The effect of coal ash on the environment has been studied and debated for more than seven years now in Virginia. Utilities have spent those years looking for long-term disposal.
A plume of ash roughly 1,000 feet long could be seen spilling out of the half-submerged barge, which was moving the industrial byproduct from Puerto Rico to Georgia after Puerto Ricans refused to accept it.
Georgia Power paid top dollar to buy land from residents living near waste sites at its power plants. Environmentalists fear it’s a tactic to forestall the cleanup bill from new regulations for coal ash.
