Stories

The company that tried and failed to construct a coal-fired power plant in Marshalltown is contemplating giving it another try, this time with natural gas.

Protective liners, locations restrictions and groundwater monitoring are just a few of the regulations Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources would like to see implemented by the federal government in regard to coal ash disposal. But environmentalists believe if federal officials follow Iowa’s suggestions, the public will still be at risk for contaminated groundwater supplies.

Reversing an earlier decision, Iowa’s three public universities will begin a groundwater-monitoring program at a quarry in Waterloo that they use to dump coal ash.

Student environmental activists from Iowa State University will meet with the school’s president Oct. 2 to demand that the university’s practice of disposing toxic coal ash in an unlined quarry in Waterloo be stopped.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama understands the danger of coal ash and will act to protect the public health when it issues new regulations on the toxic waste by year’s end, Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday, expecting that “there will be some changes” down the road.

Student activists at Iowa State University want their school to alter its coal ash disposal method by the end of 2009, and they began their campaign Monday to make that happen.

Students at Iowa’s state universities say getting their schools to change their coal ash disposal methods will be a priority during the coming school year, and a new organization could make that easier.

Iowa’s three largest public universities have determined that their coal ash disposal method does not pose a risk to the public health, a decision some say was made without sufficient evidence or regard for experiences with contamination in neighboring states.

The state legislature should hold public hearings into the way Iowa regulates coal ash disposal, the chairwoman of the state’s Environmental Protection Commission said.

Democrats are pushing for a vote on federal climate change legislation, perhaps as early as Friday, despite continued misgivings from farm-state Democrats like U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell.