{"id":16009,"date":"2013-08-29T06:46:16","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T11:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=16009"},"modified":"2013-09-05T10:48:32","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T15:48:32","slug":"can-coal-plants-dump-unlimited-amounts-of-toxic-metals-into-oks-waterways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2013\/08\/29\/can-coal-plants-dump-unlimited-amounts-of-toxic-metals-into-oks-waterways\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Coal Plants Dump Unlimited Amounts of Toxic Metals Into OK’s Waterways?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Grand<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

Grand Riverkeeper Earl Hatley stands at the edge of the GRDA power plant's property near Chouteau, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>

A group of environmental organizations including Waterkeeper Alliance and the Sierra Club have released a report concluding<\/a> there are \u201cessentially no limits\u201d on the amounts of toxic metals coal-fired power plants can discharge into Oklahoma\u2019s waterways.<\/p>

Jennifer Duggan was one of the lead authors of the study that found nearly 70 percent of plants nationwide have no limit on the amount of arsenic, boron, cadmium, mercury, and selenium they can dump into public waterways. And most don\u2019t even have monitoring requirements for them.<\/p>

\u201cClearly, there\u2019s extensive data out there to show that \u2014 EPA itself acknowledges there are \u2014 billions of pounds of metals from this industry that are going into our waters every year,\u201d Duggan says.<\/p>

<\/p>

Just east of Chouteau, in Mayes County, there\u2019s a massive coal-fired power plant<\/a>. And just east of that is the Grand River, where a concrete pipe spews wastewater from the plant. Tracing the pipe\u2019s route leads to a collection pond owned by the Grand River Dam Authority, the final stop for this water before being released.<\/p>

First it was used in the coal-fired plant\u2019s boiler and cooling system. Then it flowed through a number of other collection ponds meant to separate the clean water from the crud.<\/p>

Earl Hatley, the\u00a0Grand Riverkeeper and member of the Waterkeeper Alliance<\/a> who keeps a close eye on the status of the waterways in northeast Oklahoma, says this filtering process\u00a0is dangerously inadequate.<\/p>

\u201cWhatever they\u2019re contributing, they\u2019re contributing to a stream that is already impaired,\u201d Hatley says. \u201cThere is no safe amount of lead in children\u2019s blood.\u201d<\/p>

This part of the Grand River is classified as \u2018impaired\u2019 <\/a>by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board because of low dissolved oxygen levels and lead. But it\u2019s not certain the plant\u2019s discharge is responsible for the water problems, and state water and environmental officials say It could be naturally occurring, or coming from farther upstream.<\/p>

\u201cThe onus really is on the EPA for not regulating the industry,\u201d Hatley says.<\/p>

He\u2019s upset because coal-plants don\u2019t have to report to the EPA about the amounts of toxic metals they release into waterways. Study author Duggan says the federal standards for power plants haven’t been revised since 1982.<\/p>

\u201cAnd EPA never set any limits on mercury and other toxic pollution in scrubber wastewater and coal ash wastewater,” she said. “So the only federal limits in place for those waste streams are total suspended solids, pH, oil, and grease.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Logan Layden \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n

The view of the GRDA coal-fired power plant from near its wastewater discharge point on the Grand River.<\/p>\n<\/div>

But don\u2019t spit out that piece of catfish or yank the kids into the boat just yet. Duggan says the federal standards haven\u2019t been revised. The Clean Water Act,<\/a> which is the basis for regulating this discharge water, requires states to create their own standards. And while the feds don\u2019t include toxic metals in its standards, Oklahoma does.<\/p>

Shellie Chard-McClary with the state Department of Environmental Quality says her agency enforces standards set by Oklahoma’s water board.<\/p>

The discharges from Oklahoma’s six coal-fired power plants are tested for toxic metals as part of the permitting process, and are retested every time the utilities’ permits expire. The minimum is every five years, she says.<\/p>

“They\u2019re doing an extensive list of sample analysis, including all of these metals,” she says. “None of the six power plants were discharging metals in levels that exceeded the criteria established by the water quality standard.\u201d<\/p>

But Duggan says testing every five years isn\u2019t often enough.<\/p>

\u201cThat is not the same as monthly monitoring. The other thing is too, those types of sample events, they\u2019re kind of like a beauty contest. It doesn\u2019t necessarily reflect normal operating conditions.\u201d<\/p>

The EPA is considering adding toxic metals to its dated list of standards, and requiring more monitoring. Of course, if utilities wanted to avoid the more-stringent regulations it would mean moving away from coal \u2014 to natural gas or renewables, for example.<\/p>

Derek Smithee at the Oklahoma Water Resources Board says that\u2019s the point of new federal regulations, and the environmental group’s toxic metals study.<\/p>

\u201cIf your agenda is to be alarmist and get people incited, you write it with that perspective in mind,\u201d Smithee says. \u201cYeah, there are substances in our waste stream, but it\u2019s at such a low concentration as to not be an issue.\u201d<\/p>

The EPA does have to approve Oklahoma\u2019s water quality standards and related permits, and so far, it’s sided with the state.<\/p>\n

StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership among Oklahoma\u2019s public radio stations and produces journalism in the public interest, essential to an informed electorate. Help support informative, in-depth journalism with a donation online<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just east of Chouteau, in Mayes County, there\u2019s a massive coal-fired power plant. And just east of that is the Grand River.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":16025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490,491],"tags":[532,561,499,518,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16009"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16036,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16009\/revisions\/16036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}