Energy News Network journalist Kari Lyderson reports on a Virginia-based power company that sold its coal ash to local governments and contractors in Puerto Rico as a cheap material for road construction. Almost two decades later, dust and runoff from this coal ash continues to spread toxic and radioactive pollution in rural communities along the island’s south coast.
In a nutshell:
In Salinas, Puerto Rico, coal ash, a byproduct of a power plant in Guayama, was used for road construction, raising environmental and health concerns. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not regulate coal ash in roads until 2015, and power companies were exempt from responsibility. Local activists, including Sol Piñeiro and José Cora Collazo, have been working to raise awareness about the issue and demand action from authorities. Groundwater testing has been initiated, but residents fear contamination of drinking water sources.
Key quote:
A 2023 report by the environmental organization Earthjustice noted that the toxic ash still lies unused and uncovered at sites where it poses health risks to people in nearby homes, parks, a school and a hospital. “At numerous sites, the coal ash was left uncovered or covered only with a thin layer of dirt, which quickly eroded,” the report said. “Fugitive dust from these uncovered piles and roads is common.”
The big picture:
The coal ash has caused significant environmental and health concerns, contaminating groundwater and causing toxic dust in communities along the island's south coast. Local activists are demanding accountability, urging for the removal of coal ash from roads, and advocating for a transition to decentralized small solar and microgrids to ensure energy justice and minimize environmental impact.
Read Lyderson's piece at Energy News Network.
Too often toxic coal ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power, ends up in poor, minority communities. In 2016, U.S. officials launched a deeper look at federal environmental policy to find out why. Read Brian Bienkowski's article for EHN about the civil rights probe seeking to understand why the poor bear so much of a burden for our coal-fired energy waste.
