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Testing at all Louisiana coal plants found groundwater contamination
Today, Earthjustice, the Alliance for Affordable Energy Louisiana, and the Sierra Club urged the Trump administration to abandon its plan to put the State of Louisiana in charge of oversight of toxic coal ash waste due to the state’s abysmal environmental track record. Coal ash is generated when coal is burned, and massive quantities are stored at coal-burning power plants near Baton Rouge, Alexandria, and Shreveport.
Coal ash contains arsenic, mercury, chromium, lead, lithium, radium, and other heavy metals, which have been linked to numerous types of cancer, heart and thyroid disease, respiratory illness, reproductive failure, and neurological harm.
At all three active Louisiana coal plants (Big Cajun 2, Brame Energy Center, R S Nelson), and one retired plant (Dolet Hills), records indicate groundwater contamination with toxic chemicals above federal safe drinking water standards. Chemicals found above those levels in groundwater at one or more plants include arsenic, boron, cobalt, lead, lithium, radium, sulfate, and thallium. More than 61% of Louisiana’s population relies on groundwater for all or part of their drinking water supply.
