May 14, 2014 – A Production of LinkTV. Editor’s Note: Indiana and Southwest Indiana in particular is home to numerous massive coal ash dumps that were not featured in this video. Indiana Government has simply looked the other way as generally docile communities are left frustrated and sick. EPA is supposed to issue new rules governing the disposal of coal ash and other residues by December 19, 2014, more than four years after they received more than 500,000 comments f rom citizens seeking strong regulation.
People in three adjacent Pennsylvania communities suffer from a rare blood cancer. In Juliette, Georgia, where radioactive water flows from the tap, people are also getting sick. What else do these communities have in common? Coal ash. Some 130 million tons of it is generated in the US each year. It contains toxins like lead, arsenic and mercury and it gets into ground water from unlined pond and pit storage sites. The federal government says it’s non-hazardous and regulation is left to state governments where the coal industry has great influence. And it’s always people who suffer the consequences.