Colorado leads the states of the West with more than 3.1 million tons of coal ash stored in ponds, landfills, and mine pits, according to a new study from the Center for Public Integrity.  Wyoming and Utah also have significant amounts of the toxic waste, produced from burning coal at electrical power plants.

The study comes two months after the disaster at Kingston, Tennessee, when a dam containing a billion gallons of coal-ash slurry collapsed, spreading toxic sludge across a wide area.

“The dangers of coal ash were largely hidden from public view, until December,” writes Kristen Lombardi of the Center for Public Integrity. “But what happened [in Tennessee] represents just a small slice of the potential threat from coal ash.”

Government officials, on the other hand, have long been aware of the problem of storing vast amounts of the material, which typically contains boron, arsenic, lead, and mercury many other harmful chemicals. Several federal studies have documented the amount and effects of coal-ash disposal, including a 2007 EPA investigation that “identified 63 coal ash landfills and ponds in 23 states where this toxic sludge is blamed for contaminating groundwater and the local ecology,” according to the CPI report.

Coal-fired plants “generate approximately 130 million tons of
coal ash each year, 43 percent of which is recycled into other
materials, such as concrete, roofing tiles, and structural
fill. The remaining 70 million tons, however, is dumped into
194 landfills and 161 ponds in 47 states.”

A 2000 effort to classify the ash, also known as “fly ash,” as
hazardous waste and create stricter regulations regarding its
disposal was stifled by a huge lobbying push  by the utility industry.

The sites in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, where most of the
coal ash debris in the West is concentrated, are relatively
secure – only one, the Dave Johnston plant in northeast
Wyoming, is on the EPA’s “danger list.” In southwest Colorado,
the Four Corners site has a huge dump: 1.8 million tons of the
stuff, stored in “multiple disposal sites.”

Near the Valmont power plant, outside Boulder, is a 45-acre
coal-ash landfill. The material is “dry, compacted into a
glassy surface, and for the most part up to 60 feet above the
water level of nearby Legget Lake,” according to a recent op-ed
piece in the Daily Camera by environmentalist Anne Butterfield.

In an effort spearheaded by the Aurora-based American Coal
Ash Associates, new technology is being developed to recycle a larger
percentage of the waste from coal plants. One possibility:
bricks for building construction. Conventional bricks are made
of clay baked in kilns in a highly energy-intensive process.
Making bricks from compressed coal ash could greatly reduce
the energy required as well as creating a safe, permanent way
to dispose of the waste. Whether residents would buy houses
made of a material containing large amounts of heavy metals is
questionable, but several studies have shown that the bricks
are not only safe but tend to leach mercury out of the
surrounding air.

A California company called CalStar Cement is reportedly
working on a process to produce coal-ash bricks at commercial
rates. Meanwhile, the ACAA has produced a study showing that
new techniques for curing concrete can result in larger amounts
of ash going into the finished product – a material known as  
 “High Volume Fly Ash” concrete.

Even if all these efforts succeed, the country, and Colorado,
still have a lurking long-term waste disposal challenge on
their hands.