The study, Iowa Statewide Rural Water Well Survey Phase 2, was led by the University of Iowa Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination. It followed up on the results of a similar study conducted in 1988 and 1989 and concluded that many of the problems of 20 years ago remain today.

Scientists who tested samples from Iowa rural drinking water wells discovered that 48 percent had arsenic, with 8 percent containing it at a level above the Safe Drinking Water Act standard for public water supplies. Wells with high arsenic contamination (greater than or equal to 0.01 mg/L) are marked in red on the above map. The blue marks are wells that had low levels. Click the graphic to read the full study.

Investigators sampled 473 wells in 89 Iowa counties for bacteria, nutrients, metals, common use herbicides and insecticides, and herbicide degradates from May 2006 to December 2008.

Peter Weyer, the study’s lead investigator and associated director for the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, said that while nitrate and bacteria detections were expected despite efforts to address such contamination, the presence of arsenic was potentially worrisome.

“Nearly half the wells sampled had some level of arsenic, and 8 percent of those had a level that could be considered a health concern,” he noted.

One of the positive findings of the study was that the levels of the commonly used herbicide atrazine appear to be decreasing.

Of the wells tested, 43 percent had total coliform bacteria, 19 percent had enterococci and 11 percent had E. coli. In addition, 49 percent had nitrate, with 12 percent of those having levels above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for public water supplies.

Pesticides parent compounds were found in a small percentage of wells. A total of 8 percent had very low concentrations of atrazine, 2 percent had metolachlor and less than 1 percent of the wells had acetochlor, alachlor and trifluralin.

Herbicide degradates, or the breakdown products of the parent compound that are generally believed to be less toxic, were also found in a percentage of Iowa wells. The degradate most commonly found was metolachlor ethane sulfonic acid (ESA), which was present in 33 percent of the wells. Alachlor ESA was detected in 27 percent of the wells, while desethyl-atrazine and acetochlor ESA was present in 11 percent of the wells tested. In addition, 8 percent of the test wells had metolachlor OXA (oxanilic acid).

“If you do have a problem with your well — certainly bacteria is a problem — and if you had bacteria contamination of your well, you definitely want to boil your water,” said Weyer. “With nitrate, the research on it is kinda mixed on whether it is a problem. We have looked at things like cancer and blue baby syndrome. Some people think that the nitrate standard should be a lot higher, maybe 20 or 25. And there are others who have done research, including myself, who have found problem with nitrate at less than 10, think we ought to leave the standard alone.”

But, by and large, is the drinking water from these wells safe?

“You know, it is hard to say. I think, in general, the well-water quality in the state of Iowa really hasn’t improved that much,” Weyer said. “Compared to the study that was done in 1988 and 1989 the water quality just hasn’t improved very much with respect to nitrate and bacteria. We hadn’t looked for arsenic before, but now we are seeing that. It is really up to the individual well owner as to how they want to deal with this.”

While there was no one major indicator to determine which wells might contain contaminants, there were variables, such as well depth, that were considered by the researchers to be associated with detection. Wells under 100 feet deep had higher concentrations of nitrate and more total coliform bacteria and herbicide degradate detections than deeper wells. Wells that were constructed prior to 1991 had also had more detections. Other factors, including the construction characteristics of the wells and the presence of a liner, also were factors that could impact a well’s vulnerability to contamination.

Wells located in the northwest, southwest and south-central portions of the state were more likely to have detections of total coliform bacteria, E. coli and enterococci. In addition, wells located in the northwest and southwest regions were also more likely to have higher nitrate concentrations.

Perhaps alarmingly, the study is the state’s first systematic sampling of private wells since 1994. Although water quality in public water supplies is monitored and regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, private drinking water wells are not monitored under any regulatory framework. In addition, despite an estimated 450,000 Iowans using private wells for drinking water, statewide monitoring has been sporadic during the past two decades, often only following catastrophic events like the 1993 floods.

Because there is so little government monitoring and over-sight of contaminants, one of the best factors to determine the health of well water was monitoring, assessment and treatment by well owners themselves. And while some may point to Iowa’s agricultural industry as a potential culprit in the issue of groundwater contamination, Weyers warns that there are many other potential culprits.

“Agriculture is one of the sources — certainly if you are looking at herbicides and pesticides, and we found some herbicide breakdown products in the well water in this study. That is certainly an agricultural source,” he said. “For things like nitrate and bacteria, not only is nitrogen fertilizer use a problem, but it is also potentially septic systems or municipal wastewater systems. So it is sort of an urban-rural mix as to the source of these contaminants.”

Researchers recommend full use of Grants-to-Counties funds for annual testing of private wells for possible contaminants as well as a consumer education initiative to provide information on the sources of bacteria, factors impacting bacterial contamination of wells, possible health impacts of consumption of such water, and available well treatment options.

Because the tested samples revealed the presence of chloride, which typically is only detected in groundwater near deep saline brine, it was also recommended that the state investigate for possible surface activities (such as de-icing compounds and fertilizer salts) that could be impacting groundwater throughout Iowa.

In the meantime, what should private well owners do?

“We suggest that if you have bacteria or high arsenic [levels] that you don’t drink that water, that you do something to treat the water to effectively remove those contaminants,” Weyer said. “It is something the well owner needs to discuss with their doctor or someone like that to determine if that water is OK for them.”

The Waterloo South Quarry, used by the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University as a coal ash dump. (Photo courtesy of Plains Justice)

The announcement that the schools will conduct groundwater testing comes a little more than a month after publicly saying they were confident their disposal methods were safe.

The monitoring program, a response to concerns expressed by school administrators, will begin in January and will be paid for by all three schools.

“The utility folks at each school ultimately made the decision,” said Jeffrey Witt, assistant director of utilities at Iowa State University. “Primarily it was a decision to satisfy the curiosity and concerns of the administration.”

As The Iowa Independent has reported in recent months, the schools — Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa — are some of the biggest producers of coal ash in the state. All three dispose of their ash in a quarry in Waterloo that received a waiver from the Department of Natural Resources allowing it to accept ash without installing a protective liner and without conducting groundwater monitoring.

Environmentalists and students had been highly critical of the schools for using this disposal method. Because coal ash contains high concentrations of elements such as mercury, zinc, lead, arsenic and selenium, dumping it into a quarry with no liner could result in contaminants leaching out into groundwater supplies, they contend. And with no groundwater-monitoring program, there is no way of knowing whether that is already taking place.

The state began drafting stricter rules on coal ash disposal last year, but coal producers and disposal site owners – along with the University of Iowa — derailed the process. The state is now waiting for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to unveil new federal rules, something expected by the end of the year.

Those federal rules are also part of the schools’ motivation for beginning to test groundwater for contaminants.

“Basically, we know whatever new regulations come out are going to require groundwater monitoring at the very least,” Witt said. “So we figure we would just get a head start on that.”

Witt said the groundwater testing would follow standard procedures for a typical landfill, including monitoring wells both upstream and downstream from the quarry. The samples will be taken by the operator of the quarry, BMC Aggregates, and turned over to a certified lab for analysis.

The results of the testing would eventually be turned over to the state DNR after new regulations are passed. Until then, Witt expects the data to be kept from the public.

“Ultimately, the DNR will receive the data, once it becomes a requirement,” Witt said.

Iowa State University's coal plant, which produces 30,000 tons of ash every year, with 75 percent of that total going to the Waterloo quarry and the rest going to other uses such as cement manufacture, manufactured compost materials and soil stabilization applications. (photo by Jason Hancock/Iowa Independent)

The schools’ practice of dumping coal ash into an unlined, unmonitored quarry had garnered them a lot of criticism. Peter Taglia, a hydrogeologist with environmental watchdog Clean Wisconsin who worked for five years as a consultant for utilities, said last month that it was odd that institutions with “a mandate to serve the public” would engage in an activity other states have determined is dangerous enough to prohibit.

In Wisconsin, all coal ash disposal sites are mandated to have protective liners and conduct groundwater monitoring. Two-year’s data about groundwater quality and flow is required for any coal ash dump sites, with minimum quarterly samples in order to observe seasonal changes, Taglia said.

Lucie Laurian, an associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Iowa who has spent years studying the effects of toxic sites on local populations, said even if initial tests come back showing no contamination, the sites could still pose a huge public health risk.

“The ash is still sitting there,” she said. “Contamination might not show up for many years, and that’s the problem.”

ActivUs, a student environmental and social justice organization on the Iowa State campus, has been pressing the school’s administration for weeks to alter its coal ash disposal methods. Tyler Rygg, the group’s treasurer, said he was happy to hear that the “unlined, unmonitored” site will now just be “unlined.”

“It’s a step in the process of our school being more responsible,” he said. “At least now we can get some information.”

But the group will not stop pressing the school for an end to the practice. Leaders of the organization have a meeting Oct. 2 with ISU President Gregory Geoffroy. At that time, the students will discuss their long-term goal of phasing out the school’s coal ash plant altogether. In the short run, the students hope the school can begin the process of phasing out usage of the Waterloo dump site.

“We hope on that day we can get him to make a commitment to begin to do some real changes,” Rygg said. “We’ve found that 25 percent of the ash we produce goes to other uses. We’d like to see that number increase.”

Iowa State University’s coal plant produces 30,000 tons of ash every year, with 75 percent of that total going to the Waterloo quarry and the rest going to other uses such as cement manufacture, manufactured compost materials and soil stabilization applications.

Ben Alexander, 18, said that he failed his courses in Iowa City because he spent all of his time playing “World of Warcraft” via the Internet.

Alexander is a tall, quiet young man who always got good grades and hopes to become a biologist.

He started playing “World of Warcraft,” a hugely popular online multiplayer role playing game, about a year ago, and got sucked right in.

“At first it was a couple of hours a day,” he said. “By midway through the first semester, I was playing 16 or 17 hours a day.

“School wasn’t interesting,” he said. “It was an easy way to socialize and meet people.”

Internet addiction is not officially recognized as a disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and treatment through the new residential program in Washington is not covered by most insurance plans. There are, however, treatment centers in several Asian countries where the addiction is taken more seriously.

Alexander is the first and only patient at this U.S. facility, which claims it can provide cold turkey services to up to six patients at a time.

Student environmental activists held a rally Monday at Iowa State University hoping to persuade the school to alter its coal ash disposal method. The group plans to deliver petitions to ISU President Gregory Geoffroy this week. (photo by Jason Hancock/Iowa Independent)

ActivUS, a student environmental and social justice organization, held a rally Monday on the Ames campus of ISU to call on the school’s president, Gregory Geoffroy, to end the practice of disposing of coal ash an unlined, unmonitored quarry in Waterloo. The group’s president, Graham Jordison, said the plan is to deliver a petition to Geoffroy’s office this week demanding he meet with students on the issue.

“This is sort of our first step of the campaign to change the school’s policy,” Jordison said. “We find it ironic that Iowa State has this ‘Live Green’ motto and yet they are dumping ash in an unlined quarry.”

Coal ash, also known as fly ash, is the waste produced by burning coal. The ash contains much greater concentrations of elements such as mercury, zinc, lead, arsenic and selenium than the coal itself, and environmentalists fear that dumping it into unlined quarries may result in contamination of groundwater supplies.

A report released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this year found the cancer risk to be 1 in 2,000 from exposure to arsenic in drinking water for residents living near unlined landfills containing coal ash and coal refuse, which is 500 times the level usually regarded as safe by current federal regulations.

Because the Waterloo site received a waiver from the state allowing it to accept coal ash without following strict landfill standards, there is no monitoring conducted to ensure toxins are not leaching into groundwater. State regulators say they are waiting for the federal government to issue new rules governing coal ash disposal, despite admitting to The Iowa Independent that contamination could already be taking place.

Iowa State, along with the University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa, said earlier this summer that they planned to investigate any potential public health risks their disposal methods could create. However, after meeting with the owners of the quarry, BMC Aggregates, all three schools announced they were not going to make a change.

It should not surprise anyone that the site owners would say the disposal method is safe, Jordison said, nor should it surprise anyone that the announcement was made over the school’s summer vacation.

“It was probably intentional,” he said. “I do think they had their meeting during the summer because there were no students around to pick up on the information. They are getting their facts from a corporation that owns the quarry. Of course the owner of the facility is going to say there is no problem.”

Tyler Rygg, treasurer of ActivUs, said even if the state never toughens regulations, the university should still stop using an unlined quarry as a dump site.

“I want Iowa State to do more than the bare minimum,” he said. “I know that there are not regulations on this, but I’d like them to be a role model for the rest of Iowa. We need to be doing more than simply what is required of us. They ask students to do this every day, so we’re asking them to do it today.”

In addition to changing the schools disposal methods, Jordison said his organization would also call on President Geoffroy to speak out against the practice and encourage other schools to do the same. Geoffroy should also pressure state regulators to toughen the law rather than wait for the federal government to do so.

“We want to pressure [the school] to live up to its rhetoric,” he said. “We’re not afraid to step it up, get our activists together and do some non-violent actions. Whatever it takes to get the school to wake up and realize students want this to change.”

In July, the chair of the state’s Environmental Protection Commission and two key legislators called for hearings on Iowa’s rules governing coal ash. However, state Sen. Dennis Black, D-Grinnell, said the earliest he expects this to happen would be the summer of 2010.

A spokeswoman for Iowa State University said President Geoffroy has not yet been contacted by any student groups in regards to the coal ash issue.

The University of Iowa's coal power plant in Iowa City.

The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa are among the state’s biggest producers of coal ash, a toxic byproduct of coal combustion. All three schools dispose of their ash in an unlined, unmonitored former quarry in Waterloo that received a waiver from the state in 2002 allowing it to use the ash as fill in its reclamation process.

Because the site is unmonitored, its potential risks to public health are unknown. State regulators say they are waiting for the federal government to issue new rules governing coal ash disposal, despite admitting to The Iowa Independent that contamination could already be taking place. Environmentalists point to studies released this spring showing a much higher risk of toxins leaching into groundwater supplies than previously thought. They believe the state should take action in order to protect its citizens from any potential health risk.

Early this summer, all three of Iowa’s public universities vowed to investigate any possible health risks that could result from the disposal of their coal ash at the Waterloo quarry. In the end, the schools decided they would not alter their methods.

Holly Jones, a University of Iowa student and an organizer with the Sierra Club Student Coalition, said many students are not aware that this is happening at their school. Most don’t even know there is a coal plant sitting all three campuses.

“It’s so ironic that here we are attending a university that is supposed to be fostering learning and growth, and right on campus we have a coal plant that is detrimental to the student body’s health,” she said.

To remedy that, Jones said student organizers plan to work to raise student awareness of the issue and force the school’s administration to alter its coal ash disposal methods.

“The university can do better, and we have to challenge them to do so,” she said.

Pantelis Korovilas, an Iowa State University student who has been active in the environmental movement, said student organizations know the issue of coal ash well. While groups have previously only worked on their specific campus, coal ash could become one of the first issues tackled by a new statewide student organization formed in the spring.

Following the Iowa Earth Summit held at Drake University on March 28, student environmentalists formed the Iowa Sustainability Alliance, Iowa’s first statewide student environmental effort.

“This issue is bigger than just one campus,” Korovilas said. “So, the fact that a state network is getting underway right now, this is the perfect opportunity to tie something in across campuses and work on something at a statewide level.”

Initial efforts will focus on educating the student body on the issue and making them aware that, despite what each of the universities say about their commitment to the environment, the reality is they are some of the biggest polluters in the state, Jones said.

“The universities are always talking about sustainability and renewable energy,” she said. “But then you hear that how they dispose of coal ash doesn’t seem to be much of an issue to them, and that is really discouraging. This is something in the coming year that students will rally around.”

In addition to pushing each school’s administration, Korovilas said students might speak to the Board of Regents, the governing body for the state’s public universities. When contacted to discuss the coal ash issue, Sheila Doyle, the board’s spokeswoman, said it “would not be appropriate to comment at this time.”

Doyle did say that to the best of her knowledge, the universities’ method of coal ash disposal has never been brought before the board.

Coal ash, which contains high levels of toxins like arsenic, mercury and boron, is usually disposed of in dump sites mandated to follow strict landfill standards, including liners, groundwater monitoring and financial assurances that the site owner can clean up any contamination. The Waterloo quarry used by the universities, along with three other sites around the state, received waivers from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources allowing them to act as coal ash dumps without following those regulations.

Last year, the University of Iowa helped derail tougher regulations on coal ash, writing a letter to the DNR claiming that no evidence exists that “the current practice causes harm to human health or the environment.”

The main reason no evidence of contamination in Iowa exists is because there has been no monitoring for such contamination.

For their part, Jones said students would make coal ash disposal a priority in the fall, and push for the universities, which are mandated to serve the public, to stop engaging in a potentially dangerous practice.

“Iowa is such an amazing state as far as looking at quality of life for our citizens, so to think that something as serious as this is going on, especially at public universities, is strange,” she said. “It is definitely a surprise to me that this is something that has gone unnoticed for so long and has been swept under the rug like this.”

Iowa State University's coal power plant in Ames (photo by Jason Hancock/Iowa Independent).

At least one expert said he is baffled that institutions with “a mandate to serve the public” would engage in an activity other states have determined is dangerous enough to prohibit.

The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa are among the state’s biggest producers of coal ash, a toxic byproduct of coal combustion. All three schools dispose of their ash in an unlined, unmonitored former quarry in Waterloo that received a waiver from the state in 2002 allowing it to use the ash as fill in its reclamation process.

Last month, both the University of Iowa and Iowa State vowed to look into their dumping procedures to ensure they did not pose a threat to public health. Environmentalists argue that because the sites are not required to install protective liners, and because the state does not mandate groundwater monitoring, the chances that toxins like arsenic, mercury and boron could leach off the site and poison groundwater supplies is very high.

Officials with the DNR acknowledged to the Iowa Independent that contamination could already be occurring and the state would have no way of knowing, and a recent EPA report noted elevated cancer risks for those living near these types of dump sites.

Jeffrey Witt, assistant director of utilities at Iowa State, said all three universities spoke with the owner of the Waterloo quarry, BMC Aggregates (formerly Basic Materials Corp.) and determined from the visit that their coal ash disposal methods are safe.

“We talked at length with Basic Materials staff and reviewed operations at the quarry,” Witt said. “I am confident that our ash disposal methods are sound.”

Carrie Le Seur, president of the Cedar Rapids environmental law center Plains Justice, said the approach the universities have taken shows the problems caused by Iowa’s decision to allow the coal combustion waste industry to regulate itself.

“Who decides if disposal practices should be reviewed? The coal combustion waste industry,” she said. “Who reviews practices? The coal combustion waste industry. Who participates in meetings, contributes data, approves review protocols and reaches conclusions about sufficiency of data and analysis? The coal combustion waste industry.

Despite the fact that these are public universities, and that this deals with a potential threat to the public health, the process of deciding to continue using the quarry as a dump site was not subject to open records or meetings laws and the results of any inquiry are not publicized, Le Seur said.

“Do we have any way to verify anything claimed by the coal combustion waste industry? No,” she said.

The Waterloo quarry is one of four sites around Iowa that received a beneficial use waiver from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) allowing it to accept ash without following landfill standards. Witt said the site is safe because its “alkaline nature minimizes any potential for leaching.” He also said the staff ensured university representatives that periodic groundwater monitoring performed by BMC has never shown any evidence of leaching.

However, Witt could not say how often, if ever, groundwater testing was performed, nor could he discuss any geological characteristics of the site. Sherman Lundy, a geologist for BMC, did not respond to several requests for comment by the Iowa Independent.

Chad Stobbe, a senior environmental specialist and the Iowa DNR’s lead staffer on coal ash issues, said BMC has “made reference to testing” of groundwater in the past, but because beneficial use sites are not required to monitor for groundwater contamination, “it is uncertain whether the water sampling being conducted at BMC provides data sufficient to determine potential routes of contaminant migration via groundwater.”

Stobbe also said there has never been a soil or hydrogeologic investigation, so even basic information about the site, such as direction of groundwater flow, is not known.

The Waterloo South Quarry, one of four sites around the state where waivers were issued allowing coal ash disposal without abiding by landfill standards. Those using the site include the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. (Photo courtesy of Plains Justice)

Peter Taglia, a hydrogeologist with environmental watchdog Clean Wisconsin who worked for five years as a consultant for utilities, said he can’t believe the state allows sites to accept a toxic waste stream with so little geological information.

In an interview with the Iowa Independent last month, Taglia discussed how important groundwater monitoring is at coal ash dump sites, saying that even the most state-of-the-art facility runs the risk of toxins leaching out. If caught early, the risk to public health is low.

Unlined coal ash sites are not allowed in Wisconsin.

After hearing of the university’s determination that its methods pose no risk to public health, Taglia was surprised.

“Isn’t it imprudent of a public university to take these risks when its obvious that adjacent states have found the risks to be real and worthy of greater scrutiny?” he said, adding: “The argument from the university against [groundwater] monitoring is even more curious given that these organizations are publicly funded and have a mandate to serve the public.”

At a minimum, the university should put together a report documenting where the monitoring wells are located, what is known about the local geology and the direction of the groundwater flows in the area, Taglia said

The only geological data available to the public about the Waterloo quarry is a short letter filed with the DNR in 2002. It contains some information about the soil at the site and the quarry’s proximity to the underlying aquifer and any nearby residences.

Taglia reviewed the material for the Iowa Independent and said that, if accurate, the risk to groundwater supplies by disposing of ash in the Waterloo quarry is low. However, it is not zero.

“It’s still hard to tell if there is any danger to the public,” he said. “This information is useful but it boggles my mind that they haven’t put together a report with cross-sections, existing well information, etc., so that others can see the information.”

In Wisconsin, a big exporter of coal ash to Iowa due to the Hawkeye State’s lax regulations, two-year’s data about groundwater quality and flow is required for any coal ash dump sites, with minimum quarterly samples in order to observe seasonal changes. All this is reported to the state DNR, which oversees the entire process.

The cost for the initial installation of monitoring wells and preparing a monitoring plan would be high, probably in the six figures, Taglia said. But ongoing monitoring would be much less expensive, especially since there are specialized subcontractors that do nothing but monitoring well sampling and testing.

However, the costs of a contaminated well and the legal implications of doing nothing are also large, Taglia said.

A recent study by the Institute for Policy Integrity (IPI), a non-partisan think tank based in New York City, found the benefits of upgrading disposal sites would exceed the costs of tougher regulations by almost 10 to 1. And since beneficial use sites are not mandated to provide financial assurances that they can pay for possible contamination, the cost any clean up could eventually be passed on to taxpayers.

In other states where groundwater has been contaminated, sites have been excavated and bottled water was trucked in because wells were poisoned and undrinkable. In July 2007, the EPA had confirmed 24 cases in 13 states where coal ash has compromised water quality.

Le Seur said because no state agency is involved, the public is completely shut out of a process that could have a major effect on their health.

“Does this sound like the way Iowans want their drinking water protected?” she said. “Probably not, but because there is no way for the public to be involved, Iowans don’t even know this is going on.”

Iowa State University's coal power plant in Ames.

The school disposes of its coal ash in the Waterloo South Quarry, one of four unlined, unmonitored dump sites around Iowa that have received a waiver from the state allowing it to accept coal ash as fill. In other states, these types of dumps have posed huge public health problems due to toxins like arsenic, mercury and boron leaching into groundwater.

Jeffrey Witt, assistant director of utilities for Iowa State University, said since new information has come to light, “it was time to touch base again” with the owners of the quarry, Basic Materials Corp. Witt is referring to a 2002 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released last month showing a cancer risk higher than usually regarded as safe by current federal regulations for residents living near unlined landfills containing coal ash and coal refuse.

The University of Iowa, which also disposes of its coal ash in the Waterloo quarry and helped derail tougher state regulations last year, said it was exploring alternative disposal sites due to the new information.

“We have not seen the EPA report, but we have seen the summary from the two environmental groups that released it,” Witt said. “All I can tell you right now is I’m not familiar with all the data. These regulations are in the process of being reviewed at this time, and if the EPA and [Iowa Department of Natural Resources] determine we need to do something different, certainly we will do so.”

Witt said he wants to discuss the EPA report with Basic Materials and ensure the school is not contributing to any public health risk.

As the Iowa Independent reported in March, the state DNR was in the middle of drafting stricter rules on coal ash disposal when pressure from disposal-site owners and coal ash producers stalled the effort. When the EPA announced it was looking into federal regulations, the DNR abandoned the rulemaking process.

Iowa State is in the third year of a five-year contract with the Waterloo quarry owners. Previously, the school dumped its coal ash in the Violet M. Meier Gravel Pit in nearby Boone, but that site had its waiver revoked due to issues with coal dust.

The school produces 30,000 tons of coal ash per year and spent approximately $725,000 for disposal in 2008. In a letter to the DNR, the University of Iowa estimated disposal costs could more than double if the state mandated that sites install liners and groundwater monitoring equipment. Witt said the cost of disposal would surely increase if tougher regulations were instituted, but he does not know how drastic those increases would be.

After his meeting later this month with Basic Materials Corp., and after fully reviewing the EPA report, if it is determined there is a problem with how the school disposes of ash, Witt said his department will prepare a risk assessment for Iowa State administration weighing “the ramifications of not doing anything different compared to the ramifications of changing.”

“But right now, we are in complete compliance with state rules regulating coal ash disposal,” he said.

“The chemistry of the soil and the fact that it is a limestone quarry greatly reduces the possibility of leaching. I’m confident what we are doing is safe, but if that changes or regulations change, Iowa State will change as well.”

Following an Iowa Independent story discussing the school’s method of disposing of coal ash in an unlined, unmonitored quarry in Waterloo, university spokesman Steve Parrott said the school is in compliance with current Department of Natural Resources requirements. But a newly released report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that found higher public health risks associated with coal ash disposal than previously known could cause the school to alter its approach, he said.

“Our environmental specialists are reviewing the recently disclosed reports to which you refer and intend to study the results carefully,” Parrott said in a statement. “Protecting Iowans and Iowa’s environment is important to the university, and we are exploring alternative disposal sites.”

Parrott said the school is in the first year of its second five-year contract with a company that hauls the ash produced by the university’s solid fuel boilers to the Waterloo South Quarry for use as fill. The DNR issued a beneficial use waiver to the owners of the site, Basic Materials Corp., in 2008 allowing them to begin accepting coal ash, the waste produced by burning coal.

The school combines coal with biomass — oat hulls from the Cedar Rapids-based Quaker Oats plant — which ultimately reduces the amount of coal that is burned.

“Please note that our aggressive use of biomass fuel has resulted in decreasing the amount of coal ash needing disposal in each of the last five years,” Parrott said.

The University of Iowa's power plant in Iowa City.

The new rules would have required former quarries and mines that accept coal ash as fill in the name of reclaiming the sites to install groundwater monitoring equipment and protective lining to help ensure toxins don’t leach into the soil. Disposal-site owners and coal-ash producers were outraged, saying no evidence existed to prove that disposing of coal ash at these sites posed a risk to public health.

One of the biggest critics of the new regulations was the University of Iowa, which along with the University of Northern Iowa and Iowa State University dispose of coal ash in the Basic Materials Quarry in Waterloo.

In a letter to the DNR, University of Iowa Environmental Compliance Manager Michael Valde said its costs for disposing of coal ash could increase substantially if the rules were changed, adding that no action should be taken unless there is a proven risk to public health.

“We are not aware of evidence that the current practice causes harm to human health or the environment, and the [DNR] has not cited studies or instances of such an adverse effect,” Valde said in his letter.

Environmentalists, who have been working for years to tighten Iowa’s lax dumping laws, are highly critical of this argument, pointing out that the reason no evidence of contamination in Iowa exists is because there has been no monitoring for such contamination. In other states, toxins such as arsenic, mercury and boron have leached out of unlined sites and poisoned groundwater supplies.

Even Chad Stobbe, the DNR’s lead staffer on coal ash issues, acknowledged to the Iowa Independent in March that because there is no data available, he can’t say for sure there isn’t already a problem.

However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month released a 2002 study that had been kept secret by the Bush administration that found a heightened cancer risk for residents living near unlined landfills containing coal ash and coal refuse. The risk, the EPA found, was 500 times the level usually regarded as safe by current federal regulations.

Carrie La Seur, president and founder of Plains Justice, a Cedar Rapids-based public interest environmental law center, said now that the full danger of this type of coal ash disposal is known, the state’s regent schools should stop the dangerous dumping practice.

“I would hope and expect that as the universities and their environmental compliance staff become more aware of the EPA assessment and how there is good information on the public health danger that they will modify their position,” La Seur said. “When [Valde] wrote his letter, he could have honestly been unaware of how toxic the waste stream is. Now it is fully documented.”

Valde directed all questions to the University of Iowa Relations Office. University spokeman Steve Parrott and Director of University News Services Steve Pradarelli did not respond to multiple requests by the Iowa Independent seeking comment.

Kate Guess, director of public relations at the University of Northern Iowa, said the school adheres to the guidelines set forth by the state, and then directed all questions to the DNR.

In response to the Iowa Independent, Annette Hacker, director of News Service at Iowa State University, provided a power plant ash disposal summary prepared in January. It stated that Iowa State generates approximately 30,000 tons of coal ash per year, with 75 percent of that total going to the Waterloo quarry and the rest going to other uses such as cement manufacture, manufactured compost materials and soil stabilization applications.

The summary also states that quarry is an “alkaline environment,” which means “metals in the ash cannot chemically migrate to the groundwater.”

“Iowa State utility staff is very comfortable that the current disposal location is meeting and/or exceeding all current DNR requirements,” the summary said. “Basic Materials works well with the DNR staff and readily share information with the DNR or Iowa State. In our discussions with Basic Materials staff, they are very much in tune with the regulations and the reasons ash disposal at their site poses minimal risks to the environment.”

La Seur said the validity of the argument that the quarry is safe because it is an “alkaline environment” can be argued endlessly.

“But that argument is irrelevant and a waste of time,” she said. “There needs to be consistent standards for monitoring and building these sites regardless of where they are or the components of the coal ash that goes into them.”

Currently, the DNR has suspended its process of revisiting rules on coal-ash dumping, because the EPA has pledged to begin regulating coal ash federally. However, La Seur said there are still steps that need to be taken at the state level to ensure Iowans are protected in the meantime.

“There’s not a huge amount of debate about how we build, monitor and financially guarantee these sites in a way that protects public health and the taxpayer,” she said. “The argument has primarily been about cost. I’m hopeful we’re getting to the point where we realize that the cost associated with the contamination risk we’re creating is a whole lot more than the cost of just doing it right.”

The Register could not confirm the FBI informant’s identity, but the paper quotes activists who say that they believe it was a man named “Jason.” I can confirm now that the man suspected by activists of informing to the FBI is Jason Munford, who gave a fairly sincere-sounding presentation early last year at the University of Iowa about becoming a conscientious objector.

The Iowa Independent’s Adam Burke interviewed Munford on camera at the time:

In January of this year, Munford contacted the Iowa Independent via a YouTube message. Citing threats that he considered serious, he asked us to take down the video. (We declined.) Munford also firmly denied the allegations that he was an FBI informant:

A few months ago, I was falsely accused of giving sensitive information from an anarchist group to the FBI, that resulted in charges against members. Because of the threats I received and such due to those claims, I’ve been forced to move and I’m changing my name and taking other steps to protect myself. In the comments on the video from my talk, a lot of people have reconnected the claims against me to a video record of my appearance.

In the Register’s story, activists say that Munford admitted to them that he had informed to the FBI — a fact that the paper could not confirm. Here’s the relevant reporting from that story:

Political activists [Robert "Ajax"] Ehl and [David] Goodner said they believe they know the identity of the FBI informant who spied on the Iowa City protesters.

They say it was a young man from Michigan named “Jason” who claimed he was a U.S. military conscientious objector. He told people he had been discharged from the Air Force after he objected to being deployed to Iraq.

The man hung out with Iowa City activists for months, sharing beers and meals with them while expressing solidarity with their political beliefs.

Goodner and Ehl said “Jason” later admitted that he provided information to the FBI in exchange for money.

“It is my understanding that he just took money because he was unemployed,” Ehl said.

Looking back, the surveillance in Iowa City may have begun as early as the fall of 2007, Goodner said. He and three others from Iowa City traveled to St. Paul for a meeting with the RNC Welcoming Committee. A few weeks later, “Jason” started coming to their meetings in Iowa City.

If Munford was an informant, it remains unclear whether information he provided led to arrests or disrupted protests. The Iowa City activists told the Register that only one member of their group had been arrested in connection with protests in St. Paul, and that the charges against that person were subsequently dropped.