Some time ago Michigan allowed coal ash to he used an agricultural enhancement. It was spread over crops fields with farmers being told it was a form of fertizilizer and would increase their crop yields. Coal ash is toxic and radioactive. Needless to say it was eventually stopped, but, in the city of Cadillac there are now contaminated city wells because the toxins leached through the soil.
Now Snyder has come up with a real brain storm to entomb the coal ask in cement and asphalt. Now besides radon in their basements Michiganders will have to worry about the toxins in the cement poured for their basements.
This is what Snyder calls new jobs. He has some of the largest landfills full of dangerous waste from all over the country and now he is going to import coal ash from North Carolina to create jobs and in time create more jobs when Michiganders develop cancer from the first jobs he used to stimulate the economy.
Updated: Wednesday
June 18 2014, 07:56 AM EDT
LANSING, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Governor Rick Snyder (click here) has signed laws allowing for the use of coal ash and other industrial byproducts in cement and asphalt.
The ash is a byproduct of coal combustion and poses environmental threats in landfills, but it's also commonly recycled for use in roads and parking lots.
Snyder says the laws will lessen economic waste disposal costs and support the environment.
Cement is porous and will leach the toxins into the ground water. Asphalt will heat in the summer's sun, become gooey, change the chemicals dumped into it to who knows what and will adhere to tires on cars so consumers can carry the toxins home with them. The chemicals will probably also weaken the tire rubber reducing the servicibility of the tire itself. There is no research to support Snyder's 'hey, I've got a great idea.'
Now Snyder has come up with a real brain storm to entomb the coal ask in cement and asphalt. Now besides radon in their basements Michiganders will have to worry about the toxins in the cement poured for their basements.
This is what Snyder calls new jobs. He has some of the largest landfills full of dangerous waste from all over the country and now he is going to import coal ash from North Carolina to create jobs and in time create more jobs when Michiganders develop cancer from the first jobs he used to stimulate the economy.
June 18 2014, 07:56 AM EDT
LANSING, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Governor Rick Snyder (click here) has signed laws allowing for the use of coal ash and other industrial byproducts in cement and asphalt.
The ash is a byproduct of coal combustion and poses environmental threats in landfills, but it's also commonly recycled for use in roads and parking lots.
Snyder says the laws will lessen economic waste disposal costs and support the environment.
Cement is porous and will leach the toxins into the ground water. Asphalt will heat in the summer's sun, become gooey, change the chemicals dumped into it to who knows what and will adhere to tires on cars so consumers can carry the toxins home with them. The chemicals will probably also weaken the tire rubber reducing the servicibility of the tire itself. There is no research to support Snyder's 'hey, I've got a great idea.'
Coal ash – the waste material (click here) left after coal is burned – contains arsenic, mercury, lead, and over a dozen other heavy metals, many of them toxic. And disposal of the growing mounds of coal ash is creating grave risks to human health.
Toxic constituents of coal ash are blowing, spilling and leaching (dissolving and percolating) from storage units into air, land and human drinking water, posing an acute risk of cancer and neurological effects as well as many other negative health impacts: heart damage, lung disease, kidney disease, reproductive problems, gastrointestinal illness, birth defects, and impaired bone growth in children....
But, but, but, ONLY 10 to 20 percent of coal ash is radioactive.
Burning coal in boilers (click here) to create steam for power generation and industrial applications produces a number of combustion residuals. Naturally radioactive materials that were in the coal mostly end up in fly ash, bottom ash and boiler slag. These residuals are called TENORM--Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials--because burning removes the coal's organic constituents, concentrating the trace amounts of naturally occurring radionuclides:
Be sure to ask any contractor if they use coal ash in their cement and realtors if the house you are about to build contains concrete containing coal ash. The asphalt requires the same questions, but, city and towns will have to pass ordinances outlawing coal ash in their roads and bridges and any other building in town.
When Republicans create jobs, it usually is a deadly mix today and twenty years down the road.
No one ever stops to wonder why Republicans hate regulations? It is because the jobs they create kill people and cause disease. Hello?
But, but, but, ONLY 10 to 20 percent of coal ash is radioactive.
- uranium
- thorium
- potassium
- their radioactive decay products including radium. (The amount radium in coal can vary by more than two orders of magnitude depending upon the type of coal and where it was mined.)
About 80 to 90 percent of fly ash, bottom ash and boiler slag is non-radioactive minerals, typically silicon, aluminum, iron and calcium.
When Republicans create jobs, it usually is a deadly mix today and twenty years down the road.
No one ever stops to wonder why Republicans hate regulations? It is because the jobs they create kill people and cause disease. Hello?
