Cleaning Coal Power Up Could Provide A Unique Opportunity For Some Companies

Picture credit: NOAA on Unsplash

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Environmental authorities are upping the ante regarding toxic wastewater produced as a result of coal-fired electricity generation, and one Texas-based technology company is hoping to benefit from the move.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in early January it will order U.S. utilities to stop dumping coal ash into wastewater ponds as well as clean up existing sites ahead of previous schedules to do so. This marks the first time the EPA has enforced 2015 rulings on the coal ash ponds, according to U.S. News & World Report.

“For too long, communities already disproportionately impacted by high levels of pollution have been burdened by improper coal ash disposal,'' ​​EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. 

Coal ash, which contains dangerous toxins such as arsenic and mercury, is produced when coal is used to generate power and subsequently forms wastewater ponds harboring the materials. There are more than 1,000 such ponds across 37 U.S. states, and even companies that report coal ash data show the vast majority have toxin levels significantly above federal limits for safe drinking water.

One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure

Corsicana, Texas-based environmental technology company ME2C Environmental MEEC, formerly known as Midwest Energy Emissions Corp., provides patented technologies to capture mercury emissions from coal-fired generation and welcomes the EPA’s push to reduce some of the harm caused by the coal ash ponds. Cleaning up these ash ponds could provide the nation with a domestic source of rare earth elements and a possible revenue stream for utility companies to offset the cleanup costs. 

Coal ash ponds are rich in crucial minerals and rare earth elements - and the U.S. is currently looking to develop a source to produce these elements. In 2021, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $19 million dollar project focused on domestic production of rare earth elements. The same year ME2C announced its efforts to develop a “clean” approach for processing the rare earth elements extracted from coal ash ponds and later reported that the company’s emerging technology “had yielded exciting results thus far” after retaining Penn State University’s College of Earth & Mineral Sciences in June 2021 to validate the initial lab tests. 

Not A New Problem

The issue of coal ash wastewater ponds is longstanding.

In 2020, North Carolina-based Duke Energy Corp. DUK reached an agreement on how to proceed with coal ash remediation. Administrator Regan previously headed the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) leading the charge against Duke.

But the problem goes farther back. In 2008, utility group Tennessee Valley Authority released 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash following a dike failure with the waste spilling into the Emory River.

The cleanup cost of coal ash ponds is extraordinary — in the billions of dollars for larger plants such as Duke’s. The utility is responsible for the cost, which cannot be passed through the rate structure to the consumer.

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