How dangerous is residential coal ash dumped on property?

I noticed a large mound today where our neighbor has been dumping his coal ash for about 40+ years (heating a sizeable 3floor house). The property line is at the edge of a steep drop off of about 35+ft at about a 65-75 degree incline (looks almost straight down from the top), where it drops off, about 6" from the edge is where the line is and I noticed just how much ash there is (probably 8-15 pickup truck loads, maybe more) and most of it isn't on their property as it has all flowed downhill where the view was blocked until a large evergreen recently came down.

The ash is about 100 ft from where out well is and about 20ft above it, but if water were to run straight down the hill towards the well, then it would pass w/n about 30ft of the well (and the surface is a permeable paving stone lot w/ sand and graven underneath so it's not filtering a lot).

I had no idea there was anywhere near this amount of ash and I know coal ash is MUCH worse than wood ash which can be used as fertilizer (when natural wood is burned, not pressure treated or manufactured boards). I also suspect that it is a lower quality coal due to the amount of ash it produces, which usually means it's higher in heavy metals (lead, mercury, nickel, tin, cadmium, antimony, and arsenic) and some of it is radioactive (thorium & strontium)

Here is a good page that lists the chemicals and metals found in some coals - there are some coals with MUCH lower amounts of these elements and even w/o some of the elements. It is pretty alarming when you see the extensive list: Towards the bottom you will see the Human Health impacts of the various elements (poisonings)

www.sourcewatch.org...


Over the last 15 years the health of the people living on this property has gotten significantly worse and the doctors seem to blame it on "old age" though they have been relatively healthy & active their whole lives (with various injuries, knees, back, wrists, shoulders - from physical stress/activities) with not much family history of the problems they are facing. IDK if toxins could be running off out of this dump and into the well water or what, causing the problems.

So does anyone have experience with the dumping of residential coal ash being dumped and if it can cause problems? We had no idea they only used coal and thought they burnt mostly wood, but supplemented w/ coal when not having enough wood, well that seems like it was a "story" we were fed long ago and never told about it later.

Here is a quote as well (from above link) and it made me look at where this stuff goes, how much energy/time is used in mining these elements on their own (when it could be recovered from the ash) - and then the ash could be processed as a clean building material for roads, concrete, cinder/concrete blocks, etc. and this is just in the US - think of China, India and some European/ex Soviet countries!!!

The 1.05 billion tons of coal burned each year in the United States contain 109 tons of mercury, 7884 tons of arsenic, 1167 tons of beryllium, 750 tons of cadmium, 8810 tons of chromium, 9339 tons of nickel, and 2587 tons of selenium.

Be $900/lb $7,840/kg = $2.4 - $9.25 billion to
Cr - $6.5/lb ~$150million
Hg = $26/lb ~$6.25 million
arsenic "$.33/lb??", $320/100g, $1000/lb, $1-2/kg?? ($17.35billion @ $1000/lb) or about $17.35 million @ $1/lb)
cadmun - $5/kg - $4mil
NIckel - $25-55/kg ($11.35-24.97/lb) $233 - $513 million
Seleneium - 130/lb (140-420/lb on bidding site) $797 - $2,309 million

value of metals left behind in coal ash (or air) from yearly coal burning power plants. There are about 5-7 more recoverable metals but I didn't find their amounts or values, so the low amount should be higher and the real number should be much higher than the $4 billion, probably more around $10-14 or so.
Total = ~$4 billion on low end - $29.576 billion

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Locally and still ongoing...bigger in size sure but...

en.wikipedia.org...

Trace elements exist, did you say it’s near your water supply?

Wonder what other wonderful things they burn in fire too?

I wouldn’t drink anything from a well without filtering it anyway, there is probably worse in the water table than coal ash could pollute.

Problem with traces of heavy metal is that they build up inside you, from your fish, vegetables, your water...remove any you can or in a couple of years we could sharpen your head and call you a pencil!

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

Where in the heck do you live that a person heats their house with coal?

Some people say that coal ash is what the "chemtrails" really are. A sneaky way to dispose of it.

My grandparents put their coal ashes on their garden for years. They both lived fairly long lives.

my grandma's house was originally heated by coal. don't know how safe it was, but by what I remember, they used to use the ash in the garden?? maybe they didn't know any better then, maybe they just used it for all the pretty flowers and not the vegetables, berries and other fruit. she would take walks out in the garden and show me all the rose bushes in it and tell me the story for each on. this rose bush here was planted when my dad was born. this one over here my great grandmother planted when she was married, and on and on... near as I can figure, some of those bushes had to be close to a hundred years old. so it couldn't have been that bad for the plants. and, my grandma lives well over 90 years, so don't think it was that bad for them either?

I burn coal and spread the ashes in the driveway and in the field - no issues

40 years ago the coal was not the quality it is now and was most likely bituminous coal

Anthracite coal is what is readily available now and much cleaner than bituminous

If you are extremely concerned, get a water test kit & test your well water - I would not send sample to your local health dept unless you've tested it on your own since they might find issues other than what you are testing for

If you are concerned for your neighbors, speak with them and work with them to test their water as well

Many people still burn coal and spread ashes with no health issues

PM me if you want a link to some forums discussing coal burning

a reply to: Sostratus

Coal burning forums? If you link to 4Chan we will not be amused!

a reply to: Forensick

Ha- Good one

Burn the coal, pay the toll

My parents have used coal to heat their house for many years. They have always put the ash in the driveway when it’s snowing out (for traction) and the rest goes in the garden ! They’re both healthy!

a reply to: TNMockingbird

That's "fly" ash... something only an industrial plant has the ability to collect. It's the stuff that normally comes out of the chimney if you are burning coal for heat.

As opposed to bottom ash... what is left of the coal when you burn it.

People have for years used bottom ash as fertilizer. It is a really good amendment if you have a lot of clay in your soil, for instance.

Some lately have condemned it because of the heavy metal composition of it.

However, traces of heavy metals are pretty much essential for growth for a number of plants.

So take the posts on "heavy metals bad" with a grain of salt...

a reply to: Lumenari
Agreed. I wasn’t clear in my post above that the coal ash was spread on the vegetable garden. It helped to counteract the acid formed by the use of vegetable and animal manure. It was bituminous or ‘soft coal’ mined in west central PA.

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: TNMockingbird

So take the posts on "heavy metals bad" with a grain of salt...

With extra Thallium please.

Some heavy metals are bad in quantities and like I said you don’t get rid of them easy so they can build up.

Our lake was polluted years ago by a metal plant, it is recommended you don’t eat more than 3 fish per week (I think) taken from there.

Tuna can accumulate lead, (as I am sure other fish do) so if you start eating tuna, fish from my lake and then your water contains lead it’s quite possible your body could accumulate dangerous levels of lead.

You don’t want to encourage consuming it but bear in mind everything gives you cancer!

Can't hurt to test your water, but that's primo fertilizer right there- truckloads of it.

originally posted by: a325nt
Can't hurt to test your water, but that's primo fertilizer right there- truckloads of it.

Is only bottom ash good for fertiliser? We recycle ours to a concrete manufacturer but there are still 30 years of historic storage in our dam.

I'm not thinking that it will be too bad from a single house. There are piles of ash all over the place from olden days. I don't think there are many people dumping the stuff anymore, but the big power plants here dump it in an area about five miles from the plant and it is still legal to do so. They do cover it pretty quick so it does not blow all over. I guess it has permanent permafrost there now. The cement plant buys flyash from the power plant to put into cement sometimes, it actually strengthens the blocks at small amounts. I remember the old cinder blocks that had a high amount of ash in them and too much actually makes them weaker.

originally posted by: rickymouse
I remember the old cinder blocks that had a high amount of ash in them and too much actually makes them weaker.

Thus the name, "cinder" block.

I work in water treatment and we literally filter tap with anthracite coal. Once the water passes through it the levels of heavy metals is reduced like lead and mercy as well as other dangerous contaminates. The stuff works wonders.
a reply to: Sostratus

Lots and lots of nitrogen and heavy metals in your drinking water Hey.. On the bright side, your grass will be green all year long

originally posted by: StallionDuck
Lots and lots of nitrogen and heavy metals in your drinking water

Hey.. On the bright side, your grass will be green all year long

Yes the plants will like it, well when it's distributed evenly, dumped in a big pile for that amount of time will just kill everything in close proximity.