http://www.undeerc.org/carrc/
As now accessible via:
West Virginia Coal Association | State Governments Specify Use of Coal Ash | Research & Development;
we previously made report of:
"Engineering and Environmental Specifications of State Agencies for Utilization and Disposal of Coal Combustion Products: Volume 1 – DOT Specifications; 2005;
And, herein, we submit information concerning that "second goal", which resulted in a compilation of the various sub-Federal laws and regulations which might impact the specified uses for "coal combustion products" as identified in Volume 1; a compilation that, as the University of North Dakota researchers put it, "details the environmental statutes and regulations for each state as they pertain to utilization, handling, and disposal of coal combustion products".
We apologize in advance for the length of our report, and, for the topics we have elected to center most of our attention on. But, we felt it necessary to provide some clarification of the regulatory background concerning Coal Ash utilization, since that regulatory background seems, to us, far, far more extensive than could, by any stretch of the imagination, be reasonably warranted. And, our understanding from scant news reports is that the debate, over the utility of Coal Ash, somehow, continues in certain enclaves within our Federal government.
Comment follows, and is inserted within, rather dreadfully extended excerpts from the initial link herein to:
"Engineering and Environmental Specifications of State Agencies For Utilization and Disposal of Coal
Combustion Products: Volume 2 – Environmental Regulations
CBRC Project Number: 02-CBRC-W12; Final Report; 2005
Prepared by: Bruce A. Dockter; University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center; and, Diana M. Jagiella; Howard & Howard Law for Business
DOE Award Number: DE-FC26-98FT40028
Abstract: The objective of this report is twofold. The first is to present a state-by-state comparison of
Department of Transportation (DOT) specifications governing the use of coal combustion products. Because of lack of resources, namely, time and funding, most transportation and materials engineers cannot fully research all the current technologies of coal ash utilization. This compilation allows these professionals to become familiar with other department practices and to identify areas where specifications need to be developed within their own transportation offices. Engineering practices are slow to change for many reasons. To facilitate changes, a systematic approach must be taken. The results from this effort will help familiarize DOT engineers and officials with coal ash use applications and will help the coal ash industry develop a plan to work with these departments and individuals in expanding their knowledge and familiarity while expanding coal ash markets.
The second goal is to establish a comparison of state environmental laws and regulations as they pertain to utilization and/or disposal. As a result of the interpretation of the Bevill Amendment, utilization and disposal are not regulated at the federal level. These issues have been left to the states. Many states have enacted laws and adopted regulations, or both, governing the utilization and disposal of coal combustion by-products. These laws and regulations vary widely. Thus a particular utilization authorized in one state may not be authorized in the adjoining state. The objective of this report is to present a survey of the state laws and regulations authorizing beneficial reuse of coal combustion by-products.
The efforts on this project were made possible by funding from the National Energy Technology Laboratory Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium (NETL CBRC) with industry support from the American Coal Ash Association (ACAA) and the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG). Although the twofold objectives of this report are similar in presentation (state-by-state comparisons), the contents are very distinct from one another. For these reasons, this report will be presented in a two-volume series. This portion of the report, Volume 2, details the survey of state laws and regulations authorizing beneficial use of coal combustion by-products. Volume 1 presents existing U.S. Department of Transportation engineering specifications as they pertain to the use of coal combustion products. Specifications for the utilization and disposal of coal combustion products are continuously being updated and modified to express the trends for that particular state. The results here are but a summary of current laws and regulations at the time of publication of this report.
Extensive research for this project began in 2004. The laws and regulations of each state were reviewed to identify statutory or regulatory provisions authorizing the beneficial reuse of coal combustion by-products. Information was collected through Internet and Westlaw searches. Additionally, a survey letter was sent to all the states requesting copies of any legal authority upon which the state relies to authorize beneficial reuse of coal combustion by-product (CCB). In many cases, personal contact was also made with state agencies. Based on the information obtained, a summary of the CCB laws and regulation in each state was prepared. The information in this report provides an overview of state solid waste laws and regulations governing reuse of CCBs.
This report will be useful to persons familiar with “beneficial use” regulations for CCBs in their particular state and will assist in the exchange of regulatory guidance to enhance the use of CCBs.
For consistency, this report utilizes the term CCBs. The term is intended to generically refer to fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, flue gas desulfurization sludge, or fluidized-bed combustion material. The reader must recognize that each state has different approaches to classification of CCBs and that these respective classifications may limit or expand allowable uses of CCBs. For example, in Pennsylvania, CCBs are referred to as “coal ash” which is defined to include fly ash, bottom ash, and boiler slag. Conversely, some states include within the definition of CCB wastes which have been combusted with other materials, such as petroleum coke, tire-derived fuel, and/or wood. In some cases, these distinctions are noted herein. However, the reader should not assume that use of the term CCB infers that all types of CCBs are included within the scope of a particular state’s regulations.
The information in this report provides an overview of state solid waste laws and regulations governing reuse of coal combustion by-products (CCBs). This report will be useful to persons familiar with “beneficial use” regulations for CCBs in their particular state and will assist in the exchange of regulatory guidance to enhance the use of CCBs.
CCB reuse options are determined by state law. CCBs are generally exempt from hazardous waste regulations, and the states have elected to regulate these materials as solid, special, or industrial wastes. States that do not exempt CCBs from hazardous waste regulations require testing to determine hazardousness, and if shown to be nonhazardous, the CCBs are regulated as solid waste.
Most states currently do not have specific regulations addressing the use of CCBs, and requests for CCB uses are handled on a case-by-case basis or under generic state recycling laws or regulations. Many states have “generic” laws and regulations which authorize limited reuse and recycling of hazardous and/or solid wastes. These generic laws do not apply specifically to CCBs or any other materials. In general, under these regulations, materials are not considered solid wastes when they can be recycled by being:
- Used or reused as ingredients in an industrial process to make a product, provided the materials are not being reclaimed.
- Used or reused as effective substitutes for commercial products.
- Returned to the original process from which they are generated, without first being reclaimed. The materials must be returned as a substitute for raw materials feedstock, and the process must use raw materials as principal feedstocks.
A number of states have adopted laws and regulations or issued policies and/or guidance specifically pertaining to CCB use. The CCB uses authorized within these states vary widely. Some states authorize liberal use of CCBs, while others authorize CCB use only in limited applications.
In addition, the level of regulatory control and oversight varies significantly.
CCB uses presenting the greatest concern to state regulators are those which involve land application, such as use of CCBs in agricultural applications, structural fills, mine applications, and embankments. Some states consider these applications to be waste disposal and not reuse or recycling.
Finally, other states have elected to adopt “industrial solid waste beneficial use” rules intended to authorize use of a variety of materials such as coal ash, paper mill sludge, and foundry sand. These reuse rules with application to multiple materials may represent a growing trend.
Federal Regulation of CCBs: The principal federal statute under which hazardous and solid wastes are regulated is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). RCRA establishes a comprehensive cradle-to-grave system for regulating hazardous wastes. Specifically, Subtitle C of RCRA and its implementing regulations impose requirements on the generation, transportation, storage, treatment, and disposal of hazardous wastes. To trigger these requirements, a material must be a “solid waste,” and the solid waste must be "hazardous."
Subtitle D of RCRA pertains to State or Regional Solid Waste Plans. Wastes which are not considered hazardous under Subtitle C fall under Subtitle D and are subject to regulation by the states as solid waste. As originally drafted, RCRA did not specifically address whether CCBs fell under Subtitle C as a hazardous waste or Subtitle D as a solid waste.
In 1980, Congress enacted the Solid Waste Disposal Act Amendments to RCRA. Under the amendments, certain wastes, including CCBs, were temporarily excluded from Subtitle C regulation. This regulatory exemption is commonly referred to as the "Bevill Exemption". As a result, CCBs fell under Subtitle D and became subject to regulation under state law as solid waste.
(As stated in our earlier report concerning state Coal Ash specifications:
"The Bevill Amendment ... exempted fossil fuel combustion waste; waste from the extraction, beneficiation, and processing of ores and minerals (including phosphate rock and overburden from uranium ore mining); and cement kiln dust" from Federal regulation as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
More about it all can be learned via:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/
((See: www.crs.gov and Congressional Research Service (Library of Congress) "The Congressional Research Service (CRS) works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing policy and legal analysis to committees and Members of both the House and Senate, regardless of party affiliation. As a legislative branch agency within the Library of Congress, CRS has been a valued and respected resource on Capitol Hill for nearly a century.))
R41341: Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress In the months before the hazardous waste regulations were finalized in 1980, Congress was debating RCRA reauthorization. In February 1980, Representative Tom Bevill introduced an amendment to the pending legislation that would require EPA to defer the imposition of hazardous waste regulatory requirements for fossil fuel combustion waste and discarded mining waste until data regarding its potential hazard to human health or the environment could be determined. Representative Bevill stated that EPA’s intent to regulate such waste as hazardous would discourage the use of coal and constitute an unnecessary burden on the utility industry. In anticipation of the enactment of this legislation, according to EPA, the agency excluded the regulation of fossil fuel combustion waste from its final hazardous waste regulations. Ultimately, the Solid Waste Disposal Act Amendments of 1980 (P.L. 96-482) included provisions commonly referred to as the “Bevill Amendment” or the “Bevill exclusion.” Under those provisions Congress specifically excluded CCW from regulation under RCRA Subtitle C, pending EPA’s completion of a report to Congress and regulatory determination on whether hazardous waste regulations were warranted.")
As the Bevill Exemption was temporary, the amendments further directed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produce a report regarding CCBs and to pursue appropriate regulation. In accord with this mandate, EPA issued its first report to Congress in 1988 titled Waste from the Combustion of Coal Electric Utility Power Plants (EPA/5-30-SW-88-002).
((Unfortunately, although the EPA document library is open and accessible, links to documents within it might not be durable. You can try:
Document Display | NSCEP | US EPA; or, with our apologies
This EPA report concluded that CCBs generally do not exhibit hazardous characteristics and that regulation of CCBs should remain under state Subtitle D authority.
Following litigation against EPA by the Bull Run Coalition because EPA failed to timely issue a regulatory determination as stated in its 1988 report to Congress, EPA entered into a consent decree with the Bull Run Coalition which included a time frame for EPA to issue a formal recommendation regarding regulation of CCBs. Pursuant to the consent decree, EPA issued a final regulatory determination applicable to fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and FGD material which became effective September 2, 1993, 58 Federal Register 42, 466 (August 9, 1993). The rule states that regulation of CCBs generated by coal-fired electric utilities and independent power producers as hazardous waste is unwarranted and that the materials will remain exempt from regulation as a hazardous waste under RCRA.
(The above-noted "Bull Run Coalition" is, or was - no current web site or news concerning them seems to exist - a group of environmental activists founded and centered in Oregon, where they seem to have gotten their start organizing resistance to planned and proposed hydroelectric projects. How they could have attained national influence with regards to Coal Ash regulation is beyond our understanding. - JtM)
EPA has narrowly interpreted this exemption. According to EPA, the exemption applies only to coal-fired electric utilities and independent power producers. It does not include CCBs generated at any other industrial activity (in re: Wheland Foundry, EAB, No. 93-2, December 22, 1993). Further, fluidized-bed combustion wastes, low-volume wastes (boiler blowdown, coal pile runoff, cooling tower blowdown, demineralizer regenerant rinses, metal and boiler cleaning wastes), and pyrites and comanaged wastes (referred to as remaining wastes) are not covered by the rule. EPA decided that more study was needed on these remaining wastes before an exemption determination could be made.
(Which is okay by us. Our primary concern is with "coal-fired electric utilities", which remain exempt.
As a result ... CCB reuse options are determined by state law. CCBs are generally exempt from hazardous waste regulations, and the states have elected to regulate these materials as solid, special, or industrial wastes. States that do not exempt CCBs from hazardous waste regulations require testing to determine hazardousness, and if shown to be nonhazardous, the CCBs are regulated as solid waste. Most states currently do not have specific regulations addressing the use of CCBs, and requests for CCB uses are handled on a case-by-case basis or under generic state recycling laws or regulations. Many states have “generic” laws and regulations which authorize limited reuse and recycling of hazardous and/or solid wastes. These generic laws do not apply specifically to CCBs or any other materials. In general, under these regulations, materials are not considered solid wastes when they can be recycled by being:
- Used or reused as ingredients in an industrial process to make a product, provided the materials are not being reclaimed.
- Used or reused as effective substitutes for commercial products.
- Returned to the original process from which they are generated, without first being reclaimed. The materials must be returned as a substitute for raw materials feedstock, and the process must use raw materials as principal feed stocks.
District of Columbia regulations specifically exempt fly ash waste, bottom ash waste, slag waste, and flue gas emission control waste generated primarily from the combustion of coal from regulation as hazardous waste. Currently, reuse of CCBs is not specifically authorized under District of Columbia law or regulations. While reuse of CCBs is not specifically authorized, the District of Columbia Housing Authority advocates the use of green building materials including fly ash.
Under Illinois regulations, fly ash, bottom ash, slag, and flue gas emission control waste generated primarily from the combustion of coal or other fossil fuels are exempt from regulation as hazardous waste (and, in) 1995, Illinois enacted legislation specifically authorizing reuse of coal combustion waste, ... created two classifications of coal ash: coal combustion waste (CCW) and coal combustion by-product (CCB). CCW is subject to limited management and disposal options. CCB, on the other hand, may be used in multiple
applications as discussed below. The term CCW includes fly ash, bottom ash, slag or flue gas, or
fluid-bed boiler desulfurization by-products generated through combustion of coal. CCW can be classified as CCB under certain conditions (satisfactory analytical testing results) and reused based on this classification. CCB may be reused as follows:
- For the extraction and recovery of materials and compounds within the ash.
- As a raw material in the manufacture of cement, concrete, concrete products, and concrete
mortars.
- For asphalt or cement-based roofing shingles.
- In plastic products, paints and metal alloys.
- As structural fill when used in an engineered application or combined with cement, sand,
or water to produce a controlled-strength fill material and covered with 12 inches of soil
unless infiltration is prevented by the material itself or other cover material.
Under Massachusetts law, fly ash, bottom ash, slag, and flue gas emission control waste generated primarily from the combustion of coal or other fossil fuels are exempt from regulation as hazardous waste.
In Massachusetts, ash produced from the combustion of coal including fly ash, bottom ash, and boiler slag and economizer ash are exempt from regulation as solid waste, if beneficially reused:
- As a raw material for concrete block manufacture.
- As aggregate.
- As fill.
- As a base for road construction.
The Pennsylvania regulations adopt by reference the federal regulations exempting fly ash, bottom ash, slag, and flue ash gas emission control waste generated primarily from the combustion of coal or other fossil fuels as hazardous waste. Coal ash is regulated under the Solid Waste Management Act and the residual waste management regulations. In December 1986, this act was amended to authorize the beneficial use of coal ash. Beneficial use of coal ash was implemented through Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) guidelines under the residual waste management regulations ... which were amended in July 1992 to include the beneficial use of coal ash. Coal ash is defined in Pennsylvania's Solid Waste Management Act as fly ash, bottom ash, or boiler slag resulting from the combustion of coal and may be beneficially used.
Pennsylvania residual waste management regulations provide that coal ash may be beneficially used:
- As a structural fill upon approval from the Department if the person proposing the use complies with specified requirements (any other use as a structural fill requires a disposal permit).
- As a soil substitute or soil additive if the person proposing the use complies with specified requirements.
- In the manufacture of concrete.
- For the extraction or recovery of one or more materials and compounds contained within the coal ash.
- As a raw material for a product with commercial value, including the use of bottom ash in construction aggregate (storage of coal ash prior to processing is subject to specific requirements.
- As a drainage material or pipe bedding, if the person or municipality proposing the use has first given advance written notice to the Department and has provided to the Department an evaluation of the pH of the coal ash and a chemical analysis of the coal ash that meets the specific chemical waste analysis requirements.
West Virginia regulations adopt by reference the federal regulation which exempts CCBs from classification as hazardous waste. Exempt from hazardous waste regulation are fly ash, bottom ash, slag, and flue gas emission control waste generated primarily from the combustion of coal.
Under West Virginia regulations, CCBs may be reused in the following manner:
- As a material in manufacturing another product (e.g., concrete, flowable fill, lightweight aggregate, concrete block, roofing materials, plastics, paint) or as a substitute for a product or natural resource (e.g., blasting grit, filter cloth precoat for sludge dewatering).
- For the extraction or recovery of materials and compounds contained within the CCBs.
- As pipe bedding or as a composite liner drainage layer.
- As a construction base for roads or parking lots that have asphalt or concrete wearing surfaces, if approved by the West Virginia Department of Highways and the project owner.
- As antiskid material, if such use is consistent with West Virginia Division of Highways specifications.
- To construct base material for roads, parking areas, storage areas, etc., to stabilize foundation soils.
- For the construction of liner systems."
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We didn't, of course, include all of the state regulations identified by the University of North Dakota, only those which might have some special significance, for one reason or another, for our readers.
And, even though our dissertation is already over long, we remind you, that, some of the states recognize uses for Coal Ash about which we've already reported.
For instance, President Obama's home state of Illinois acknowledges the potential for "the extraction and recovery of materials and compounds within the ash", similar, we might extrapolate, to, for one example, processes like those described in our report of:
Iowa Mines Metals from Coal Ash for the USDOE | Research & Development; concerning both:
"United States Patent 4,386,057 - Recovery of Iron Oxide from Coal Fly Ash; 1983; Assignee: The United States of America; The U.S. Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. W-7405-ENG-82 between the U.S. Department of Energy and Ames Laboratory; A high quality iron oxide concentrate, suitable as a feed for blast and electric reduction furnaces is recovered from pulverized coal fly ash"; and:
"United States Patent 4,397,822 - Process for the Recovery of Alumina from Fly Ash; 1983; The United States Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. W-7405-ENG-82 between the U.S. Department of Energy and Ames Laboratory. An improvement in the lime-sinter process for recovering alumina from pulverized coal fly ash is disclosed".
And, the home state of presidential hopeful Romney, Massachusetts, allows the use of Coal Ash as "a raw material for concrete block manufacture", as typified in our report of:
West Virginia Coal Association | Coal Fly Ash Bricks are Greener and Stronger | Research & Development; concerning: "United States Patent 7,998,268 - Method to Produce Durable Non-vitrified Fly Ash Bricks and Blocks; 2011; Ecological Tech Company, Inc.; A method of making durable, non-vitrified masonry units comprising fly ash".
In sum, it is recognized in the halls of governments across the United States of America that the solid residua arising from our essential use of Coal in the generation of economical electrical power comprise a valuable commodity, a raw material resource which we can utilize and productively consume in a number of different ways.
Our question would be, that, since such has been established, why does public reportage concerning Coal Ash center only on the negative results of it's, admittedly inexcusable, occasional mishandling and on the regulatory threats to our essential Coal-use industries, rather than on the positive economic potentials that could accrue to US Coal Country, if we would just shake off our lazy attitude and get to work, if we just, in fact, were told that such productive options for the profitable marketing and use of our Coal Ash do exist?