reported for either of these two hormone studies so the study did not determine which trace element residue levels would elicit these hormonal responses.
Further studies of amphibian responses to coal combustion waste in the SRP have documented increased frequency of oral deformities in bullfrog tadpoles collected from the fly ash basin (Rowe et al 1996; Rowe et al 1998b). Tadpoles collected from the basin had significantly higher tissue concentrations (Table 9) of As (48.9 ppm), Ba (211.5 ppm), Cd (1.71 ppm), Cr (17.2 ppm), and Se (25.7 ppm) compared to reference site-collected tadpoles (2.5, 81.2, 0.15, 1.4, 3.37 ppm, respectively). These increases were associated with high sediment metal concentrations in the basin as compared to the reference site (e.g., As: 70.8 ppm compared to <1.0 ppm, and Se: 6.21 ppm compared to 0.46 ppm, respectively). Tadpoles collected from the basin had an average of five teeth in anterior row number two and 64 in posterior row number one as compared to averages of 50 and 104, respectively, for the reference tadpoles. These deformities resulted in less efficient grazing of periphyton, causing the tadpoles to be less competitive in their environment.
Table 9. Metal Concentrations in Sediments in the SRP Fly Ash Basin, the Swamp Below the Basin, and Reference Areas and in Bullfrog Tadpoles Inhabiting the SRP Fly Ash Basin and Reference Areas. All Concentrations in ppm from Rowe et al 1996.
Tadpole Tissue Sediment
Element Ash Basin Reference Ash Basin Swamp Ref. 1 Ref. 2
As 48.9 2.5 70.8 116.6 <1.0 <1.0
Ba 211.5 81.2 418.7 558.5 11.8 70.5
Cd 1.71 0.15 0.57 2.32 0.03 0.03
Cr 17.2 1.4 70.8 116.6 <1.0 10.6
Cu 31.4 17.5 71.8 147.5 <1.0 5.4
Se 25.7 3.37 6.21 7.78 0.46 0.66
Pb 11.4 14.1 45.2 66.2 2.8 101.3
An additional study by Raimondo et al (1998) indicated that ecological/behavioral endpoints such as swimming speed and predator avoidance were adversely affected by exposure to SRP ash basin contaminants. Bullfrog tadpoles collected from the fly ash basin took an average of 13 seconds to swim one meter, as compared to an average of ten seconds for tadpoles collected from a reference area. When tadpoles collected from both areas were placed in enclosures containing two-year old snapping turtles, 31% of the tadpoles collected from the reference area survived for three days as compared to only 6% survival of tadpoles collected from the ash basin.
Thus, while research of 20 years ago documented a number of acute impacts due to metal deposition in the SRP fly ash basin, including mortality and decreased densities of aquatic biota, a variety of more subtle chronic effects have recently been observed in amphibians and reptiles inhabiting the same area. Some physiological effects included increased allocation of energy to maintain homeostasis in both snakes and bullfrog tadpoles, and increased circulation of stress related hormones and reduced ability to physiologically respond to additional stressors in toads. More overt forms of impairment ranged from oral deformities, which potentially reduce feeding efficiency in tadpoles, to decreased swimming speed and ability to avoid predators. All of these types of impairment together contribute to decreased overall fitness of organisms, making them less competitive for resources and potentially less adaptive to additional environmental insults. These are important considerations in light of the recent concern regarding global declines in amphibian populations (Carey and Bryant 1995).
What makes the above reported studies from 1996-1999 more profound is that they were conducted in the same "400-D area plant" confines that we (Cherry and Guthrie) researched from 1973-1984. After one to two decades of clearly visible environmental impact of fly ash discharges into this receiving system, it appears that nine recently published studies are reporting a more subtle but deleterious impairment upon selected resident species (i.e., snakes, bullfrogs, salamanders and toads) that try to survive in that watershed. The acutely toxic fly ash intrusion into the 400-D area of the SRP in the 1970s may be manifesting itself chronically a few decades later in the form of morphological deformities and hormonal imbalance that require more time to develop. Then again, it may be the continual release of several trace elements from CCW, as discussed previously, which are having their long-term impairment consequence on the more tolerant forms of aquatic life that still exist there. As scientists in the field of ecotoxicology, we are amazed about "what goes around comes around." Unfortunately, internationally dwindling water resources will be suffering from the consequences.
7.0 OTHER STUDY SITES WITH CCW IMPACTS
Two studies have recently been conducted in Dehli, India, to determine the impacts of coal ash effluent on the chemistry and biology of the River Yamuna (Walia and Mehra, 1998a,b). The first study (1998a) examined chemistry changes, measuring a suite of physico-chemical parameters at two sites upstream and downstream of a large power station. The station had a total generation capacity of 225 MW, and daily used ~4,000 tons of bituminous coal. The station produced 1,600 tons of waste ash daily, 80% of which was fly ash. The ash was sluiced into a series of settling ponds and the overrun flowed into the River Yamuna. Significant differences between the sites were observed for a number of water quality parameters including conductivity, TDS, dissolved oxygen, total hardness, sulfate, and nitrite, all of which had higher values downstream of the effluent over the two year sampling period. Free carbon dioxide, total alkalinity and phosphate were significantly lower downstream of the effluent. No differences were observed between the two stations for pH, temperature, chloride, and nitrate.
Elemental metal analysis also was conducted on water samples collected upstream and downstream of the coal ash effluent. Table 10 presents selected metals concentrations from the two sites. A number of toxic metals had higher concentrations (ppm or mg/L) downstream of the effluent including Al (0.39 vs 0.78 ppm), Cd (0.044 vs 0.071 ppm), Cr (0.017 vs 0.034 ppm), and Zn (0.195 vs 0.275 ppm). While the ash effluent significantly increased several metal concentrations in the River Yamuna, it is notable that a number of elements, including Cd (44.3 m g/L), Cu (23.3 m g/L), Pb (213.9 m g/L), and Zn (195.8 m g/L) were present in concentrations higher than USEPA WQC limits at the sampling station upstream of the effluent.
Table 10. Metal Concentrations in Water Samples Collected Upstream and Downstream of a Fly Ash Effluent Released into the River Yamuna, Dehli, India. All concentrations in ppm (mg/L) from Walia and Mehra 1998a. All differences are statistically significant. H.H. denotes that WQC listed is for protection of human health. N/A = not available.
Element Upstream Downstream USEPA WQC
Al (aluminum) 0.39 0.78 0.087
Sb (antimony) 0.89 1.21 0.146 (H.H.)
Cd (cadmium) 0.044 0.071 0.001
Cr (chromium) 0.017 0.034 0.011
Cu (copper) 0.023 0.030 0.012
Fe (iron) 0.166 0.279 1.0
Li (lithium) 0.072 0.204 N/A
Mn (manganese) 0.104 0.226 0.05 (H.H)
Mo (molybdenum) 0.093 0.183 N/A
K (potassium) 8.7 13.6 N/A
Pb (lead) 0.214 0.255 0.003
Si (silicon) 2.7 3.4 N/A
Zn (zinc) 0.195 0.275 0.047
The second study conducted at the River Yamuna power plant site compared plankton assemblages upstream and downstream of the fly ash effluent (Walia and Mehra 1998b). Over the two-year study, average phytoplankton diversity was reduced downstream of the effluent and total phytoplankton in cells/liter was significantly reduced downstream during all seasons except for autumn of 1991. Total zooplankton numbers were reduced downstream of the effluent also, but not significantly. Rotifers and protistans were especially affected, having lower densities at the downstream sites on several occasions over the two year period. Cladocerans were similarly impacted but to a lesser degree. Species diversity indices for zooplankton were not significantly different between the two stations. While differences were observed for a number of different biological parameters investigated, they were somewhat less than striking. This was likely due to the fact that the upstream station had elevated concentrations of a number of toxic metals.
7.2 Belews Lake, Duke Power Company, North Carolina
Water levels in Belews Lake, a reservoir in North Carolina, began filling in 1970, and limnological studies there indicated normal water quality and floral/faunal communities developing in it for the first four years. Beginning in August 1974, coal ash effluent was discharged into the lake over a two-year period (Cumbie and Van Horne 1978; Lemly 1985). Of the 20 fish species originally present in the reservoir, 16 were entirely eliminated, two became sterile but persisted as adults, another was eliminated but recolonized in an uncontaminated headwaters area, and one species (mosquitofish) was unaffected. The toxic constituent was found to be low concentrations (mean = 10 m g/L) of selenium in the water column with bioaccumulation levels of 519 times in periphyton to 3,975 times in tissue of largemouth bass. The amount of selenium bioaccumulation was highest in fishes followed by insects, annelids, molluscs, crustaceans, plankton, then sediment, and lowest in the water column. The planktonic pathways supplemented dietary concentrations in fishes by 770 times, while the detrital food pathway did so by 519 to 1,395 times. In general, the abundance and diversity of other biota residing in the lake were not as adversely affected as were the fish.
The results of the Lemly (1985) study indicated two major points: selenium from fly ash effluents can be biologically magnified in the reservoir food chains from low water column concentrations of ~10 m g/L that are not acutely toxic and the consequences of biomagnification had adverse impacts upon the fish community, eliminating many species and rendering others sterile. Three fish species, fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas), red shiners (Notropis lutrensis), and mosquitofish, were basically unaffected. The first two species were accidentally introduced into the lake in 1978 and 1980 after the first coal ash discharges were terminated. The mosquitofish is a well known pollution tolerant fish species that thrived in the SRP receiving system when adverse CCW influences were close to their peak (Cherry et al 1976). On the other hand, eight species of centrarchids, including several sunfish, bass and crappie were eliminated from the reservoir. Selenium levels in fish viscera were highest in the piscivorous, or fish consuming predators, largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) followed by white and yellow perch (Morone americana and Perca flavescens), and white and black crappie (Pomoxis annularis and P. nigromaculatus), followed by intermediate burdens in omnivores (catostomids, cyprinids, ictalurids) and least in planktivores (clupeids). Only three native species persisted throughout the study from 1970 to 1984, which included carp (Cyprinus carpio), black bullheads (Ictalurus melas), and mosquitofish. The first two species, carp and black bullheads, were rendered sterile.
Follow up studies from the Belews Lake selenium contamination indicated that when bluegills from that reservoir had high ovarian selenium concentrations, larval survival from contaminated eggs was low and an increase in teratogenesis or malformations in survivors was observed (Gillespie and Baumann 1986). A laboratory study followed where adult bluegills were treated with seleno-methionine (dietary) and selenite (waterborne exposure) in a partial life cycle test (Woock et al 1987). The fish produced malformed offspring and larval survival was decreased at exposure levels of 30 m g/L. In addition, the combination of parental dietary exposure with waterborne exposure was more toxic in concert than was either one tested alone.
Since the Lemly (1985) study in Belews Lake, additional research has been conducted on selenium regarding its impact upon aquatic receiving systems (Lemly 1992, 1993). Food-chain fauna including zooplankton, benthic invertebrates, and selected forage fishes can accumulate up to 30 m g/g dry weight selenium and suffer no apparent effect in terms of survival and reproduction (Lemly 1992). The dietary toxicity threshold for fish was 3 m g/g, which makes them serve as a toxic supply to other more sensitive predatory fish species and waterfowl. Lemly concluded that waterborne selenium concentrations of 2 m g/L and higher are hazardous to the long-term survivorship of fish due to the affinity of selenium to bioaccumulate in reservoir systems.
In subsequent research Lemly (1993) found that fish stressed by elevated energy demand and reduced feeding due to cold temperature conditions (a state of Winter Stress Syndrome or WSS) resulted in death to approximately one-third of the test organisms, which were bluegill sunfish. Juvenile bluegills were subjected to combined dietary (5.1 m g/g dry weight) and waterborne (4.8 m g/L) selenium, which resulted in hematological changes and gill damage. Elevated selenium combined with low water temperature (4 ° C) caused feeding activity to decline, depleted 50 to 80% of body lipids, and caused significant mortality in a 60-day exposure above that from WWS alone. He concluded that the current US EPA chronic WQC for selenium of 5.0 m g/L (US EPA 1987) was not adequate to protect fish that experienced Winter Stress Syndrome.
Concentrations of waterborne selenium at 1.0 to 5.0 m g/L have been shown to bioaccumulate in aquatic food chains to toxic levels (Barnum and Gilmer 1988; Hoffman et al 1990; Skorupa and Ohlendorf 1991; Besser et al 1993). Peterson and Nebeker (1992) report that a waterborne level of 1.0 m g/L selenium may cause accumulation in fish with subsequent poisoning of predatory birds and mammals. Lemly advocated that a new national WQC for selenium should be adapted to some level well below 5.0 m g/L. It is believed that most if not all CCW sites have selenium concentrations in water that greatly exceed 5.0 m g/L, but many of them have not been analyzed for selenium. Consequently, some sites may not cause any acutely toxic effects to fish in 48-96 hour test exposures and, hence, be considered non-toxic. However, it is the subtle bioaccumulative action of selenium that results in ecotoxicological damage to fish with the same end result, annihilation of the species.
Besides the bioaccumulative toxic effects upon fish, other organisms associated with lake dynamics may be threatened by selenium. Several experimental studies were conducted at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, located in Laurel, MD, to investigate the effects of dietary selenium on reproduction and development of waterfowl, such as mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). Heinz et al (1987) fed mallards 1, 5, 10, 25 and 100 ppm selenium as sodium selenite, and 10 ppm selenium as seleno-DL-methionine. Both types of selenium were mixed with distilled water and incorporated into commercial duck feed. All of the ducks fed 100 ppm selenium died within 16 to 39 days, and one male duck fed the 25-ppm diet died. Within three weeks after the start of the experiment, males and females fed 25 and 100 ppm selenium weighed significantly less than the controls. Hens in the 25 ppm group took significantly longer to begin laying, and when their eggs hatched, fewer ducklings survived than did those in the control group. In addition, eggs from mallards fed 10 and 25 ppm selenium and 10 ppm as seleno-DL-methionine produced significantly more deformed embryos than controls. This organic form of selenium at 10 ppm produced slightly greater numbers of defects than the same concentration of sodium selenite. Defects included hydrocephaly, bill defects, eye defects, twisted legs, and missing toes (Hoffman and Heinz 1988).
Based on results of the previous study, Heinz et al (1989) conducted a similar investigation, feeding mallards 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 ppm seleno-methionine and 16 ppm seleno-cystine. Hens fed selenium at concentrations as low as 8 ppm produced fewer hatchlings and had reduced percent survival of hatchlings. Other researchers have found selenium to be teratogenic and to reduce hatching success in mallards (Stanley et al 1994). In the Stanley et all study, the authors also found arsenic to accumulate in adult livers and eggs, but it did not affect hatching success and was not teratogenic. Another study, conducted at the Kesterson Reservoir, California, examined selenium concentrations in tissues of various species of water birds (Ohlendorf et al 1990). Birds collected from the Kesterson Reservoir, which received high-selenium irrigation drainage, in general had higher concentrations of selenium in their tissues compared to birds collected from a nearby reference area. Many factors seemed to influence selenium concentrations in tissues, including length of residence in the contaminated area, and selenium concentration in food-chain biota.
The birds examined in the previously described studies generally fed on invertebrates and aquatic plants. The study in Belews Lake by Lemly (1985) indicated that fish were the most efficient at accumulating selenium of all of the aquatic organisms studied. Thus, if insectivorous/herbivorous birds accumulated high concentrations and were adversely impacted by dietary selenium, fish eating birds might be expected to be even more sensitive to selenium contamination, because they would be expected to consume higher dietary concentrations.
Clark et al (1981) studying duckweed (Lemna perpusilla) inhabiting a heavy coal ash, secondary retaining basin at the Glen Lyn coal-fired power plant in Virginia, found that duckweed accumulated heavy and soft metals (Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cr, Pb, Ni) to a much greater extent than that found in the water column or basin sediments in laboratory experiments. Calculated BCFs in duckweed ranged from 580 for Cu to 10,000 for Cd and Ni. The capacity of duckweed to accumulate high concentrations of heavy metals from coal fly ash basins could lead to the displacement of the metals on a seasonal basis by becoming biologically available to other organisms if the duckweed is flushed from the holding ponds under high flow conditions. The metals can also be released through depuration (i.e., biological elimination) when the duckweed is immersed in the receiving drainage system or released upon mortality and decay of the plant material.
Fly ash pond effluent released from a holding pond significantly reduced the taxon richness and diversity of benthic macroinvertebrates in a receiving mountain stream near the Glen Lyn Plant in 1980 (Specht et al 1984). Mayflies were greatly reduced in numbers in the ash influenced stream and a population shift occurred whereby resistant coleopterans flourished. The fly ash impacts were multiple due to high total suspended solids (TSS = 102 mg/L), a rise in pH to 9.5, and elevation of selected trace elements such as Cd (90 m g/L), Cr (70 m g/L), Zn (73 m g/L), As (110 m g/L), and Se (85 m g/L). The concentrations of some trace metals were excessive in the fly ash influent that entered the holding pond from the electrostatic precipitators. These metals included Cd (43 m g/L), Cu (2,880 m g/L) and Zn (2,170m g/L) (Cairns and Cherry 1983).
The alkaline pH excursion of 9.5 measured in the ash influenced mountain stream was considered acutely toxic to some sensitive mayflies such as Isonychia bicolor. The 96-hour acute LC50 value for Isonychia was reported to be 9.54 (Peters et al 1985). After the holding pond effluent was terminated from flowing into the mountain stream during the summer of 1980, the benthic macroinvertebrate community showed signs of ecological recovery within ten months.
In the same fly ash influenced mountain stream, the structural and functional relationships of heterotrophic bacteria were evaluated (Larrick et al 1981). The mean percent chromagenic bacterial forms were significantly altered by heavy ash and fly ash effluent. During the time of maximum fly ash effluent release into the mountain stream, the heterotrophic bacteria structure and function of glucose assimilation were significantly reduced as well. The study was conducted in 1979, a year before the fly ash effluent released into the mountain stream had peaked in high TSS, trace elements and alkaline pH excursions that caused significant alteration of the benthic macroinvertebrate community (Specht et al 1984). It was unknown whether the heterotrophic bacterial community structure was degraded further the following year when fly ash effluent concentrations had peaked in the mountain stream.
7.4 Clinch River Plant, Virginia
In addition to CCW impacts from elevated heavy metal concentrations, elevated pH levels from fly ash input can have severe environmental impacts. In 1967, the dike surrounding the fly ash lagoon at the Carbo, Virginia, power plant collapsed, releasing a slug of coal ash slurry into the Clinch River (Crossman et al 1973). The release lasted approximately one hour and was equivalent, in volume, to 40% of the daily flow of the Clinch River at that time. The ash burned at the Carbo plant had a high free lime (CaO) content, which reacted with water in the settling pond to form Ca(OH)2, a highly alkaline material. Thus, during the release, elevated pH, rather than high metals concentrations, was the source of toxicity. The slug of fly ash killed approximately 162,000 fish in a 106 km stretch of the Clinch River in Virginia, and an additional 55,000 fish in a 39 km stretch of the river in Tennessee. Benthic macroinvertebrates were completely eliminated for a distance of 5 to 6 km below the spill site, and drastically reduced in number for 124 km below the site. Snails and mussels were eliminated for 18 km below the power plant.
Two years later, the benthic macroinvertebrate communities that were completely eliminated below the power plant had recovered in terms of taxon richness, relative to the upstream stations. However, the right bank of the river directly below the plant received continuing effluent discharges and communities there were still impaired (Crossman et al 1973). In contrast to benthic macroinvertebrates in general, the mollusc communities were not as successful in recolonizing the impacted area, having significantly reduced numbers up to 30 km downstream of the power plant. Reasons for the demise of the unionid fauna in this river below the plant are still being debated by state and federal agencies involved in the listing of endangered species in Virginia (Neves 1991).
7.5 Columbia Electric Generating Station, Wisconsin
Other studies on the effects of fly ash on aquatic biota in receiving systems support previously mentioned studies that found detrimental impacts upon the aquatic communities and adverse alterations in population dynamics. The Columbia Electric Generating Station in Columbia County, Wisconsin, burned 5,000 to 10,000 tons of coal per day, and its fly ash slurry was discharged into a 28 hectare ashpit with three sub-basins (Forbes et al 1981). Metallic oxides that composed the major reactive portions of the coal ash caused the pH of the slurry water to increase to 10 to 11 standard units. Therefore, sulfuric acid was added to the effluent before it was released into the receiving stream to meet water quality standards. The acidification caused precipitation of elements such as Ba, Al, and Cr, forming a flocculent that coated the bottom of the ashpit and was carried into the receiving stream. The effluent caused significant increases in the conductivity and turbidity of the receiving stream. The authors also cited increased concentrations of Cr, Ba, Al, Cd, and Cu downstream of the effluent discharge but did not provide elemental concentration data.
Environmental impacts of the ash effluent included elimination or severe reduction of several benthic macroinvertebrate taxa, including a mayfly (Stenacron interpunctatum), two hydropsychid caddisflies, and a dipteran family (Chironomidae) within three months after the beginning of plant operation. Two years later, abundance and richness of organisms were reduced below the effluent. In addition, juvenile scuds (Gammarus pseudolimnaeus) were exposed to concentrated ash pit effluent, resulting in 80% mortality. Further studies in the same area involved placing crayfish into cages upstream of the receiving system and downstream of the effluent in the ashpit and receiving stream. The authors (Forbes et al 1981) documented increased concentrations of Se, Zn, and Fe in crayfish tissues at the downstream site and increased Cr in tissues at the downstream site in the receiving stream. Finally, metabolic rates in crayfish were reduced downstream of the effluent.
7.6 Consumers Power J. R. Whiting Power Plant, Michigan
Hatcher et al (1992), evaluated the effects of a coal ash disposal basin at Consumers Power J. R. Whiting Power Plant on the western shore of Lake Erie. Analysis involved the use of neutron activation analysis (NAA) to determine if potentially toxic trace elements were present in higher concentrations in samples of sediment, fish and benthic macroinvertebrates near a coal ash basin than at reference stations a few kilometers away from 1983 to 1984.
Selenium was significantly more concentrated in both oligochaetes and chironomids near the coal ash basin outfall than at reference stations, but variations occurred seasonally between the taxa. Arsenic concentrations were higher in oligochaetes near the outfall and were correlated with sediment concentrations, but were below detection limits in fish. Bromine was significantly higher in oligochaetes from nearby stations in both years, but bromine in oligochaetes at all stations was lower in 1984 than in 1983.
Selenium, Br, Co, Ni and Cr were more concentrated in young of the year brown bullheads collected near the coal ash basin in fall 1983, while Se was more concentrated in adult spottail shiners in spring 1984 when compared with reference sites. Bromine was more concentrated in yearling white bass nearer the basin in fall 1983 and 1984. Fish collections were limited near the coal ash basin; specifically, fewer spottail shiners and yearling white bass were caught close to the coal ash basin than at the reference site. Hatcher et al (1992) suggested fish avoidance to increased trace metal concentrations may be occurring. In regard to food chain bioaccumulation dynamics, oligochaetes, chironomids, young of year brown bullheads, and fish in younger stages of development are more at risk from contaminated sediments due to their dependence upon bottom sediments for habitat and food.
7.7 Bailly Generating Station, Northern Indiana Public Service Company, Dunes Indiana
A study was carried out at the Bailly Generating Station of the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) located at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (the Lakeshore) in Indiana by the US Geological Survey (Hardy 1981). Dissolved constituents seeped from fly ash settling ponds into downgradient sampling wells and into an interdunal wetland pond area below the settling ponds. A number of water quality parameters were measured such as sulfate, aluminum, arsenic, boron, cadmium, copper, iron, manganese, and zinc that exceeded federal limits of the Safe Drinking Water Act (MCL, SMCL) for human consumption and US EPA WQC for protection of aquatic life. Leachates from fly ash were measured in the settling ponds and at five locations: in four downgradient wells below the settling ponds and in a wetland or settling pond area with seven sampling sites. The measurements were compared to background measurements from three uncontaminated locations. No ecological or toxicological studies were conducted so all analyses made here were toward exceedences in federal water quality limits for human health and aquatic life.
At least 11 water quality constituents were exceedingly higher in the settling ponds, downgradient of ground water wells and downgradient of wetland relative to the background locations. One parameter, pH, was most acidic with the lowest measurement of 3.2 and 0 =6.3 in the settling pond, while in the reference area the mean and lowest values were 7.0 and 6.1 (Table 11). Sulfate had a maximum value of 1,200 mg/L at the downgradient followed by 970 mg/L in the wetland, then 730 mg/L in the settling ponds and only 130 mg/L at the background site. Of the 10 trace elements analyzed, Fe was highest at 47,000 : g/L in the settling pond, followed by 14,000 and 4,600 : g/L in the wetland downgradient, and only 2,700 : g/L at background. Aluminum was second highest, being 32,000 : g/L at the settling ponds, 2,200 to 300 : g/L in downgradient locations and 110 m g/L at background sites. Boron was unusually high at the settling ponds (8,300 : g/L) and wetland downgradient sites (12,000 : g/L) compared to 840 : g/L at background. Three trace heavy metals were exceedingly high in the settling ponds, Cd (800 : g/L), Cu (310 : g/L) and Zn (1,800 : g/L) compared to background concentrations for Cd (220 m g/L), Cu (2 m g/L), and Zn (170 : g/L).
Table 11. Comparison of the Maximum Concentrations Fly Ash Constituents and Their Effects on Water Quality at Several Sampling Stations of the Bailly Generating Station In and Adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Indiana. | |||||||||
Constituent | Units | Settling Ponds |
Downgradient |
Wetland Downgradient |
Background |
||||
0 |
Max |
0 |
Max |
0 |
Max |
0 |
Max |
||
Sulfate | mg/L | 290 |
730 |
480 |
1,200 |
380 |
970 |
66 |
130 |
Al | : g/L | 280 |
32,000 |
97 |
2,200 |
51 |
300 |
22 |
110 |
As | : g/L | 3 |
15 |
4 |
230 |
2 |
48 |
<1 |
5 |
B | : g/L | 1,300 |
8,300 |
2,300 |
8,800 |
2,400 |
12,000 |
220 |
840 |
Cd | : g/L | 81 |
800 |
16 |
250 |
2 |
15 |
8 |
220 |
Cu | : g/L | 45 |
310 |
<1 |
21 |
<1 |
5 |
<1 |
2 |
Fe | : g/L | 250 |
47,000 |
590 |
14,000 |
230 |
4,600 |
90 |
2,700 |
Ni | : g/L | 67 |
250 |
7 |
250 |
15 |
55 |
2 |
5 |
Pb | : g/L | 7 |
200 |
1 |
63 |
1 |
10 |
1 |
7 |
Mn | : g/L | 140 |
410 |
170 |
770 |
270 |
3,900 |
40 |
1,500 |
Zn | : g/L | 460 |
1,800 |
40 |
2,300 |
30 |
570 |
10 |
170 |
pH | 6.3 |
3.2 |
6.8 |
4.7 |
7.1 |
5.9 |
7.0 |
(6.1) |
When comparing the mean concentrations for the trace elements in the fly ash ponds and downgradient sites, again, the differences between the high concentration in the settling ponds to wetland downgradients clearly overshadowed the low average background levels (Table 11). Iron averaged 590 : g/L at the downgradient compared to 90 : g/L at background. Aluminum and Zn were 280 and 460 : g/L in the holding ponds relative to 22 and 10 : g/L at background. Cadmium and Cu were 81 and 45 : g/L in the settling ponds while background levels were 8 and <1 : g/L. In general, elemental concentrations were usually an order of magnitude higher in the settling ponds and downgradient area than the uncontaminated background sites.
7.8 Tennessee Valley Authoritys Bull Run Steam Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
At this plant, water seeped through settled ash and an ash pond embankment after which it was collected in a drainage ditch that eventually flowed into the Clinch River (Coutant et al 1978). The seepage was reddish-green and had a fine reddish floc, and bluegreen algae appeared to be the only macroscopic life in the ditch. Chemical analyses of selected trace elements were high for total Fe at the start of the ditch (927 mg/L) to the end of it (320 mg/L). Aluminum ranged from 80,000 to 57,000 m g/L through the ditch, and Zn was 190 to 160 m g/L. The pH ranged from 3.20 to 2.89 and dissolved oxygen was <0.05 mg/L.
Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) were placed in situ in the ditch and river for a 2-week period to evaluate if a biohazard existed. All fish died within 24 hr at the end of the ditch and were distressed after the first hour of observation (Coutant et al 1978). All fish held in the river near the ditch/culvert discharge died within 72 hr, indicating an acutely toxic condition in the near mixing zone of the seep into the river.
Pyrite oxidation, and ferric iron precipitation were attributed to the biohazard but the high aluminum and zinc concentrations could also contribute to the problem (Coutant et al 1978). There was a concern that the elements of biological significance (Cd, Pb, Ni, Hg, Se, As) may have been mobilized in the seepage but specific data were not available at the time. Runoff over or through settled ash and from the ash pond embankment was responsible for creating this biohazard. When this study was published in 1978, concerns about other trace element contamination in fly ash were just beginning to become apparent.
7.9 Chestnut Ridge Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
7.9.1 Characterization of Coal Ash Discharge.
At the Department of Energys (DOEs) Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), located within Roane and Anderson Counties in East Tennessee, is a production facility for nuclear weapon components, the Y-12 Plant (Anonymous 1991). At this plant is a Filled Coal Ash Pond (FCAP) that was constructed in 1955 as a coal ash settling basin for the Y-12 plant steam unit. Along the southern slope of Chestnut Ridge, two tributaries combined at FCAP, forming a single stream (McCoy Branch) that passed over the ash in the basin, eventually being released as effluent at the opposite end. In 1989, the ash effluent was diverted from the stream into Rogers Quarry. A number of upgradient and downgradient ground water wells had been placed around the ash pond to address the concern for ground water contamination. Ash deposits in McCoy Branch from the FCAP were exceptionally high, ranging from less than a few inches to ~four ft after the effluent release was initially terminated. In essence, ash sluice water basically flowed over or across the filled holding pond which had exceeded its holding capacity for an unknown period of time.
When the ash pond was operating in the 1980s the ash sluice or slurry was analyzed for a number of trace elements (Turner et al 1986), and selected ones of high concentrations are shown in Tables 12 and 13. The ash sluice data for the filled holding pond usually had elemental concentrations two to three orders of magnitude above the intake or spring water sources. Aluminum by far was found in highest concentration with mean and maximum values of 310 and 600 mg/L or 310,000 and 600,000 m g/L, respectively, and 1,000 : g/L as ash intake water (Table 12). The maximum concentration surpassed the chronic WQC of 87 : g/L by 6,896 times, the highest concentration and exceedence found at any coal ash site reviewed in this report. Iron was second with a maximum concentration of 310 mg/L, exceeding the MCL by 1,033 times. Arsenic was surprisingly high at 6,100 : g/L, 122 times greater than the MCL. Copper reached 1,700 : g/L, one of the most elevated trace heavy metals recorded at a coal ash site in this review, and it exceeded the chronic WQC by 141 times. Zinc was also greatly elevated at 680 : g/L, surpassing the chronic WQC by 14 times. Selenium at 290 : g/L surpassed the chronic WQC (5 : g/L) by 58 times. The highest TSS concentration was 29,700 mg/L, exceeding the maximum TSS level (44 mg/L) of the intake water by 675 times. Some constituents that have been found to be elevated at other ash disposal sites were not as elevated here including sulfate (354 mg/L), Cl (8.2 mg/L) and Mn (1.600 mg/L).
Table 12. Selected Trace Elements and other Constituents from the Chestnut Ridge, Oak Ridge Report of 1991. Elemental Concentrations in Ash Sluice Samples (mg/L) from the Coal Ash Settling Pond during the 1980s were obtained from Turner et al (1986). | |||||||||
Constituent or Element (mg/L) |
Intake Water | Ash Sluice |
Spring | ||||||
0 & Max * | 0 ** | Max | 0 & Max * | ||||||
Aluminum | 0.1000 | 310.0 | 600.0 | 0.0200 | |||||
Boron | 0.0080 | 1.500 | 2.100 | 0.3300 | |||||
Cadmium | 0.0005 | 0.010 | 0.013 | 0.0005 | |||||
Copper | 0.0350 | 0.983 | 1.700 | 0.0020 | |||||
Iron | 0.3300 | 133.333 | 310.000 | 0.4300 | |||||
Lead | 0.0200 | 0.367 | 0.760 | 0.0200 | |||||
Manganese | 0.0360 | 0.903 | 1.600 | 0.5300 | |||||
Nickel | 0.0060 | 0.353 | 0.680 | 0.0060 | |||||
Zinc | 0.0020 | 0.453 | 0.680 | 0.0020 | |||||
Arsenic | 0.0050 | 4.933 | 6.100 | 0.0300 | |||||
Selenium | 0.0050 | 0.243 | 0.290 | 0.0050 | |||||
TSS | 18.667-44.0 | 9,919 | 29,700 | 39.4-119.0 | |||||
Chloride | 6.7-7.0 | 6.3 | 8.2 | 4.0-4.3 | |||||
Sulfate | 26.3-27.0 | 253.9 | 354 | 57.6-65.0 | |||||
*
Constituted 1 sample. ** Constituted 3 samples. |
|||||||||
Table 13. Selected Trace Element Concentrations from Up Gradient and Down Gradient Ground water Monitoring Wells around the Coal Ash Settling Pond during the 1980s (from Turner et al1986). | |||||||||
Element/ Concentration | Up Gradient Wells | Down Gradient Wells |
|||||||
512 514 | 672 | 673 | 674 | 676 | |||||
Al m g/L | <20-50 | 910 | 50 | 70 | 52 | ||||
Cu m g/L | <4-6 | 11 | <6 | <7 | <14 | ||||
Fe mg/L | <0.004-0.15 | 11 | 0.04 | 0.02 | 0.03 | ||||
Mn mg/L | <0.001-0.003 | 1.4 | 0.004 | 0.2 | 0.60 | ||||
Se m g/L | <50 | 2 | <2 | <2 | <2 | ||||
Zn m g/L | <1-8 | 60 | 20 | 70 | 30 |
Ground water contamination was monitored at four down gradient wells below the ash pond and concentrations for five of six constituents were higher than upgradient well concentrations of these constituents (Table 13). Contamination was mainly prevalent in the first downgradient well (GW 672) closest to the ash pond discharge and aluminum, manganese and zinc were measured in elevated concentrations at the other three wells located up to 2,000 ft away. Aluminum reached 910 m g/L at GW 672 compared to the concentration range in upgradient wells of <20-50 m g/L. Iron at 11 mg/L in GW 672 was two orders of magnitude higher than in the upgradient wells (<0.004-0.15). Selenium at 2 : g/L was low in concentration compared to other contaminated sites sampled around the country. Zinc in all downgradient wells was high (20-70 m g/L) compared to the upgradient wells (<1-8 m g/L). In the next two subsections, the ecological recovery of benthic macroinvertebrate and fish communities in McCoys Branch was addressed after the ash discharge was diverted from the stream to the rock quarry further downstream.
7.9.2 Benthic Macroinvertebrate Assemblages.
Ryon 1992 studied the ecological effects of contaminants from coal ash produced by the Y-12 Steam Plant on McCoy Branch. Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled quarterly between July 1989 and July 1990 at two sites within McCoy Branch. The upstream site, which was most highly impacted by coal ash in McCoy Branch, was located above Rogers Quarry. It provided information concerning the habitat quality and biological community closest to the Y-12 coal ash basin and settling effects of ash before entering the quarry. The second site in McCoy Branch was found below the quarry. Three random quantitative samples were collected at each site and at a reference site on White Oak Creek using a surber square bottom sampler.
The benthic macroinvertebrate community in McCoy Branch had signs of moderate stress indicating degradation of water quality and the physical habitat by past coal ash deposition and leaching. Both McCoy Branch sampling sites showed significantly lower values for EPT richness and diversity when compared to the reference site after the ash effluent was diverted from the stream via a pipeline to Rogers Quarry. The McCoy Branch upstream site had the lowest density and biomass values suggesting a greater degree of impairment upstream of Rogers Quarry.
Water quality samples taken between July 1986 and July 1990 showed arsenic in McCoy Branch exceeded the recommended maximum concentration (50 m g/L) for protection of aquatic life from July 1986 until July 1989 and from January 1990 until May 1990. Selenium concentrations in McCoy Branch exceeded 10 m g/L from July 1986 through January 1989. Maximum levels for the protection of aquatic life are 20 m g/L for acute exposure and 5 m g/L for chronic exposures, but concentrations of <5 m g/L have been shown to adversely affect fish. Arsenic and selenium may be responsible for the low density and limited richness of sensitive taxa, particularly mayflies, and the relatively high percent composition of chironomids collected. Overall, McCoy Branch may be responding to the long-term exposure of elevated levels from arsenic and selenium, to habitat deposition within the stream channel, and to leaching of other potential toxicants from the ash.
Fish community surveys were conducted on three occasions from May 1989 to May 1990. Samples were collected by electro-shocking at one site in Upper McCoy Branch above Rogers Quarry and at a site in Lower McCoy Branch below Rogers Quarry (Ryon 1992). Surveys in Upper McCoy Branch failed to collect any fish, indicating that coal ash was lethal to fish communities above Rogers Quarry. The site below Rogers Quarry had a permanent fish community with species richness ranging from nine to eleven types. These values were favorable compared to nearby reference streams that had richness values ranging from three to five; however, several species present were considered to be atypical for a stream the size of McCoy Branch.
The presence of atypical species in McCoy Branch was attributed to the proximity of the sampling site to Melton Hill Reservoir, which was thought to serve as a source for recolonizing species. Conversely, several species expected to occur in streams the size of McCoy Branch were missing. Two species found in Lower McCoy Branch were considered slightly intolerant of pollution stress, and the trophic composition of the community further indicated stress in that most species were generalist feeders, with few insectivores and even fewer piscivores or fish predators. A final indication that the fish community below Rogers Quarry was stressed was the fact that fish collected there had an unusually high number of physical abnormalities. For example, in the May 1989 sample, 27% of green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) and 73% of redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus) had eroded fins. The unusually high number of deformities was attributed to high levels of arsenic or selenium in McCoy Branch (Ryon 1992). Overall, fish community data indicated environmental stress from coal ash inputs, ranging from complete elimination above Rogers Quarry, to altered species composition, trophic composition, and a profound increase in fish deformities below Rogers Quarry.
7.10 Fly Ash Impacts in East Texas Power Plant Reservoirs
7.10.1 Bioaccumulation of Heavy Metals
In 1979, elevated levels of selenium were implicated from several fish kills in Martin Lake Reservoir, after the reservoir received unpermitted discharges from a nearby ash settling pond (Garrett and Inman 1984). The fish kills prompted the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) to conduct an investigation of reservoirs associated with coal-fired power plants. Nine reservoirs were included in the initial analysis: Bob Sandlin, Brandy Branch, Fairfield, Fayette County, Gibbons Creek, Limestone, Martin Lake, Monticello, and Welsh Reservoirs, and samples were collected from four additional reservoirs. Investigation of the reservoirs involved analysis of fish tissue concentrations of arsenic, zinc, chromium, and mercury. A separate analysis of selenium concentrations in fish tissues was conducted and is detailed in the next section of this review.
Some 1,646 samples were analyzed for metals, and a number of concentrations exceeded nationwide means or 85th percentiles. Most of these exceedences occurred in three reservoirs: Martin Lake, Welsh, and Brandy Branch Reservoirs. In addition to the unauthorized discharges from an ash settling pond into Martin Lake, Welsh Reservoir received discharges from an ash-settling pond, and Brandy Branch received input from a number of permitted outfalls from ash storage units. The average arsenic concentration in livers of Martin Lake bluegills was 1.48 ppm (concentrations of >1 ppm are considered to be high on a national level), while all of the other reservoirs had average values ranging from 0.19 to 0.80 ppm in bluegill livers.
Eisler (1986) reported that chromium body burdens in fish greater than 4 ppm indicate chromium contamination. Irwin (1988) reported a predator protection level (PPL), which protects consumer organisms from effects of ingesting contaminated prey, of 0.2 ppm whole body wet weight. In the TPWD study, chromium was found at greater then 0.2 ppm in fish from four different reservoirs with concentrations ranging from 0.21 to 0.81 ppm in threadfin shad. While mercury concentrations in Martin Lake bluegill livers were as high as 0.509 ppm, this value did not exceed 0.6 ppm, which is the US EPA (1993b) recommended screening criteria for mercury in edible tissue.
7.10.2 Bioaccumulation of Selenium.
Environmental concerns of selenium contamination from wastes produced by the combustion of lignite coal at a number of power plant reservoirs in east Texas were raised in the latter 1970s by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) in a second study. Martin Lake, a 5,020 acre cooling reservoir, had a series of major fish kills in 1978-1979 when unpermitted ash pond discharges released elevated selenium concentrations of 2,200 to 2,700 m g/L (Garrett and Inman 1984). Consequently, a long-term selenium monitoring program in 13 Texas reservoirs was initiated. Selenium uptake in the muscle of largemouth bass, other predators and non-predators, ranged from 2,000 to 9,100 ppb. One should note that the TPWD studies had so much data to evaluate, that final conclusions were not available at this writing, and it is unclear if the studies are still ongoing.
Three years after the fish community die-off, selenium concentrations as high as 6,000 ppb were measured in skeletal muscle of redear sunfish, Lepomis microlophus, at Martin Lake (Sorensen et al 1982a, b). Physiological maladies to redear sunfish from selenium uptake included reduced blood corpuscular and hemoglobin volume, distorted structures in the kidneys, and severely altered gill lamellae and ovaries (Sorensen and Bauer 1983). By 1984, several years after the selenium impact initially occurred, the contamination still drastically altered the fish community structure (Garrett and Inman 1984). Numbers of channel catfish and sunfish remained greatly reduced as reproduction was negated from selenium contamination. High selenium concentrations in fish from fly ash discharges were also evident in Welsh Reservoir.
The selenium body burdens of fish in these two Texas reservoirs were within the same range of selenium concentrations reported for fish in Belews Lake, North Carolina. In addition, similar elevated selenium concentrations were reported in another power plant receiving reservoir, Hyco Reservoir, North Carolina, by Carolina Power & Light (1980). Specific impacts upon the fish community structure in Hyco Reservoir were not available at the time of this report writing.
7.11.1 Sequim Bay, Washington.
Ocean dumping of coal fly ash and stabilized coal ash has been proposed both as a means of waste disposal (Crecelius 1985; Rose et al 1985a) and for construction of artificial reefs (Parker et al 1985; Woodhead et al 1982; 1985). Crecelius (1985) studied the solubility of 16 fly ash elements in marine waters and investigated the short term toxicity of the fly ash to marine clams and phytoplankton. Results indicated that soluble metal concentrations would increase by levels ranging from 0.3 m g/L for Cd up to 40 m g/L for Pb. Selenium increased by 5 m g/L and As by 15 m g/L. In fact, 10 to 60% of the As, Cr, Sb, Se, Ni, Pb, and Sr present in the fly ash dissolved within 24 hr. Clams (Protothaca staminea) exposed to fly ash in flowing seawater for 25 days accumulated high levels of Cu in their gills (13.6 to 17.7 ppm) compared to control clams (6.5 to 7.3 ppm). The clams did not accumulate high concentrations of As, Fe, Mn, Ni, Zn or Se; however, as was described previously from the studies in Belews Lake, North Carolina (Lemly 1985), Se uptake by molluscs was rather low compared to that by predatory fishes, and these other metal loadings may have greater impacts on organisms at different trophic levels.
7.11.2 Consolidated Edison Company, New York.
Another study conducted in the Atlantic Ocean offshore of Delaware (Rose et al 1985a) investigated the toxicity of three different phases of coal ash: liquid (elutriate of both fly and bottom ash), suspended-particulate, and solid (settleable), to several marine organisms. All three phases were initially mixed with seawater in a 1:4 ratio (by volume), and then for the liquid and suspended particulate phases, dilutions of 100, 50 and 10% of the initial mixture were used as exposure concentrations. For the solid phase tests, organisms were exposed to either a 45-mm thick layer of control sediment or a 15-mm thick layer of solid phase ash overlying a 30-mm thick layer of control sediment. The liquid elutriate component of the fly ash contained 3000 m g/L Cu and 640 m g/L Zn in addition to 350 m g/L As and 49 m g/L Cd, while the liquid elutriate component of the bottom ash had much lower metal concentrations (e.g., 13 m g/L Cu and 3.2 m g/L Zn).
In the Rose et al study (1985a) the liquid elutriate component of the fly ash was more toxic to marine copepods than the liquid elutriate component of bottom ash, and copepods (Acartia tonsa) were more sensitive than both mysid shrimp (Mysidopsis bahia = Americamysis bahia) and silversides (Menidia menidia). The outdated criteria by Sprague (1973) relied upon dilution as a mechanism to counteract toxic effects, especially when the liquid elutriate contained excessively high amounts of Cd (3000 m g/L) and Zn (640 m g/L). We would hope that this outdated philosophy, (i.e., dilution is the solution to pollution) of ~three decades ago is not in vogue today.
By the above outdated criteria, the ash materials are not considered acutely toxic in the marine environment, but the potential for metal bioaccumulation still exists. As cited earlier in this report, bioaccumulation of selenium can have deleterious impacts upon fish communities in an impoundment, so bioaccumulation of these trace elements today is an important, realized parameter of environmental impact. Three decades ago, it was not deemed so. The authors (Rose et al 1985a) conducted metals analysis on clams (Mercenaria mercenaria), grass shrimp (Palaemonetes pugio), and sandworms (Nereis virens) surviving the 10-day solid phase toxicity tests. In these tests, >90% of the sandworms and clams survived exposure to all ash samples, and >82% of the grass shrimp survived. In the surviving organisms, ash-exposed clams accumulated significantly higher concentrations of Mn than controls, while exposed sandworms accumulated significantly higher concentrations of Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Zn.
Other studies of CCW leachate impacts in marine environments have documented inhibition of algal growth (Rose et al 1985b) upon exposure to CCW samples from Elrama, PA, Petersburg, IN, and Alexandria, VA. Slight, but significant increases in anatomical malformations were observed in larval flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) exposed to CCW from Conesville, OH (Woodhead et al 1982, Woodhead 1985).
In the Netherlands, both Se and As were observed to accumulate to high concentrations (up to 10.7 and 76 ppm, respectively) in marine polychaetes (Nereis virens) exposed to pulverized CCW compared to levels in controls (up to 1.1 and 27.5 ppm, respectively) (Jenner and Bowmer 1992), and increased mortality, cellular stress and delayed reproduction were observed in cockles, Cerastoderma edule, in tests conducted in model ecosystems (Bowmer et al 1994).
Homziak et al (1993) investigated the leaching of metals from a mixture of fly ash (92.5%) and cement (7.5%), a material proposed for use as artificial reefs and also as substrate for oyster (Crassostrea virginia) settlement and cultivation in coastal Mississippi. They observed increased concentrations of Cr (up to 1,254 m g/L) and Se (up to 7.63 m g/L) in the oysters. Chromium concentrations have been documented to be harmful to marine life at concentrations as low as 5.0 m g/L (reviewed in Eisler 1986), and as discussed earlier, selenium biomagnifies in aquatic organisms, accumulating in organisms at low trophic levels such as polychaetes.
As described earlier in this review, metal accumulation can impart a variety of effects on aquatic organisms in addition to or in the absence of overt acutely toxic effects (i.e., mortality). A further environmental impact from oceanic fly ash dumping was described by Bamber (1984), who found a negative correlation with benthic fauna diversity and ash content in a dumping ground off the Northumberland coast of the North Sea. The impoverishment of the fauna was attributed to the dumping itself, or a lack of suitable habitat. Thus, based on the variety of effects as described above, one should address the type, abundance, trophic position, and mobility of the resident benthos at the disposal site when considering dumping CCW products into oceanic environments.
There have not been many older noteworthy reviews about CCW in the literature. One that could be found was by Soholt et al 1980. The abstract is extremely noncommittal and says
nothing about the major concerns of CCW. There were two sections on the ecosystem effects and consequences to biota, which encompassed two pages of written text. The information reported was tentative. Similarly quotes from a study by Dvorak et al (1978) were as follows: "However, within the time frame of the study, no ecosystem responses were associated with this accumulation of metals." Another quote is, "Some trace metals may inhibit the important nutrient cycling process by inhibiting microbial action. However, the toxic effects of trace metals on aquatic microorganisms are poorly known." Another quote is, "Further research into the dispersal of coal waste constituents is required before the precision of predicting impacts to fish and wildlife resources can be increased." There appeared to be an emphasis in the study by Dvorak et al (1978), on allaying major concern about trace metal uptake from fly ash to aquatic biota including macrophytes, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish. In general, this older literature about CCW concerns upon aquatic life, ecosystem effects, bioaccumulation concerns, etc., is nebulously presented and attempts to show that impacts upon aquatic life are negligible or require more research.
Another more recent review by Carlson and Adriano (1993) drew very different conclusions emphasizing environmental concern about CCW. They reported potential impact on terrestrial ecosystems from toxic substances released into soils and ground water, reduction in plant establishment and growth, change in the elemental composition of vegetation growing on the ash, and increased accumulation of trace elements in the food chain. In aquatic receiving systems, they reported CCW impacts from surface runoff and indirectly from seepage of landfills and ground water contamination.
The primary concern for disposing CCW, according to the US EPA, is the potential for ground water contamination of elevated concentrations of soluble salts and toxic trace elements (US EPA 1988). Noteworthy toxic trace elements include arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury and selenium. As of 1988, data from field sites were sparse or incomplete because of the expense of full-scale monitoring at ash disposal sites (Theis et al 1989, Hjelmar 1990). Predicting ground water impacts has been inconclusive and based upon results of laboratory leaching studies which are not environmentally realistic to underground conditions. Based upon the above information and the ground water contamination concerns by the US EPA, more monitoring efforts and information gathering is needed at a number of CCW disposal sites around the country to assess and respond to impacts from CCW disposal. This concern becomes elevated when one reviews the new information of high trace element concentrations at more than 30 disposal sites across the country (highlighted in Tables 1 and 14) and explored in detail in ecosystem studies at 13 additional sites discussed in this report.
8.0 OVERVIEW OF CONTAMINANTS IN CCW
There are claims that fly ash is a "benign" substance with little to no outstanding levels of contaminants or that its contaminants will not leach from ash retention ponds or minefills to downgradient ground water wells or eventually to downgradient surface water. Although there are several beneficial uses of coal ash, such as in roadbed construction, soil amelioration, production of cinder blocks, etc., these products are not continuously in contact with ground water aquifers where trace elements can be actively dissociated from ash particle surfaces (see Section 4.1 of this report). In addition, when dry fly ash has been removed from power plant electrostatic precipitators, and not subject to an aqueous environment such as an ash retention pond, the particles remain enriched with trace elemental coatings. These enriched particles will release their coatings to the first aqueous environment to which they are exposed, such as a ground water aquifer.
The data reviewed in chapters 2-7 of this report demonstrate that a number of different CCW sites had one to several constituents exceed the MCL, SMCL or WQC by an order of magnitude or more in downgradient ground water and surface water sites. A summary of these sites and their outstanding contaminants follows (Table 14). Some 46 sites reviewed from 12 states in the USA and abroad (i.e., offshore marine and India) had one to several constituents that surpassed US EPA MCL, SMCL or WQC limits in downgradient wells, ash pond effluents, aquatic receiving systems, etc., some by one to three orders of magnitude. The sites with the greatest number (i.e., three or more) of excessive contaminants included two in Indiana; one in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Virginia; two in North Dakota and Tennessee, and four in Wisconsin. Sites with six or more excessive contaminants were the Bailly Generating Station in Indiana; Coal Creek Underwood Station in North Dakota; Savannah River Project in South Carolina; Oak Ridge Chestnut Ridge Y-12 Plant and TVAs Bull Run Steam Plant in Tennessee, and the Nelson Dewey Facility Alliant, Pulliam Ash Disposal Landfill and Cassville Ash Disposal Site in Wisconsin.
The sites with the most numerous and highly concentrated CCW contaminants were the Oak Ridge Chestnut Ridge Y-12 Plant in Tennessee, Savannah River Project in South Carolina, Bailly Generating Station in Indiana, and the Pulliam Ash Disposal Landfill in Wisconsin. The two CCW field sites in Tennessee had some elemental concentrations that greatly surpassed the highest ones found in Table 1. For example, at Oak Ridge Tennessee, Al at 600,000 m g/L was much higher than Al of 66,000 m g/L at Alabama, while As of 6,100 m g/L far surpassed that at Wisconsin (800 m g/L), Fe at 927 mg/L was two times higher than Fe (395 mg/L) in North Dakota, while Cu in Oak Ridge (1,700 m g/L) exceeded that in South Carolina (401 m g/L) four times. Extraordinarily high concentrations of Al (66,000-600,000 m g/L), As (800-6,100 m g/L), Cu (1,700-2,880 m g/L), Fe (395-927 mg/L), Se (1,100 m g/L) and Zn (51,850 m g/L) were three orders of magnitude above US EPA safe criteria limits for protection of aquatic life. US EPA test bioassay organisms subjected to these levels would become stressed instantaneously and die within a few to several minutes thereafter. In addition, a marine site in the Atlantic Ocean off Delaware had copper concentrations as high as 3,000 m g/L.
The authors of this report are aware that there are reportedly many CCW disposal sites throughout the US in which little or no monitoring of ground waters or receiving surface waters has been conducted and that most monitoring programs that do exist are not monitoring for many of the constituents in CCW, particularly metals such as selenium, thallium, strontium, beryllium and molybdenum that can leach into the environment from CCW at toxic levels. For these reasons we believe that the scope and severity of pollution problems caused by disposal of CCW without adequate safeguards has long been under studied. Nonetheless, the overwhelming consensus from the data in Table 14 is that trace elements and other constituents (i.e., sulfates, TDS, boron, manganese, sodium, chloride and pH excursions) will leach from CCW ash particle surfaces to toxic levels in downgradient ground and surface water adjacent to CCW disposal sites threatening human health and aquatic life.
Table 14. Summary of Some CCW Sites Across the Country and Internationally where Contaminants Exceeded the US EPA MCL, SMCL or Chronic WQC by One or More Orders of Magnitude. | |
State - Site | Contaminant Level - MCL, SMCL, WQC in Parenthesis |
Alabama
Colbert Widows Creek Fossil Plant |
Se-190
m g/L (5) Al - 66,000 m g/L (87). |
Arizona Cholla Steam Electric |
SO4-7,000 mg/L (250), TDS-17,000 mg/L (500), B-50 mg/L (0.9), Na-4,800 mg/L (50), Cl-4,600 mg/L (230). |
Illinois Coffeen/White & Brewer Hennepin Power Station East Pond Hennepin Power Station West Pond Hutsonville Power Station (CIPS) Duck Creek Station (CLC) Wood River Power Station |
Al-2,020
m g/L (87), Fe-65.7 mg/L (0.3) B-14 mg/L (0.9). B-11 mg/L (0.9). B-10.9 mg/L (0.9). TDS-6,400 mg/L (500), B-160 mg/L (0.9), Mn-8.8 mg/L (0.05), Fe-21 mg/L (0.3). Mn-9.5 mg/L (0.05), Fe-55 mg/L (0.3). |
India River Yamuna |
Cd-71 m g/L (1.1). |
Indiana Universal Mine A.B. Brown Station (SIGECO) R. M. Schahfer Station (NIPSCO) Merom Generating Station Bailly Generating Station (NIPSCO) |
B-77
mg/L (0.9) SO4-62,000 mg/L (250), Na-14,000 mg/L (50). SO4-27,500 mg/L (250), Na-11,000 mg/L (50). Al-2,818 m g/L (87), Cd-21 m g/L (1.1). Al-32,000 m g/L (87), B-12 mg/L (0.9), Cd-800 m g/L (1.1), Cu-310 m g/L (12), Fe-47 mg/L (0.3), Zn-2,300 m g/L (47), pH 3.2 (8.5). |
Massachusetts Vitale Fly Ash Pit |
Mn-8.9 mg/L (0.05), Fe-98.6 mg/L (0.3), Na-583 mg/L (50), Al-3,000 m g/L (87), Se-57 m g/L (5). |
New
York Central Hudson Gas & Electric Weber Ash Disposal Site Don Frame Trucking, Inc |
B-9.32
mg/L (0.9), Fe-16.6 mg/L (0.3), Al-1,620 m g/L (87), Se-62 m g/L
(5). Mn-27 mg/L (0.05), Fe-138 mg/L (0.3), Al-65,200 m g/L (87). SO4-3,156 mg/L (250), TDS-5,046 mg/L (500), Mn-2.12 mg/L (0.05), Fe-64.2 mg/L (0.3). |
North
Dakota R. M. Heskett Station Coal Creek, Underwood Station Coal Creek, Wilton Site Milton R. Young |
SO4-18,000
mg/L (250), TDS-11,818 mg/L (500), B-23 mg/L (0.9),
Mn-2.42 mg/L (0.05), Na-1,580 mg/L (50). SO4-51,000 mg/L (250), TDS-8,212 mg/L (500), B-55 mg/L (0.9), Mn-2.42 mg/L (0.05), Fe-4.8 mg/L (0.3), Na-1,580 mg/L (50), Se-1,100 m g/L (5). Al-3,000 m g/L (87), pH-11.8 (8.5). SO4--25,000 mg/L (250), Fe-395 mg/L (0.3) |
South
Carolina Savannah River Project |
Al-12,900 m g/L (87), Cd-123 m g/L (1.1), Cu-401 m g/L (12), Fe-16.9 mg/L (0.3), Se-107 m g/L (5), Zn-371 m g/L (47), pH-3.5 (8.5). |
Tennessee TVAs Bull Run Steam Plant Oak Ridge Chestnut Ridge Y-12 Plant |
Fe-927
mg/L (0.3), Al-80,000 m g/L (87), pH-2.89 (8.5). Fe-310 mg/L (0.3), Al-600,000 m g/L (87), B-2.1 mg/L (0.9), Cd-13 m g/L (1.1), Cu-1,700 m g/L (12), As-6,100 m g/L (50), Se-290 m g/L (5), Zn-680 m g/L (47). |
Virginia Glen Lyn Plant |
Cd-90 m g/L (1.1), Cu-2,880 m g/L (12), Se-85 m g/L (5), Zn-2,170 m g/L (47), pH-9.5 (8.5). |
Wisconsin Cedar-Sauk Ash Landfill Rock River Ash Disposal Nelson Dewey Facility Alliant Highway 59 Ash Landfill Edgewater 1-4 Ash Disposal Pulliam Ash Disposal Landfill Cassville Ash Disposal Site |
B-140
mg/L (0.9), Zn-980 m g/L (47). B-14 mg/L (0.9), Fe-7.9 mg/L (0.3), Cd-3 m g/L (1.1), Zn-4,900 m g/L (47). SO4-7,800 mg/L (250), B-48 mg/L (0.9), Fe-140 mg/L (0.3), As-800 m g/L (50), Cd-140 m g/L (1.1), Se-320 m g/L (5), pH-11.8 (8.5). B-50 mg/L (0.9), Mn-0.670 mg/L (0.05). B-66 mg/L (0.9). SO4-7,260 mg/L (250), TDS-7,917 mg/L (500), B-28 mg/L (0.9), Mn-6.240 mg/L (0.05), Fe-142 mg/L (0.3), Cl-1,491 mg/L (230), Al-7,960 m g/L (87), Zn-1,030 m g/L (47), pH-9.56 (8.5). B-10.86 mg/L (0.9), Mn-9.9 mg/L (0.05), Fe-30 mg/L (0.3), Cd-1,226 m g/L (1.1), Zn-51,850 m g/L (47), pH-9.96 (8.5). |
Marine
Sites Consolidated Edison, NY and Offshore, Atlantic Ocean, Delaware |
Cu-3,000 m g/L, Zn-640 m g/L, Cd-49 m g/L. |
9.0 SUMMARY OF CREDENTIALS FOR D. S. CHERRY, R. J. CURRIE AND D. J. SOUCEK
This researcher obtained the Ph.D. from Clemson University in 1973 and is currently a professor at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, where he has been conducting research in ecotoxicology for nearly 27 years. He has graduated 35 graduate students and directed 13 post-doctoral fellows. He has published more than 360 papers, monographs and abstracts in the scientific literature and generated >300 reports of more limited distribution for industrial clients. He has had numerous funded research projects with industrial facilities, universities, private consulting companies, special interest groups and state-federal regulatory agencies with total funding exceeding $7.5 million. He has conducted stream/river surveys for native unionids, benthic macroinvertebrates and fish in the Clinch River, Virginia (1985-1995), Powell River, Virginia (1990-1999), Leading Creek watershed, Ohio (1994-1999), and in several other states including Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, Arizona and in Canada. Besides field sampling expertise, he has conducted research with native unionids concerning heavy metal sensitivity to each component of their life cycle in bioassays and cultured them in the laboratory. A number of specific research activities are described below. It is important to note that Dr. Cherry has been involved in a number of environmental impact projects besides that of Coal Combustion Wastes with the power industry, as his interests transcribe over paper mills, chemical companies, waste water treatment plants, petroleum companies, fiber producing companies, etc.
He has been responsible for developing and carrying out eight specific areas of research which are presented below in specific pairs of research objectives in the next three paragraphs. They include (1) Power Plant Ecology and Effects upon Aquatic Food Chains - documenting preference and avoidance behavior of fish from lethal exposures to heated, chlorinated discharges, acidic-alkaline pH excursions and heavy metal exposures; and predicting safe concentrations of fly ash effluent, acidic/alkaline pH and ash particulate interactions upon aquatic receiving systems. (2) Correlation of Physiological-Biochemical Mechanisms with Toxicological Responses of Fish and Invertebrate Populations from Power Plant Effluents Stressed by Fly Ash and Heavy Metal Effluents - developing biomarkers as indicators of environmental stress with clam, insect and fish responses to metallothionein induction, exo-endocellulose enzyme activity, and gill ultracellular alteration using transmission/scanning electron microscopy.
(3) Hazard Evaluation of Toxic Substances in Aquatic Ecosystems - Industry Versus State and/or Federal Regulatory Agencies - investigating hazard evaluation using field techniques, artificial stream microcosms, laboratory artificial stream systems, and accepted laboratory static and flow-through bioassay techniques; understanding the cost-effectiveness of these protocols to industry; providing the optimal and most applicable results of hazard evaluation studies in accessing environmental impact; and developing new or revised protocols to optimize the current and future toxicity testing methodologies to access this area of hazard evaluation between industry and state or federal regulatory agencies. (4) Biofouling and Control Strategies for Asian Clams and Zebra Mussels - evaluating the efficacy and fate/effects of selected molluscicides upon pest organisms and endemic non-target organisms residing in the water column and sediment.
5) Comprehensive Evaluation of Pulp and Paper Mill Effluents Ecotoxicology, Color Perception and Dioxin Issues - investigating the potential toxicity of effluents using US EPA approved test organisms and endemic species; carrying out in-river surveys of periphyton, benthic macroinvertebrates, and fish; evaluating scenic river beauty and color perception of darkened effluents; negotiating NPDES permitting between the paper industry and regulatory agencies, and being an expert witness in litigious situations. (6) Evaluation of Color Perception and Scenic River Beauty Influenced by Paper Mill Effluents Using Human Subjects - to address the NPDES permit limits for paper mill effluents and several other types of industrial discharges to determine if they are too stringent or lax.
(7) Field Surveys for Native Unionids and their Competitive Interaction with Asian Clams - emphasis is to determine the most sensitive part of the life cycle of mussels in the laboratory as well as how Asian clam invasion contributes to their demise. (8) Recovery/Restoration Ecology of Damaged Stream/River Ecosystems - investigating the effects of non-point inputs from abandoned mined land (AML); sedimentation from agricultural runoff, and influences of rural town runoff upon ecosystem integrity on a watershed scale. The overall strategy is to develop a watershed-level enhancement plan approach to restoration ecology.
Dr. Cherry has collaborated with numerous industrial clients, several universities, a number of state regulatory agencies and special interest groups with legal associations. The industrial clients included power companies in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and the Great Lakes area; as well as paper mills and associated consortiums in Virginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, North Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Maine, and Canada. The paper mill companies and affiliations included Union Camp, Wisconsin Paper Council, Bowater Southern Paper Company, Champion Paper Co., SONOCO, Inc., Maine Paper Council, Virginia Fibre Company, International Paper Company, Georgia Pacific Company, Hoechst Celanese Fiber Company, Procter & Gamble Company, and the National Council of the Paper Industry for Air & Stream Improvement, Inc.
Some of the major industrial companies that Dr. Cherry has represented included FMC, CMA, DOW Chemical Co, Amoco Corp, Shell Oil Corp, Standard Oil Co., IBM, American Cyanamid Inc., Borg-Warner Chemicals, General Electric Specialty Chemicals, Hoechst Celanese Corp, Celanese Acetate Corp., MERCK & Co, BETZ Laboratories, Eastman-Kodak Corp, Calgon Corp, Eastman Chemical Co., Howes Leather Co., Brush Wellman Inc., and Dominion Semiconductor/Toshiba, Inc. His affiliations with university scientists have included those at the Savannah River Project in South Carolina, Clemson University, Texas A&M University, University of Texas School of Public Health, The George Washington University, University of Tennessee, University of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, University of Texas-Houston, Arkansas State University, North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina, East Tennessee State University, Roanoke College, Ferrum College, and a number of colleagues at Virginia Tech.
Dr. Cherry has interacted with a number of state regulatory groups in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, West Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. Professional interactions on environmental matters have occurred with the US Environmental Protection Agency in eight states with super fund projects and closed workshops for selected scientists, the US Army Corps of Engineers in several states, and the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He has worked with special interest groups on environmental/litiguous matters with WAPORA Inc., Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Utility Water Act Group (UWAG), Illinois Institute for Continuous Legal Education, NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection, International Joint Commission, Center for Public Interest Research, Jones & Day Legal Assoc., Parlee McLaws Law Firm, Ocean Advocates, Waste Policy Inst., Taylor & Fulton, Inc., USGS/Blue Ridge Parkway, Aquatic Systems, Inc., McLearn Hart, Inc., Jones-Day-Reaves-& Pogue Law Firm, Eastern Research Group (ERG) and the Hoosier Environmental Council (HEC) in Indiana.
More specifically, Dr. D. S. Cherry has studied the environmental effects of fly ash and CCW from 1973-1987 and thereafter, with other projects dealing with trace metal impacts upon aquatic life. These studies first began at the SRP with published results starting in the mid-1970s by Guthrie and Cherry (1975), Guthrie et al (1975), Guthrie and Cherry (1976), and Cherry and Guthrie (1975, 1977, 1978). Studies on fly ash effects versus bacterial populations have been investigated (Guthrie et al 1977, 1978a,b and 1979a,b, Cherry and Guthrie 1979, and Larrick et al 1981), which are relevant given the association of sulfur bacteria with acid mine drainage (AMD). The influence of metal uptake by duckweed (Lemna perpusilla) was researched at SRP, SC and Glen Lyn, VA, sites (Rodgers et al 1978, Clark et al 1981), and bioaccumulation by macrophytes was identified at the SRP receiving system (Guthrie and Cherry 1979a,b). The potential of heavy metal bioaccumulation by other biota (benthic macroinvertebrates and fish) relative to water and sediment contamination was addressed as well (Cherry et al 1979a,b, Guthrie and Cherry 1979a,b, Guthrie et al 1981, 1982a,b, 1983, 1986).
Long term studies of fly ash impacts (up to 12 years) and recovery consequences have been completed at both SRP and Glen Lyn locales (Cherry et al 1984a,b, Specht et al 1984, Cairns and Cherry 1982 and Cherry and Cairns 1986). It was found that when the fly ash effluent had been terminated or lessened in these receiving systems, the diversity of the decimated benthic macroinvertebrate and/or fish communities could recover in periods ranging from 12 months to 6-8 years, depending upon the stressed ecosystem. However, long term impacts from exposure to chronically toxic levels of CCW conditions could continue for many more years, as seen in the recent SRP studies in South Carolina. Once again, this researcher hopes that the multiple environmental stresses induced by poorly regulated CCW disposal in the mid-1970s to mid 1980s will not become a larger problem from CCW disposal that contaminates ground water through subsequent infiltration and enters adjacent receiving systems (i.e., streams, ponds, swamps, and rivers) through the process of runoff from agricultural irrigation with contaminated ground water.
The concerns of adverse effects to people consuming the water directly by drinking or utilizing it through irrigation adds credence to the fact that the CCW issue has become a multi-directional environmental problem that must be addressed. Unfortunately, the recent environmental impact studies of CCW from 1996-1999 at the SRP indicate that the acutely toxic coal ash discharge ramifications found from 1973-1984 are now producing long-term chronic consequences. The end result is that in the year 2000 the remaining sensitive and tolerant resident species in this watershed will continue to disappear as they did 20 years ago, as recently seen in chronic toxicological impacts in the latter 1990 publications by SRP researchers. The improving base of knowledge about the long term adverse effects from CCW pollution should not be ignored by the US EPA.
In retrospect, this researcher (D. S. Cherry) fully understands the magnitude of the acutely toxic impacts that were seen in 1973 and thereafter at the SRP in South Carolina. The benthic macroinvertebrates sampled back then were the last tolerant species left in the receiving system, along with the mosquitofish. At the time, I entered the SRP 400-D receiving system when it was already impacted, the only question was how much so. That question cannot be answered. It was obvious that this originally stressed receiving system became even more so and was relentlessly researched by Dr. R. K. Guthrie and myself due to its gross environmental impacts. Why other scientists did not pursue this level of research of CCW impacts at other sites is unknown. Unfortunately, most studies did not last several years. From this researchers vantage point after +2.5 decades of experience, the impacts of CCW disposal are real and need to be realistically regulated by federal and state regulatory personnel to maintain the integrity of ground water aquifers and surface waters for public health and protection of aquatic life.
Dr. Rebecca J. Currie is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Biology Department at Virginia Tech. Her areas of research are aquatic ecotoxicology, aquatic ecology and entomology, restoration ecology, habitat evaluation and assessment, and fish physiology. For her Masters research Dr. Currie worked in the field of physiological ecology studying the effects of temperature acclimation on aquatic benthic macroinvertebrates (Moulton et al 1993), species of freshwater game fishes, including channel catfish, largemouth bass and rainbow trout (Currie et al 1998) and one tropical fish species, the red-bellied piranha (Bennet et al 1997). As a doctoral candidate and postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Currie has authored/coauthored seven publications, has one in review and has four manuscripts in preparation. She has coauthored 25 technical reports and has helped generate over $600,000 in research funds.
These technical reports dating from 1995-1999 began with the evaluation of a closed mining operation effluent (Westmoreland Coal Company) upon the benthic macroinvertebrate community in a small Appalachian stream. Dr. Currie has assisted with biocidal reconnaissance of Asian clams for biofouling control in two industrial facilities, Celriver Plant, Rock Hill, SC and Celco Plant, Narrows, VA each year from 1996-2000. She has conducted acute and chronic toxicity testing of numerous industrial facility effluents for evaluation/assessment of environmental impacts and as a requirement of many NPDES permits. These facilities have included Celanese Acetate, IBM/Toshiba, International Paper (Pine Bluff, AR and Woronoco, MA) and BrushWellman, Inc. in Pennsylvania. She has researched an unpermitted discharge of a landfill leachate containing high concentrations of heavy metals and volatile organics in 1996 which continued into the current year (Belval et al 1999). Dr. Currie has investigated the effects of agricultural and abandoned mined land runoff in several watersheds. The East Fork of the Little River, Floyd County, Virginia was studied in 1996, 1997 and 1998 with assistance from the Soil Conservation Service (Cherry and Currie 1999). Abandoned mined land impacts have been assessed in the Ely Creek and Pucketts Creek watersheds in southwestern Virginia (Cherry and Currie 1997, Cherry et al 1998) in coordination with the Virginia Department of Mined Land Reclamation and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Her primary responsibilities are as a research scientist and laboratory manager for Dr. Donald S. Cherry. Dr. Currie was awarded her Ph.D. in May 1999 after developing a dissertation entitled, " Identification of Ecosystem Stressors in Developing an Enhancement Plan for the Leading Creek Watershed, Meigs County, Ohio". Her dissertation research focused on the assessment of multiple stressors from agriculture, active mining and abandoned mined lands, and the contributions these stressors had on the overall health of the Leading Creek watershed. Once individual impacts were assessed, a new and innovative rating system called an Ecotoxicological Rating (ETR) was developed for the watershed. This ETR incorporated biological, physical, chemical and toxicological data to provide a single numerical value that allowed the comparison of sites and prioritization for remediation and restoration.
Dr. Currie has developed proficiency for the evaluation and assessment of impaired aquatic systems with extensive expertise utilizing benthic macroinvertebrates as indicators of environmental impairment. This expertise was obtained through ten years of experience in aquatic insect sampling and taxonomic identification. She has conducted benthic macroinvertebrate surveys in eight watersheds: Leading Creek, Ohio; Little River, Virginia; Black Creek, Virginia; Ely Creek, Virginia; Pigeon Creek in Appalachia, Virginia; Indian Creek, Tennessee; Powell Creek in Manassas, Virginia; and an unnamed tributary to the Roanoke River. Surveys were conducted for American Electric Power Company (AEP), Skyline Drive Conservation District (SDSC), Department of Mined Land Reclamation (VA DMLR), Westmoreland Coal Company, East Tennessee State University (ETSU), IBM/Toshiba, and United States Geological Survey (USGS). A benthic macroinvertebrate survey was also conducted in Tom's Creek and tributaries in Blacksburg, Virginia, for Anderson and Associates, Inc. an environmental engineering firm. Toms Creek and its tributaries were surveyed as part of an ecological assessment required prior to approval for a new sewer line system in the Toms Creek sub-basin. She continues to utilize benthic macroinvertebrates to evaluate impairment in streams and uses this data to develop the appropriate best management practices for ecological remediation, and biomonitoring of remediated sites (Cherry et al 1999a).
Current research activities include the utilization of the Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea, as an in situ biomonitoring approach to predict water column and sediment toxicity, the in-stream validation of laboratory whole effluent toxicity testing (WETT) methodologies (Cherry et al 1999b), validation of fecal coliform as a parameter for Total Maximum Daily Loadings (TMDLs) determinations (Currie et al 2000), the ecotoxicological and human health impact ramifications of a landfill seep (Currie and Cherry 2000), and Toxicity Reduction Evaluation (TRE) of active mine effluent as influenced by conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS) and sodium, which are constituents lacking natural water quality criteria standards. This research is a continuation of the biomonitoring of habitat quality in the Leading Creek watershed, Ohio.
Along with the above mentioned research endeavors, Dr. Currie oversees activities in the laboratory of Dr. Donald S. Cherry. Her primary responsibility is to oversee the conductance of all toxicity testing in the laboratory and to provide quality assurance/quality control for ongoing research projects. She has extensive experience conducting acute and chronic toxicity tests with freshwater and saltwater species, Ceriodaphnia dubia, Daphnia magna, Mysidopsis bahia, Menidia beryllina and Pimephales promelas; sediment tests with Daphnia magna and Chironomus tentans and in situ chronic survival/growth impairment tests with the Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea. She has maintained laboratory cultures of Ceriodaphnia dubia, Daphnia magna, Daphnia pulex, Chironomus tentans and Hexagenia limbata and fish stocks of Pimephales promelas, Micropterus salmoides, Ictalurus punctatus and Onchorynchus mykiss. She is also responsible for mentoring graduate students and assisting with graduate student field activities.
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