Ash Site Closure May Open McKinley’s Eyes
Morgantown Dominion Post
9 August 2012
LETTER TO EDITOR:
The Little Blue coal ash pond has been ordered closed — finally.
This coal ash dump sits on the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border.
As the largest coal ash pond in America, it has been leaking and
polluting water for decades with truly scary toxics. The facility
was never engineered to even marginal safety standards. Yet owner
First Energy poured billions of gallons of toxic coal ash slurry
into the pond — or should we say lake?
Now the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
has ordered Little Blue closed. First Energy will have to find
another way to dispose of its coal ash if they keep producing it
there. And the company is required to remediate contaminated water
supplies in the vicinity of the dump.
This comes as a stern rebuke to our Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va.
Ever since going to Washington in 2011 McKinley has waged an
unholy jihad in the service of coal ash and the companies who
benefit from disposing of it cheaply and unsafely.
The congressman has made no effort to hide his loyalty to the
corporations who create and must dispose of coal ash — in
particular the owners of coalfired power plants — and not to the
health and safety of the people he is supposed to represent.
McKinley has constantly demanded that regulators keep their hands
off coal ash. He has continuously insisted that coal ash is no
more dangerous than the dirt in your yard. Now Pennsylvania’s DEP
and the court have made it crystal clear that, no Rep. McKinley,
coal ash is dangerous stuff, and we in West Virginia deserve to
have regulations in place that protect our health.
I would like to think that this decision will begin to open
McKinley’s eyes to the dangers of toxic coal ash and to his
compelling moral responsibility to protect his constituents’
health and safety — not his corporate cronies’ bottom lines.
Jim Sconyers
Terra Alta