Green Advisors: Waste Reduction Partners Helps Asheville-Area Organizations Save Money in Environmentally Friendly Ways

(Citizen Times 9-12-2010) A program aimed at helping local businesses, governments and schools save money in ways that are environmentally friendly was green before green was cool.
 
Waste Reduction Partners is a program of the Land-of-Sky Regional Council, a multicounty local government planning and development organization.
 
The program, started in 1992, taps into the volunteer expertise of retired scientists, engineers and others to develop cost-savings plans that also benefit the environment.
 

Texans Testify About Coal-Burning Power Plant Ash

 (Associated Press 9-9-2010) Hundreds of people showed up at a public hearing to take comments on whether ash from coal-burning power plants should be classified as hazardous waste.
 
On one side were environmentalists who said the change would protect water supplies; on the other were industry and state officials who insisted that current regulations are enough.
 

Kiss Your Ash Goodbye — Regulating Coal Combustion Byproducts As Hazardous Is An Unnecessary Job Killer

 (Open Market 9-8-2010) The Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant is currently garnering most of the attention from the agency’s critics, but it is far from the only problematic EPA regulation in the works. Another proposal that also deserves strong opposition is the agency’s attempt to label coal combustion byproducts (CCBs) as hazardous waste. Doing so is not only environmentally unnecessary but downright counterproductive, and would raise energy costs and kill jobs to boot.
 

Report Says No Health Harm From Coal Ash Spill

(Associated Press 9-7-2010)  Health officials have released a report that shows tests found no harm to public health from the December 2008 coal ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Plant.
 
The public health assessment says airborne ash could be a problem.
 
The report says there should be no harm from touching the ash and even though it contains arsenic, there should be no harm if a child accidentally eats it.
 

ARTBA Urges EPA Not to Classify Coal Ash as “Hazardous” Material

 (American Road and Transportation Builders Association 9-6-2010) A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal to regulate coal ash as a “hazardous waste” could make concrete more expensive and less durable, thus increasing the costs and environmental footprint of key transportation improvement projects, according to Nick Goldstein, vice president of environmental and regulatory affairs for the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).
 

Coal Ash Rules Carry Costs

(Charlotte Business Journal 9-3-2010) Jimmy Knowles spends his days devising different uses for coal ash. As the head of market research and development for The SEFA Group — formerly known the Southeastern Fly Ash Co. — Knowles envisions a new future for a substance many experts consider a dangerous waste product.
 

TVA's Top Executive to Give Ash Spill Deposition

(Business Week 8-31-2010) The Tennessee Valley Authority's top executive is to answer questions behind closed doors for seven hours about the utility's coal ash spill.
 
TVA Chief Executive Officer Tom Kilgore is scheduled to give a deposition Tuesday at the utility's headquarters in Knoxville, answering questions by lawyers for people who have filed damage lawsuits. A TVA spokeswoman said the session is closed to reporters.
 

EPA to Decide Whether Coal Ash is Hazardous Waste

(USA Today 8-27-2010) The U.S. coal industry is bracing for tighter and more costly regulation of its waste. Environmental groups say that it's about time.
 
The Environmental Protection Agency next week is set to begin a month of hearings on whether coal-ash waste — what's left after coal is burned to make electricity — should be effectively treated as hazardous waste subject to tighter safeguards.
 

Urgent Letter to All Supporters of Beneficial Use

To All Supporters of CCP Beneficial Use: