Ash Disposal Pond at Coal-Fired Power Plant

New Roads, Louisiana, USA

This plant is one of the top 100 carbon emitters in the USA, one of the 50 worst mercury polluters, and is known to be contaminating the groundwater around it with selenium which is leaching from its ash waste ponds. Since coal power plants are placed near fresh water sources for cooling, and the cost for transporting this tremendous volume of ash waste is significant, coal ash is generally stored in large open lagoons adjoining a river, which burst with alarming frequency, spilling their toxic contents into the waterway, poisoning the drinking water of anyone downstream.

Coal ash is known to contain a variety of toxins including lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, boron, selenium, and others. It is the largest waste stream in the USA, lightly regulated due to political influence, immense in volume (about 130 million tons produced in the USA per year), and stored in about 1,100 different sites around the country.