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Re: Coal ash hexavalent chromium drinking water contamination in VA & NC
This summer a study out of Duke University prompted this reporting:
Upper James Riverkeeper: Duke Study Shows Coal Ash Ponds Leak Contaminants
Thursday, 23 June 2016 12:40
http://www.waterkeeperschesapeake.com/about-us/resources/item/189-duke-study-shows-coal-ash-ponds-leak-contaminants
Duke University tests find leaching from ash sites, including two in Va.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/duke-university-tests-find-leaching-from-ash-sites-including-two/article_c54467cb-7e6a-523e-8cdf-fd9fde181c45.html
Now, a follow up study brings news even more dire.
Duke University report: Hexavalent chromium widespread but naturally occurring
October 26, 2016 10:45 pm
By ROBERT ZULLO Richmond Times-Dispatch
Hexavalent chromium contamination of hundreds of private drinking-water wells near Duke Energy coal ash facilities ...
... into the middle of that roiling feud fell a bombshell Wednesday, when a study released by a team of Duke University-led researchers concluded that the potentially carcinogenic metal that was found in 90 percent of the 376 North Carolina wells sampled is naturally occurring....
Vengosh’s team has developed a testing method that uses distinctive isotope tracers of boron and strontium associated with coal ash to link contamination to the unlined ponds where the waste has been stored for decades. The technique was the basis of a report Vengosh and his team published this past summer that found leaking coal ash ponds at 21 facilities in five states...
<snip>
“Overall, the geochemical and isotopic data clearly indicate that the drinking-water wells tested in this study are not impacted by CCR (coal combustion residuals) effluents and therefore the coal ash ponds are not a likely source” of the elevated chromium levels, says the study, published in Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
Far from being a cause for celebration, though, Vengosh said the report demonstrates that hexavalent chromium contamination, albeit naturally occurring, is more widespread in the Piedmont region — which covers a swath that runs from southeastern Pennsylvania, through central Virginia and North Carolina and into South Carolina, northern Georgia and eastern Alabama — than previously realized.
“If anything, because the contamination stems from water-rock interactions that are common across the Piedmont region, people in a much larger geographic area may be at risk. This is not limited only to wells near coal ash ponds,” Vengosh said....
October 26, 2016 10:45 pm
By ROBERT ZULLO Richmond Times-Dispatch
At the Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, land is graded and prepared at the landfill where by-products of coal combustion (coal ash) will be deposited. August 31, 2016.
Hexavalent chromium contamination of hundreds of private drinking-water wells near Duke Energy coal ash facilities ...
... into the middle of that roiling feud fell a bombshell Wednesday, when a study released by a team of Duke University-led researchers concluded that the potentially carcinogenic metal that was found in 90 percent of the 376 North Carolina wells sampled is naturally occurring....
Vengosh’s team has developed a testing method that uses distinctive isotope tracers of boron and strontium associated with coal ash to link contamination to the unlined ponds where the waste has been stored for decades. The technique was the basis of a report Vengosh and his team published this past summer that found leaking coal ash ponds at 21 facilities in five states...
<snip>
“Overall, the geochemical and isotopic data clearly indicate that the drinking-water wells tested in this study are not impacted by CCR (coal combustion residuals) effluents and therefore the coal ash ponds are not a likely source” of the elevated chromium levels, says the study, published in Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
Far from being a cause for celebration, though, Vengosh said the report demonstrates that hexavalent chromium contamination, albeit naturally occurring, is more widespread in the Piedmont region — which covers a swath that runs from southeastern Pennsylvania, through central Virginia and North Carolina and into South Carolina, northern Georgia and eastern Alabama — than previously realized.
“If anything, because the contamination stems from water-rock interactions that are common across the Piedmont region, people in a much larger geographic area may be at risk. This is not limited only to wells near coal ash ponds,” Vengosh said....
More at: http://www.richmond.com/news/article_2af6db34-0f85-5410-b4c3-3a17689d9261.html
See also: National Institute of Health's National Toxicity Program
Hexavalent Chromium
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/materials/hexavalent_chromium_508.pdf
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