Coal-Fired Power Needs to Step Down

A Letter to the Editor of USA Today

COAL COMBUSTION POLLUTION ISN'T JUST HOT AIR

I saw a great article on local resistance to the installation of a coal-fired power plant. This kind of grassroots effort needs to continue to raise our levels of awareness on the world's greatest source of airborne pollution and carbon emissions: coal combustion for power.

But it doesn't stop there. It's ground and water, too.

I wrote a letter in praise of the above article, but I also point out one point that was not addressed: burnt coal ash dumping to the amount of 135 million tons in the USA this year will be our largest source of drinking water pollution for decades to come.

Coal-fired power needs to step down, folks.

Read below and be aware...

- John

LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF USA TODAY

TO: USA Today Reader Editor & Bobby Carmichael

My thanks for your great eye-opening article, "Opposition takes on coal plants", dated October 29, 2007. I wish to point out other grave problems related to coal-fired power plants not mentioned in your article.

While it is well established that coal combustion is a significant contributor to carbon emissions and airborne toxins, the coal combustion process is also the largest culprit in solid waste pollution in the United States - to the tune of approximately 135 million tons in this year alone!* Fly ash, smokestack scrubber sludge and other solids derived from coal combustion are frequently dumped back into the mines from which the coal was originally dug, or into open pits and landfills serving under a similar disposal function.