Environmental Risks of Trace Element Toxins in Coal Ash
It is estimated that over 100 million tons of coal ash waste is generated from coal combustion every year in the United states. A majority of this waste is kept in various holding ponds and landfills. The problem comes into play that these holding areas are not strongly regulated or controlled. Waste from these ponds, which consist of toxic elements such as arsenic and mercury, possess a great risk to the environment because of these lenient regulations over these holding ponds. These toxins leak into the local environment causing ground water contamination, wildlife devastation, and ground toxicity.
There are some things that could be done to help stop these unregulated seepage of waste as well as ways to help cut down on the amount of waste that is produced by our country. It has gotten to a point that we simply are running out of safe ways and places to dispose of the buildup of waste thus looking into alternatives is something that sound be done with all hastes in order to slow down the spread of these toxins and the horrible effect that they are having on our world. Some of the means of safer dispose of these toxic waste included: stricter control and regulations over holding ponds and tanks, less dependability on non-sustainable energy and more used of green energy, and tighter regulations at plants to insure less toxic waste production.