Don’t Dump the Ash

To the Editor:

There are many safer ways to use LCRA’s coal ash instead of polluting the Colorado River. It can be used on roads, in cement, gypsum board, embankment filler etc...

I could find no reason that it should be washed down the river. The EPA rules are clear that water discharge is not the way. TCEQ has the authority to require LCRA to find some other way. LCRA could take land they already own and use it for fertilizer, as long as it does not exceed certain levels of some elements that are found harmful.

The power plant has been having their ash pit piling up since it started operations in the later part of the 1970s. One would think that they could have found some reasonable solution by now that would protect our precious Colorado River. Everyone with any sense knows not to drink from a river downstream from a sewage pipe. Essentially, what the LCRA is wanting to do is increase their sludge discharge into an upstream creek which goes into the Colorado River. This same creek runs white with their sludge runoff as it is. It has killed a lot of things in the creek where it sticks and settles out.

Now, while LCRAis wanting to renew their permit, is a good time to seek some solution to the pollution. Letting larger discharges out when it rains is not the solution. They should be made to utilize other means to achieve their over abundance of ash. What will they do with it if the plant is replaced at a later date by nuclear power?

What will they do if their current retaining wall fails during a flood, and we all know, it’s gonna flood someday in the future. We don’t need a pollution event that could be catastrophic to our downstream neighbors and their various uses of the River’s water, including the wildlife we all cherish dearly.

They named themselves The Colorado River Authority now they should act as the guardians of it and derive a long-term solution. A sudden massive discharge could kill everything down stream, perhaps for a century or longer. Look at the events similar to that which have happened in the other Colorado and Tennessee river contaminations.

Jerry Moerbe Nelsonville