Bob Conkle never thought much about the neon-blue lake that borders his 300-acre farm near Chester, W.Va.
That is until two years ago, when thousands of flowers and vegetable plants he sold to local residents and vendors as far away as Richmond, Va., suddenly began dying.
"At one time we had 35,000 hanging baskets," he said, as ripped plastic on one of dozens of deteriorating greenhouses flapped in the summer breeze.
Though he can't prove it, Conkle, 71, thinks the water he pumped from a pond near the lake killed his plants.
Weary from more than 30 years of struggle to keep his small family farm profitable, Conkle was finally pushed into retirement.
"It was just too much," he said. "The water problems did us in."
Since 1975, millions of tons of fly ash -- a waste product collected from smokestacks at the Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power plant in Shippingport, Beaver County -- have been pumped into a man-made lake behind Conkle's farm.
Water in the lake does not support any aquatic life because of high alkaline levels, similar to that of ammonia.
Now, the Little Blue Run Residual Waste Impoundment, which straddles the border between Beaver County and Hancock County, W.Va., is nearing capacity.
FirstEnergy Corp., the Akron, Ohio-based utility company which owns the dump and the Bruce Mansfield plant, is planning a major expansion and buying up property on both sides of the state line.
Public hearings will be conducted beginning next month on whether the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection should allow FirstEnergy to expand the dump by about 15 percent.
The hearings are particularly important in light of residents' concerns about groundwater contamination from one of the largest fly ash dumps in the eastern United States.
DEP officials and years of groundwater analysis confirm that contaminants have been discovered at monitoring wells around the site. Now, residents are concerned the pollution may be migrating toward their own wells.
Moreover, national studies are focusing on the potential harmful effects of coal ash dumped into unlined mines, large settling ponds and landfills such as Little Blue Run.
"I think everyone has certain reservations," said Sandy Wright, Greene Township secretary. "We all, at one time or another, have felt that maybe the presence of the lake has caused the deterioration of groundwater."
Wright lives within a half mile of Little Blue Run, and like the other 2,700 residents of Greene Township, gets her drinking water from a well.
Is fly ash harmful?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, power plants generate nearly 110 million tons of fossil fuel combustion waste each year, virtually all from burning coal.
Though some fly ash -- one type of combustion waste -- is recycled for construction-related applications like cement, wallboard or road building, about three-fourths ends up in landfills like Little Blue Run.
Little Blue Run is contained by a 9 million cubic yard earthen-fill dam built in 1975.
Donald S. Cherry, professor of zoology and aquatic ecotoxicology at Virginia Tech, said recent research demonstrates the dangers of coal ash landfills.
Cherry's 2000 report, prepared for the Hoosier Environmental Council and Citizens Coal Council in Indiana, analyzed 32 waste disposal sites. Though he did not study Little Blue Run, he discovered high levels of contamination near similar sites.
In addition to pollutants including sulfate, boron, aluminum and arsenic, extremely high levels of chloride, sodium and alkaline were measured in groundwater near fly ash landfills around the country.
The substances have caused damage to ecosystems and aquatic life in at least 10 sites in South Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and others.
The EPA concluded that fossil fuel combustion wastes are not hazardous. However, the agency determined that national non-hazardous waste regulations are needed for material disposed of in surface impoundments, landfills and mines.
The EPA has yet to issue any new regulations regarding disposal of coal ash and did not respond to repeated attempts for comment for this story.
Water contamination
State regulators say chlorides, one component of the ash, are seeping into groundwater near Little Blue Run. The source of contamination hasn't been identified.
"It could be the impoundment, previous mining operations, septic systems or oil and gas operations," said David Eberle, a solid waste supervisor for DEP, who has managed Little Blue Run for 16 years
Groundwater monitoring conducted by FirstEnergy and DEP of 54 wells bordering the facility has shown an increase in chloride, manganese, sulfate and pH dating to the mid-1990s.
Samples taken from five residential wells during the first quarter of this year also show rising levels of chloride, fluoride, sulfate and pH, but all were within federal National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations.
"The issue of groundwater is always a concern," Eberle said. "If there is contamination, our regulations require them (FirstEnergy) to address it."
Under state law, if a waste dump is found to affect the local water supply adversely, the owner must restore the affected supply with an alternate source. FirstEnergy has done so in at least one case.
A consent order signed by PennPower, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, and DEP in 1996 acknowledges groundwater impact from Little Blue Run.
Eberle concedes it's possible that contaminants from the dump may migrate to other locations including private drinking water wells and streams.
"The network of monitoring wells around the impoundment was installed to alert officials of any problems before they reach residential wells," Eberle said.
Durbin said FirstEnergy tests the water of any property owner who expresses a concern, and provides bottled water if requested.
"That is something we take very seriously," he said.
Thus far, two homeowners have requested bottled water in the past 10 years. The most recent request was denied, Eberle said, because it was determined that the well would not be affected by the dump.
"There might be some trace amounts of toxic substances there, but they are well within the limits allowed at other facilities and landfills around the country," Durbin said. "We believe the containment is sound."
Efforts to reduce waste
Since 1996, the plant has been using a unique process to separate fly ash from gypsum and recycle it, thus reducing the amount of material sent to Little Blue Run, Durbin said.
About 450,000 tons of gypsum per year is shipped on a conveyor belt across the street to the FirstEnergy's Forced Oxidation Gypsum Plant in Shippingport. Durbin said the recycling operation won a state award for Environmental Excellence in 2002.
But the remaining fly ash, about 4.2 million cubic yards per year, is mixed at the plant with a lime stabilizing agent and pumped seven miles underground to Little Blue Run.
"The only other way of doing it would be to run trucks 24/7 and dump it out there or somewhere else," Durbin said. "We think this is a much better method. Most of the people in the area don't even realize it's going on."
Though the Environmental Protection Agency says utility companies have made significant improvements in implementing contamination controls at coal ash dumps, numerous concerns remain.
Greene Township's Wright said continued scrutiny of Little Blue Run and nearby groundwater supplies is needed.
"What we need is someone from DEP reporting to us on a regular basis," she said. "I've been here 15 years, and we've never received anything as far as water monitoring reports from the state. All we get is a quarterly report from FirstEnergy that no one understands."
Expansion plans
FirstEnergy wants DEP permission to increase the capacity of Little Blue Run from 107 million cubic yards to 135 million cubic yards.
DEP officials met with FirstEnergy earlier this year about their plans. Eberle said he expects the company to file a permit application next month.
The company already owns about 80 percent of the property it needs for expansion, but is still looking to acquire "30 or so" more houses in Greene Township, Durbin said.
Wright said she is unhappy with the way company officials quietly began buying up properties, some as early as two years ago, using other companies. The company has purchased property under the names Red Dog Associates, Monarch Management, Beynon & Co. and WJB Inc., largely to keep prospective sellers from inflating real estate prices, Durbin said.
Wright said FirstEnergy has acquired at least 25 properties in Greene Township with an assessed value of more than $555,000.
"I understand it has to go in someone's backyard, but they should have come to us first to explain what they were doing," Wright said. "We are the ones who are losing more of the township and having our citizens displaced."
Additionally, the area around the dump is currently zoned residential and agricultural, so FirstEnergy would need to apply for a zoning change and conditional use permit for a landfill from the township, neither of which officials have done.
"It's difficult to balance what you think is right in terms of voicing your concerns and standing up for the rights of the township, especially when we all need electricity, and people have jobs at the plant," Wright said.
