Federal officials investigating local fly ash complaint

BY KENT JACKSON
POTTSVILLE REPUBLICAN & HERALD
February 20, 2009

MAHANOY CITY — Federal technicians are checking a complaint that fly ash disposed in Mahanoy Township is polluting the mine pool and threatening water quality in Mahanoy Creek.

The review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is under way at Ellengowan and BD Mining, sites where for 20 years the state has demonstrated techniques for disposing of fly ash.

Policymakers and scientists have looked at Pennsylvania’s regulations while considering whether to develop national regulations for fly ash. A House committee chairman asked the EPA to move toward that goal after more than a billion gallons of fly ash spilled near Kingston, Tenn.

A leader of the Mahanoy Creek Watershed Association said the Tennessee episode might have increased the EPA’s interest in a petition that his group filed about Ellengowan and BD Mining.

“Because of the fly ash in Tennessee, (the question of) whether fly ash is toxic or not, depending on how it’s handled, is pretty important,â€

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