Groundwater testing begins at coal ash dump used by universities

Extensive groundwater testing will be underway this week at the coal ash disposal site in Waterloo utilized by Iowa’s three largest public universities.

The coal plant at Iowa State University, which disposes of its coal ash in an unlined quarry in Waterloo (photo by Jason Hancock/Iowa Independent).

Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and Northern Iowa University are three of the state’s biggest producers of coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal. All three dispose of their ash in a quarry in Waterloo that received a waiver from the state allowing it to accept ash without abiding by landfill requirements, which include protective liners and groundwater monitoring.

Environmental watchdogs and students were highly critical of the schools for using this disposal method. Because coal ash contains high concentrations of elements such as mercury, zinc, lead, arsenic and selenium, dumping it into a quarry with no liner could result in contaminants leaching out into groundwater supplies. And with no groundwater-monitoring program, there is no way of knowing whether that is already taking place.

The state began drafting stricter rules on coal ash disposal in late 2008, but coal producers and disposal site owners – along with the University of Iowa — derailed the process. The state is now waiting for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to unveil new federal rules, something that was expected by the end 2009 but was delayed indefinitely in December.

For nearly a year, all three schools publicly declared their confidence in the safety of the disposal method. But in September, after repeated media inquiries and pressure from students and school administration, the school’s utility departments reversed course and pledged to pool their resources to pay for groundwater testing at the quarry, which is owned by BMC Aggregates.

Jeffrey Witt, assistant director of utilities at Iowa State University, said weather has delayed the process slightly, as crews could not drill the monitoring wells in extreme cold weather. But the wells are expected to be completed this week and testing will begin immediately.

“This statistical analysis must be run over a series of samples that take into account the seasonal variations in the groundwater,” Witt said. “We are meeting with an engineering firm [this] week that does these statistical analyses for several municipal landfills around the state. We are beginning the sampling program but will not have enough data to accurately run the statistics for approximately one year.”

A testing well already exists upstream from the quarry, Witt said, and the schools have used that well since December to gather background data. Four wells will be dug downstream to complete the process. The actual testing will be done by a certified independent lab that is not affiliated with the schools or the disposal site owners.

Peter Taglia, a hydrogeologist with environmental watchdog Clean Wisconsin who worked for five years as a consultant for utilities, said it appears the schools’ monitoring program is a good first step and will go a long way to determine whether a problem exists.

“They could do better, but this is a good start,” he said.

The benefit of the testing program is that if a problem is discovered someone will have to address it.

“If they find toxins at high levels in the groundwater, they can’t simply sweep it under the rug,” Taglia said. “Any problems they discover will have to be taken care of, or at least explained.”

The testing could also help answer other questions about the site, Taglia said. Currently, because the site owners received a state waiver, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has never mandated a soil or hydrogeologic investigation, so even basic information about the site — such as direction of groundwater flow — is not known.

While testing is considered a positive first step, problems with the regulation of coal ash in Iowa still exist. Lucie Laurian, an associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Iowa who has spent years studying the effects of toxic sites on local populations, told The Iowa Independent last year that even if initial tests come back showing no contamination, the sites could still pose a huge public health risk.

“The ash is still sitting there,” she said. “Contamination might not show up for many years, and that’s the problem.”

The possible impacts on the surrounding communities go beyond health risks, Laurian said.

There are currently three other sites in Iowa that received similar waivers allowing them to accept ash without liners or groundwater monitoring – quarries in Goose Lake and Cedar Rapids and a mine in Buffalo.