The Chesapeake Energy Center is a large coal fired power plant owned and operated by Dominion. With a net capacity of 760 megawatts, it consumes 4,500 tons of coal every day. All that waste fly ash needs to go somewhere. And in 2001, Dominion did not want to purchase a new environmentally safe landfill. Instead, it decided it would be cheaper to use the coal fly ash as filler in a golf course and tell people in the immediate vicinity that the toxic material is “safe as dirt.”
That was a lie. In 2001, Dominion hired outside contractors to assess the environmental risks associated with its golf course scheme. Those initial reports showed that local residential groundwater could become contaminated. Dominion cannot plead ignorance or blame an honest mistake on this issue.
In a textbook example from any engineering ethics class, Dominion decided to ignore those reports and instead shop around to other consulting firms until they could buy the results they wanted. To make matters worse, Dominion decided to keep those initial reports hidden from the public for seven years.
When news of the possible environmental disaster broke, local residents filed two class-action lawsuits totaling more than $2 billion. The money will be used to remove the toxic waste from their neighborhoods, monitor their drinking water and health and recover losses from their home values, which plummeted as a result of the news. Dominion has argued that the cases should be dropped because no specific health damage has been proven yet. The cases are still pending.
Recently the EPA has intervened and found elevated levels of arsenic and lead in groundwater at the golf course. These elevated levels were not there before the golf course was constructed. Although local drinking water did not show elevated levels of these toxic metals, it may only be a matter of time.
One might wonder why local government didn’t put a stop to this. Why did the Chesapeake city council allow Dominion to store their coal fly ash in their neighborhood? Maybe it has something to do with the $700,000 that Dominion donated to statewide political campaigns in the 2005 election cycle.
Battlefield Golf Club opened for business in 2007. The course does not have a liner, but does feature several lakes — bringing new meaning to the term “water hazard.” Chesapeake, and the whole Norfolk area, is home to thousands of our fellow Hokies, past and present. If anyone is going to hit the links there this year, err on the side of caution and bring some bottled water.
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A version of this article appeared in the Feb 4 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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If you want less fly ash then start supporting clean coal research. This research has cover a large amount of ground in getting major reductions to fly ash causing contents of coal. The problem is that people on "your" side of the argument want to call it a myth and fund other projects like wind and solar. If you don't help clean coal, then you will be stuck with these kinds of problems until wind and solar can replace coal...which will not be for a good long time (20-30 years most likely)
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This isn't even about clean coal or producing less fly ash. He simply wants companies to take responsibility and dispose of environmentally-hazardous wastes in a safe manner.
If coal companies in particular feel they can save money on coal ash disposal by investing in clean coal technology then they should by all means go for it.
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I understand that but fly ash would be less of an environmental problem if people would stop supporting alternate energy (mostly).
The companies aren't responsible to fund research in Clean coal, we are.
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Good Article...I know a lot of the people affected by this, but I want to point out that there is nothing unsafe about playing at Battlefield Golf Course. It is a great facility that offers a $15 round during the week, $20 on weekends. It's hard to find golf at a reasonable price these days so Battlefield is a great place to go.
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not so sure how the valdez oil spill was a natural disaster. the ship ran into some reef so it naturally spilled all the oil? but one more reason to not drink and drive as far as im concerned. but as long as that stuff is being dumped into the chesapeake thats fine, just keep it out of dc. we're used to lead, i dont think we can take another toxin
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