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A collapse next to a power plant near Milwaukee earlier this week sent coal ash into Lake Michigan. Researchers concluded yesterday that the spill probably doesn't pose a significant environmental risk, but the ash contained heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury, and about 2,500 cubic yards of ash (200 dump trucks' worth) are thought to have spilled into the water, AP reports, after the section of cliff "about the size of a football field" gave out.
The full lab analysis will take several days to complete, and while there's some concern that the spill could smother fish habitat, it likely wouldn't spread beyond the immediately-effected area, according to Val Klump, director of the Great Lakes WATER Institute in Milwaukee.
Hazard Coal Ash Ponds On the Rise
The spill came just after the EPA released its latest data on coal ash ponds, which according to Earthjustice reveals a threefold increase in the number ofcoal ash ponds given a "significant" hazard rating. While the coal ash that spilled into Lake Michigan was not stored in a pond, and had actually been there since the 1950s, they are both examples that advocates say illustrate theneed for stricter regulation of coal ash.
The EPA's ratings are based on criteria from the National Inventory of Dams (NID)...the EPA recently released a new set of data that reveals 181 “significant” hazard dams in 18 states. This is more than three times the 60 significant-hazard ponds listed in the original database released in 2009. In addition to the increase in the number of significant hazard-rated ponds, eight of the previously unrated coal ash ponds were found to be high hazard ponds in information released by the EPA earlier this year. Because of the switch in ratings after the EPA inspections, the total number of high hazard ponds has stayed roughly the same at a total of 47 ponds nationwide.