U.S. Senators File New Coal Ash Regulation Bill
A new bill to establish the first ever national regulatory standards for coal ash disposal was filed August 2, 2012, in the United States Senate.
The new legislation – entitled the ‘‘Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act of 2012’’ – is based on the regulatory structure approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and proposed in the Senate last October as S. 1751. However, it adds key revisions designed to attract more Democratic support and address concerns of environmental groups. It would create enforceable national regulations under Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and avoid any designation of coal ash as “hazardous waste.”
The revised bill is the product of seven months of intense bipartisan discussions to broaden both Democratic and Republican support for the bill that was originally introduced. The new bill has attracted support from 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans as co-sponsors – up from five of each sponsoring the original bill last fall. Lead sponsors are Democratic Senator Kent Conrad and Republican Senator John Hoeven, both of North Dakota.
A summary of the new bill and a complete list of the co-sponsors is here. A copy of Senator Hoeven’s news release regarding the bill is here. A copy of the complete bill is on the ACAA website here.
The new Senate bill was filed after the coal ash provisions narrowly missed inclusion in the Transportation Bill that passed Congress in June. For more detail about how the coal ash provisions were dropped from that bill at the last minute, look here. For information about the Transportation Bill that passed and sustainability provisions that were included in it, look here, here and here.
ACAA Engages EPA on ‘Beneficial Use Risk Evaluations’
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with development of a “Beneficial Use Risk Evaluation Methodology” for encapsulated uses. Representatives of the American Coal Ash Association have engaged EPA officials in discussions aimed at understanding how the methodology would work and how the Agency plans to apply it.
Lisa Feldt, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, spoke at the ACAA Summer Meeting in Portsmouth, Virginia, in June. In oral remarks, she provided the beneficial use industry its first glimpse of the methodology that has been under development for at least several months.
Ms. Feldt stated several times that the Agency “strongly supports” beneficial use of coal ash and provided a long list of environmental and economic benefits associated with the practice. She cited these benefits as the reason the Agency expressly maintained the Bevill exemption for beneficial use in its 2010 draft proposed rule for coal ash disposal regulations. She acknowledged that the beneficial use industry has been “challenged” by the rulemaking and “needs certainty.” She expressed hope that the forthcoming risk evaluation methodology would help restore certainty for encapsulated beneficial uses.
The draft methodology for encapsulated uses consists of a five step hierarchy that would allow a “user” to evaluate products containing coal ash and compare their performance to similar products that do not contain coal ash. The steps are sequential. Not all products will have to go through all steps. As soon as a product qualifies as presenting acceptable risks or qualifying as comparable to similar non-ash products, the evaluation would be finished for that product. Ms. Feldt said she expects that “most of the encapsulated products we’ve looked at” likely would not progress beyond the first few steps consisting of literature reviews, comparisons of data about releases, and development of a conceptual model for releases. Later evaluation steps could include comparisons of releases from the conceptual site models to residential health based screening levels and actual testing.
EPA has indicated that it intends to apply the methodology itself to two products – fly ash concrete and wallboard containing synthetic gypsum – but the Agency has no plans to evaluate all encapsulated uses. EPA also plans to develop a separate methodology for unencapsulated beneficial uses by 2014.
ACAA representatives conducted a follow-up meeting with Ms. Feldt and other EPA officials on July 19 in Washington, DC. ACAA representatives expressed several concerns about the methodology and its potential application. Discussions with the Agency are expected to continue. Progress on the Risk Evaluations issue is routinely discussed on the biweekly conference calls of the ACAA Government Relations Committee. ACAA members who wish to join the Committee should contact Alyssa Barto at Alyssa.Barto@acaa-usa.org.
ACAA Summer Meeting Highlights
The summer membership meeting of the American Coal Ash Association in Portsmouth, Virginia, attracted 174 attendees. In addition to regular committee meetings and a full slate of speakers, the meeting featured a changing of the guard for ACAA leadership.
Mark Bryant, of Ameren, stepped down as ACAA Chairman after four years of service. The new Chair of the Board for the 2012-14 term will be Lisa Cooper, PMI Ash Technologies. Hollis Walker, Southern Company, will serve as Vice Chair. Charles Price, Charah, will continue as Secretary/Treasurer.
Joining the ACAA Executive Committee will be Dr. Lisa Bradley, AECOM; Gary England, Headwaters; Chris Hardin, Haley & Aldrich; and Kenny Tapp, Louisville Gas & Electric. Executive Committee members retiring from service include Mike Adams, Headwaters; Rick Hayek, AEP; and Dana Meier, Indianapolis Power & Light.
Outgoing Chairman Mark Bryant will lead a new task to evaluate potential changes to the ACAA bylaws and leadership structure. Recommendations may be prepared for presentation at the next meeting October 18-19 in Kansas City.
Copies of presentations from the summer meeting are available on the ACAA website. Member log-in is required.
Coal Ash in the News
ACAA’s recent Coal Ash Material Safety study was featured prominently in the July issue of Concrete Products magazine. You can see the story on page 14 of the magazine here and a summary on the magazine’s website here. The full text of the ACAA study is now available on the ACAA website.
The American Road and Transportation Builders Association told a Congressional Committee that EPA’s potential “hazardous waste” designation for coal ash is one of three major threats that “could undermine the historic policy reforms put in place by the newly enacted highway and transit law. An article and link to ARTBA’s testimony can be found here.”
From the coal ash disposal world: Wisconsin officials have determined they will move ahead with an enforcement action related to last October’s bluff collapse that released coal ash into Lake Michigan. A lawsuit over the controversial Little Blue Run waste impoundment has produced an agreement to stop accepting coal ash before the end of 2016. Stories about that are here and here.
The State of Ohio has committed $30 million for clean coal research that could include funding for projects related to coal ash use. The Columbus Dispatch has more.
In a favorable sign for markets for coal ash, the Portland Cement Association has revised its cement consumption forecast upward for a second time this year. PCA also issued a new long term construction industry forecast.
Coal in the News
Congressman David McKinley continues to aggressively defend coal in addition to defending coal ash, such as this newly filed bill to delay EPA greenhouse gas emissions regulations. Here’s an interesting profile about Congressman McKinley himself.
The Heritage Foundation released this comprehensive review of what many have characterized as the federal government’s “war on coal.”
ACAA Members in the News
Boral Material Technologies hosted U.S. Congressman Melvin Watt (D-NC) for a tour of its new North Carolina facility that manufactures building trim products from coal ash and other recycled materials. The visit gave Boral officials a chance to talk to the Congressman about the danger of an EPA “hazardous waste” designation for coal ash. The Salisbury Post has an account of the meeting.
Headwaters Resources funded a major publicity campaign in support of including coal ash language in the recent federal Transportation Bill. This article provides an inside account of the campaign and its results. Here is a television news appearance by Headwaters CEO Kirk Benson during the campaign.
FlyAshDirect and BASF announced a new chemical solution to beneficiate fly ashes used in concrete that have been exposed to Powder Activated Carbon for mercury control.
ACAA People on the Move
Jim Clayton has been named Vice President of Operations of The SEFA Group. Clayton has been with The SEFA Group for seven years as the Director of Utility Relations. He will be responsible for coordinating efforts in engineering, construction, transportation, plant operations, and plant maintenance. He will also continue managing the relationships with SEFA’s utility partners.
Charles Henderson is taking over the ACAA Director position for Ameren Energy as Mark Bryant steps down as the voting representative for Ameren.
Ron Thompson is taking over the ACAA Director position for Electric Energy, Inc., upon the retirement of Mike Mercer.
Welcome New Members
Parsons, an Associate non-voting member, is “a large engineering, environmental, and construction management consultant firm that could use ash in construction applications and is also interested in environmental impacts of ash use.” Jim Redwine will be ACAA’s primary point of contact, while Rob Howell will serve as the alternate.
Joyce Engineering, an Associate non-voting member, “develops beneficial use programs for ash generated by coal fired power plants and provides training programs for managing ash disposal facilities in the southeast.” Kristie Hooper will be ACAA’s primary point of contact, while Jeff Fantell will serve as the alternate.
Dawn Santoianni, a non-voting Individual member, is a combustion engineer/consultant who has worked on coal energy and byproduct management projects for over 15 years and has been involved with CCP regulatory issues since March 2009.
Coal Ash Research Institute, Dezhou University, a non-voting Affiliate member, is “a research and development department of Dezhou University with interest in the utilization of CCPs.” The Institute studies PC & CFB ash used in cement, concrete, building materials, geopolymers, and agriculture, as well as the utilization of FGD gypsum. Guanjie Zhai will be ACAA’s primary point of contact.
Upcoming Events
Mark your calendars now for the American Coal Ash Association Fall Meeting to be held October 18-19, 2012, in Kansas City, Missouri. Location and registration information will be announced soon.
A new ash utilization workshop co-sponsored by the American Coal Ash Association and University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research will be October 9-10, 2012, at the Hilton Lexington Downtown Hotel. “Coal Combustion Products Utilization and Management: A Practical Workshop” will include topics such as Introduction to Coal Combustion Ash Utilization; Coal Ash: Beneficiation and Advanced Materials / Applications; Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD): Characteristics, Applications and Materials; Environmental Safety and Sustainable Construction; and Coal Combustion Products and Low Energy Concrete.
The University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research and Carbon Management Research Group have created a new event. Carbon Capture 101 Workshop will be held September 25-26, 2012, at the Hilton Lexington Downtown Hotel. Workshop topics include Development of CO2 Capture, Site Characteristic for Deployment of CCS in East of U.S., Solvent/Technology for Sour Gas Separation, CO2 Capture in Practice, Thermodynamic Analysis on Aqueous System, and Solvent Selection and Development.
World of Coal Ash deadline reminder: Abstracts are due by November 1, 2012. The World of Coal Ash symposium will be held April 22-25, 2013, in Lexington, Kentucky. Visit the World of Coal Ash website for all of the details.
The Phoenix was sent to you from the American Coal Ash Association: info@acaa-usa.org.
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