Green Delaware Alert 616
(please post/forward)
DNREC–"Environmental" agency allows unwise, illegal dumping?
Make your calls today to protect Delaware’s Inland Bays from coal ash dumping
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE are below
Several important environmental issues are coming to a head this week. They are good examples of how poorly some things are working out in Delaware.
Here’s the sequence:
- Let the polluters, directly and through their lobbyists and legislators, write the laws and regulations;
- Write permits as loose as the "nothing" regulations allow, or even ignore the regs;
- Hold the legally-required "public hearings" but ignore what the public says;
- Give the polluters what they want…..
Things may be a little worse than usual because the Minner administration may be working with the polluters to get as many bad decisions as possible nailed down before a new Governor takes office.
Green Delaware can and does object to this, but in truth the present administration is not too interested in our views because it already knows we are against environmental destruction, pollution and disease. We’re predictable that way…
So, it’s up to YOU, as we are always saying. If every person reading this alert takes a few moments to send an email or make a call, things will improve. Please do it.
Coal ash dumping
Coal ash is nasty stuff, full of toxic and radioactive stuff. It needs to be handled as a "hazardous waste" but this would cost power plant operators money they don’t want to spend. Millions of tons of the ash, sometimes mixed with sewage sludge, are being dumped at the supposedly-closed Pigeon Point dump near New Castle, in the City of Wilmington, where the City government is part of a scam to create another un permitted dump, and near NRG’s Indian River Power Plant, where ash has been washing directly into the water for years. The power plant is near Millsboro, pretty much directly in the middle of the Inland Bays watershed. Map:
http://www.inlandbays.org/cib_pm/photos2005/baysmap_r3_c1.gif
The good news is that the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Center for the Inland Bays (http://www.inlandbays.org) has come to life on this issue and is asking the Center to appeal a recent DNREC decision authorizing another dump "cell."
The Citizens Advisory Committee (http://www.inlandbays.org/cib_pm/citizen_committee.php), chaired by Ron Wuslich, points out that the Conservation and Management Plan for the Inland Bays watershed (
http://www.inlandbays.org/pdfs/ccmpmain.pdf )–arrived at after many years of discussion, calls for:
- G8A: Ban solid and industrial waste disposal and non-biodegradable products where feasible, in the Inland Bays region
- G3B: Provide maximum protection of waterways , ground water, natural areas, open space, and tidal and non-tidal wetlands
- G1E: Adopt the most effective Best Management Practices to provide maximum ground and surface water protection""As a result, DNREC should be implementing the CCMP goal to ban further deposition of solid and industrial waste (coal ash) in the Inland Bays by denying the Phase II permit."
So, reasonably, the Committee wants the Center for the Inland Bays to appeal a recently-granted permit given by DNREC to NRG for a new ash dump. It also wants the old dumps removed.
Green Delaware wrote to the Citizens Advisory Committee and the Board of Directors of the CIB as follows:
"These demands make sense in themselves. But Green Delaware does not want to see problems elsewhere in Delaware made worse. We don’t want to see more illegal dumping at Pigeon Point or in the City of Wilmington, or more bogus "recycling" of coal ash that amounts to spreading it around the landscape, or have it dumped into the river by the Corps of Engineers as "berm" material….. Given the almost unbelievable irresponsibility of the DNREC in regards to
"solid waste" one much anticipate the worst possibilities."
We are reluctant to support the resolution as presented, but could do so with two amendments:
- Remove the phrase "for recycling" from item 1 (a). (Because of the inherently toxic and radioactive elements contained in coal ash, there are few if any responsible ways to "recycle" coal ash, and none have been demonstrated in Delaware.)
- Coal ash transported out of the watershed shall only be sent to a facility at least as protective as the Indian River ‘Phase II’ dump–that is, an ash "monofill" with multiple liners, leachate collection, groundwater monitoring, etc.–and only with the consent of the host community of that facility." (Coal ash problems at the Indian River facility should not simply be moved elsewhere.)
DNREC Secretary John Hughes in on the CIB Board and is using his position to oppose action by the CIB. This is not surprising because it was his decision to grant the new dump permit.
An email we received included:
" … John Hughes seemed extremely anxious to kill the CAC’s resolution calling for appeal of the Phase II permit. He offered to have DNREC "technical expert" personnel (knowledgeable about the IRPP NRG Phase II Coal Ash Landfill permit) attend a special CAC mt’g on Monday at 4 PM, including "lawyers sitting in the parking lot." John implied that the public and the CAC was uninformed about the new coal ash landfill permit and said that he was told that only 6 or 7 people attended the public hearing on the Phase II landfill….
I believe it is safe to assume that John Hughes expects that the CAC will be willing to withdraw or substantially modify its resolution after hearing from his landfill "technical experts."
Sergio Huerta, another DNREC official, chairs the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee of the CIB and could also be using his influence to protect NRG’s dumping plans.
Delaware’s dump regulations (link to regulations) say:
"It is the intent of the Department to require that solid waste handling and disposal be conducted in a manner and under conditions which will eliminate the dangerous and deleterious effects of improper solid waste handling and disposal upon the environment and upon human health, safety, and welfare."
"6.1.3 No new cell of an industrial landfill shall be located in an area such that solid waste would at any time be deposited:
6.1.3.8 In an area that is environmentally unique or valuable."
The Citizens Advisory Committee points out:
"In 1985, the Inland Bays were designated by the State as waters of Exceptional Recreational and Ecological Significance (ERES). As such, the Inland Bays shall be afforded a level of protection and monitoring in excess of that provided most other waters of the state. ERES waters are recognized as special natural assets of the State, and must be protected and enhanced for the benefit of present and future generations of Delawareans, particularly in light of higher level groundwater tables resulting from sea level rise. Accordingly, we Delawareans would be remiss of our responsibilities if we ignore the current threat to the Inland Bays from coal ash transport through the air and water, and elect not to remove the coal ash from this location."
So a very good argument exists that the permit Hughes approved violates not only the management plan for the Inland Bays but DNREC’s own waste regulations.
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE
Please contact Secretary Hughes and ask him to stop opposing an anti-dump appeal by the Center for the Inland Bays and withdraw the NRG permit approval. john.hughes@state.de.us, 302.739.9000.
Please contact Ron Wuslich, Chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee to (1) thank him for taking a stand, and (2) ask him to stand firm, but include the changes requested by Green Delaware:
yramnor@aol.com.
Please ask the Center for the Inland Bays to support the position of its Citizens Advisory Committee:
Mr. Edward Lewandowski, Executive Director, director@inlandbays.org, 302.226.8105.
Mr. Richard W. Eakle, Chairman, Board of Directors (same contact)
Thanks for helping.
Alan Muller
Green Delaware is a community based organization working on environment and public health issues. We try to provide information you can use. Please use it. Do you want to continue receiving information from Green Delaware? Please contribute or volunteer. Reach us at 302.834.3466, greendel@dca.net, www.greendel.org, Box 69, Port Penn, DE, USA