Make Your ACAA Fall Meeting Reservations Now!

Tuesday, September 25, is the cut-off date for discounted hotel reservations for the American Coal Ash Association Fall Meeting. Make your hotel reservations here.

The Fall Meeting will be held October 18-19, 2012, at the Sheraton Kansas City at Crown Center. Discounted meeting registration fees are available on the ACAA website until October 15.

ACAA committee meetings are held on the first day of ACAA’s two-day meetings. All are invited and encouraged to participate in committee meetings. ACAA’s Women’s Leadership Forum will gather for lunch on the first day. Finally, a welcome reception for all attendees will be held the evening of the first day.

Presentations by industry, government and academic speakers are held on the second day of the meetings. Details are being added to the ACAA website as they become available.

Due to limited time during the upcoming Fall ACAA Meeting, the ACAA's Women's Leadership Forum will have an informal lunch.  We invite all ACAA ladies to share lunch with each other in a private room where we can mingle and enjoy each other’s company!  The luncheon will not be sponsored and will have no program.  You can order off the menu,http://www.milanokc.com/menus.html, or mix and match from an Italian style buffet for $12.25.  Please R.S.V.P. for this social luncheon opportunity!  At the Winter ACAA Meeting, we will resume the Women’s Leadership Forum luncheon program which will be sponsored by Waste Management.

Don’t Forget Practical Workshop and WOCA Deadlines

Plan now to attend the new coal ash “Practical Workshop” and don’t forget that the deadline for World of Coal Ash abstracts is looming.

• “Coal Combustion Products Utilization and Management:  A Practical Workshop” is the new event co-sponsored by the American Coal Ash Association and University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research. The Workshop will be held October 9-10, 2012, at the Hilton Lexington Downtown Hotel in Lexington, Kentucky.
  
  Professional Development Hours will be available to Workshop attendees. The recently announced speakers list includes Bob Jewell, CAER; Don Fuller II, Stantec Consulting Services; Bob Rathbone, Boral Industries; Tom Robl, CAER; John Gaynor, U.S. Gypsum; Ron Chamberlain, Beneficial Reuse Management; Ken Ladwig, EPRI; Lisa Bradley, AECOM; Tom Adams, ACAA; and Henk Nugteren, Delft University of Technology. For more information, including a detailed agenda, registration and accommodations, click here.
  
  
• 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.

Coal Ash Bill Passes in U.S. House of Representatives (Again)

The U.S. House of Representatives on September 21 passed the "Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act" (H.R. 3409). Included in the bill was legislation to create coal ash disposal regulations that avoid a “hazardous waste” designation for the material.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH) and included a re-packaging of several pieces of legislation that previously passed out of the House. Those provisions included measures to streamline Clean Water Act oversight of mines, block greenhouse gas regulations and block the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) from moving forward with its stream buffer zone rule.

Notably, the specific coal ash language included in the new House bill was the complete text of S. 3512 – the ‘‘Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act of 2012’’ – which was filed in the U.S. Senate in August after negotiations with Senate Democrats resulted in several amendments to the coal ash bill that originally passed the House. By using the Senate’s version of the language in its most recent bill, the House sends a clear signal that it accepts the changes the Senate wants to make.

A copy of the complete bill that passed the House Friday can be found here. A Heritage Foundation briefing on the overall bill is here. The House’s most recent bill is not expected to be taken up by the Senate, however. While there appears to be widespread House/Senate agreement on the coal ash provisions, the other elements of the new House bill remain controversial.

A Fond Farewell to Annely Noble

Longtime American Coal Ash Association staff member Annely Noble has announced that she is resigning her staff position effective September 28 in order to spend more time with family.

Annely was ACAA’s office manager in Aurora, Colorado. She has served as a special assistant working on membership recruitment since ACAA’s headquarters relocation earlier this year.

“Annely has been a pivotal part of ACAA’s success in recent years,” said Tom Adams, ACAA Executive Director. “Her dedication and hard work were matched only by her cheerfulness and cooperative spirit. Annely could always be counted on to go the extra mile. We wish her well in her next endeavors.”

Air & Waste Management Group Seeking Coal Ash Papers

The international Air & Waste Management Association’s Power Generation Committee has proposed a session for the Chicago June 2013 A&WMA annual conference entitled “Ash & Residuals Management & Beneficial Use - Technologies, Policies, Applications.”

Conference organizers are seeking presenters on all aspects of coal ash technologies, policies and applications. Abstracts up to 300 words in length are being accepted online until November 5, 2012.

Coal Ash in the News

News from environmental groups: Yet another report was released by an environmental group attacking “toxic coal ash.” This one is from Florida. Also, 300 environmental groups signed on to a letter to the U.S. Senate opposing the coal ash regulation legislation that has been introduced there. Finally, environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control over permit issues related to Santee Cooper coal ash disposal operations.

News from around the world: Turkish and Israeli scientists have published a paper on a new methodology for removal of boron from water by coal and fly ash. Research in India is looking at fly ash in agriculture to prevent runoff of herbicides. An Australian company is promoting fly ash concrete for use in surface products.

Share The Phoenix With Co-Workers

The Phoenix is a “members only” publication of the American Coal Ash Association, but there’s no limit to the number of people who can receive it at each member company. To add people to the Phoenix distribution list, just send their email addresses to Alyssa Barto.

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The ACAA’s mission is to advance the management and use of coal combustion products in ways that are environmentally responsible, technically sound, commercially competitive, and more supportive of a sustainable global community.