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Report: Texas Coal-Fired Power Plants are Leaking Cancerous Toxins into groundwater across Texas


Horn Under a Bad Sign

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Lovely. Including arsenic.

 

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In 1975, Alonzo Peeler Jr. figured that selling a small section of his ranchland to a power company was a sage financial move. Now 78, the lifelong rancher says he never would have guessed that San Miguel Electric Co-op, which operates a 440-megawatt power plant 65 miles south of San Antonio, would transform the property into a dump for toxic waste, contaminating groundwater and killing vegetation. And Peeler, who took the company to court over the pollution in August, is shocked that San Miguel Electric Co-Op is seeking to seize one-third of his ranch through eminent domain to avoid cleaning up their act.

“I wish I would have been fortunate enough 40 years ago to question this, ‘cause then we wouldn’t be having all these problems,” Peeler told the Observer. His 25,000-acre ranch now holds a dubious distinction: Of all the groundwater adjacent to coal-fired power plants in Texas, the water beneath the ranch is the most contaminated, according to a report released Thursday by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). Arsenic levels there are 12 times higher than what’s considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. Massive levels of beryllium and cadmium, both known human carcinogens, have been detected in the water; beryllium at 190 times the safe level and cadmium at 130 times. The report also says that just across Peeler’s property line, San Miguel Electric Co-op operates improperly lined lagoons that hold coal ash, which is the toxic byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity.




https://www.texasobserver.org/report-power-plants-are-leaking-cancer-causing-toxins-into-groundwater-across-texas/

I'm sure the free market will be along any minute now to take care of this. 

Edited by Horn Under a Bad Sign
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Lovely. Including arsenic.

 

In 1975, Alonzo Peeler Jr. figured that selling a small section of his ranchland to a power company was a sage financial move. Now 78, the lifelong rancher says he never would have guessed that San Miguel Electric Co-op, which operates a 440-megawatt power plant 65 miles south of San Antonio, would transform the property into a dump for toxic waste, contaminating groundwater and killing vegetation. And Peeler, who took the company to court over the pollution in August, is shocked that San Miguel Electric Co-Op is seeking to seize one-third of his ranch through eminent domain to avoid cleaning up their act.

“I wish I would have been fortunate enough 40 years ago to question this, ‘cause then we wouldn’t be having all these problems,” Peeler told the Observer. His 25,000-acre ranch now holds a dubious distinction: Of all the groundwater adjacent to coal-fired power plants in Texas, the water beneath the ranch is the most contaminated, according to a report released Thursday by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). Arsenic levels there are 12 times higher than what’s considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. Massive levels of beryllium and cadmium, both known human carcinogens, have been detected in the water; beryllium at 190 times the safe level and cadmium at 130 times. The report also says that just across Peeler’s property line, San Miguel Electric Co-op operates improperly lined lagoons that hold coal ash, which is the toxic byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity.




https://www.texasobserver.org/report-power-plants-are-leaking-cancer-causing-toxins-into-groundwater-across-texas/

I'm sure the free market will be along any minute now to take care of this. 


I’m actually surprised there are any coal fired plants still operating. They are not economic, especially in Texas given the way ERCOT works. I wonder how many of these are owned by utilities, who are not subject to the same market factors.
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12 minutes ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

 

 


https://www.texasobserver.org/report-power-plants-are-leaking-cancer-causing-toxins-into-groundwater-across-texas/

I'm sure the free market will be along any minute now to take care of this. 


I’m actually surprised there are any coal fired plants still operating. They are not economic, especially in Texas given the way ERCOT works. I wonder how many of these are owned by utilities, who are not subject to the same market factors.

A lot of these places are not subject to market forces, Deely Station mentioned in the article belongs to CPS and is owned by the City of San Antonio. When a company owned by the local government has a monopoly on power generation and distribution covering millions of people that company will be impervious to market forces.

 

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A lot of these places are not subject to market forces, Deely Station mentioned in the article belongs to CPS and is owned by the City of San Antonio. When a company owned by the local government has a monopoly on power generation and distribution covering millions of people that company will be impervious to market forces.
 


And that just proved my point. Those owned by either local goats or traditional utilities will not be subject to those market forces.
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https://www.texasobserver.org/report-power-plants-are-leaking-cancer-causing-toxins-into-groundwater-across-texas/

I'm sure the free market will be along any minute now to take care of this. 


I’m actually surprised there are any coal fired plants still operating. They are not economic, especially in Texas given the way ERCOT works. I wonder how many of these are owned by utilities, who are not subject to the same market factors.


To be clear my comment actually started with the comment that coal fired plants are uneconomic in ERCOT. HUBS is the free market hater from the first post in the thread. Tapatalk quote fail.
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2 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

 


To be clear my comment actually started with the comment that coal fired plants are uneconomic in ERCOT. HUBS is the free market hater from the first post in the thread. Tapatalk quote fail.

 

 

I am not a fee market hater but as a (mostly) retired hydrologist who has done projects around the world I realize that companies will sacrifice your environment for their economic gain without batting an eye and that the cleanup for such damage is not priced in or accounted for.  It's the Tragedy of the Commons all over again.  

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On ‎1‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 12:55 PM, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

 

 


And that just proved my point. Those owned by either local goats or traditional utilities will not be subject to those market forces.

 

Seems risky to hand over ownership to local goats.  But hey...

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How many of those being affected voted for Trump?

It may be like the community in Indiana who voted for Trump and hence voted for more lax EPA regs. That community now has (or has had) a fairly high cancer rate.

Hey, vote for cancer and get cancer. It sucks and is a tragedy, but how much sympathy should one have for people who are now reaping what they have sown?

Edited by Asithappens
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On 1/21/2019 at 9:01 AM, Asithappens said:

How many of those being affected voted for Trump?

It may be like the community in Indiana who voted for Trump and hence voted for more lax EPA regs. That community now has (or has had) a fairly high cancer rate.

Hey, vote for cancer and get cancer. It sucks and is a tragedy, but how much sympathy should one have for people who are now reaping what they have sown?

Huh?

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On 1/19/2019 at 3:13 PM, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

 

I am not a fee market hater but as a (mostly) retired hydrologist who has done projects around the world I realize that companies will sacrifice your environment for their economic gain without batting an eye and that the cleanup for such damage is not priced in or accounted for.  It's the Tragedy of the Commons all over again.   

I'm in hydrolics?

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On 1/19/2019 at 3:13 PM, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

 

I am not a fee market hater but as a (mostly) retired hydrologist who has done projects around the world I realize that companies will sacrifice your environment for their economic gain without batting an eye and that the cleanup for such damage is not priced in or accounted for.  It's the Tragedy of the Commons all over again.  

...and if if the costs are somewhat accounted for, there is a costs to compel the polluters to remediate.  ...and remediation is usually never enough to undo the damage done.

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17 minutes ago, Jiggy-Z said:

...and if if the costs are somewhat accounted for, there is a costs to compel the polluters to remediate.  ...and remediation is usually never enough to undo the damage done.

 

Very true. Even accounting for market externalities does nothing to remediate the damage done when, say, a 32 year old man dies of cancer, leaving his wife and children behind.

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23 minutes ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

 

Very true. Even accounting for market externalities does nothing to remediate the damage done when, say, a 32 year old man dies of cancer, leaving his wife and children behind.

Indeed.  I was speaking more to the environmental aspect of it.  Even with human costs, a dollar amount can be affixed and damage can be counted and attributed and families can get some kind of compensation even if it can never replace the lost life.  In other words, the human damage is known or can be eventually known while the environmental damage can go on for decades with spiraling tipping points and totally unforeseen or even unknown consequences.  

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