It’s been more than a year since Iowa regulators decided to abandon their efforts to strengthen rules governing the disposal of coal ash, the toxic byproduct of coal combustion. Their reasoning at the time was that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was going to release federal rules later in the year. Better to wait, officials said, than waste time on state regulations that would be trumped when nationwide standards were instituted.

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 EPA promised rules by December 2009, a deadline that has come and gone. Wayne Gieselman, division administrator with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said the EPA’s goal then shifted to releasing draft rules by the end of February. Now, a tentative deadline has been set for April.

In the meantime, environmental watchdogs and the Wall Street Journal have pointed out that the White House has held an unprecedented number of meetings with coal industry groups since October to discuss whether the EPA should classify coal ash as a hazardous waste. It is unheard of, the groups say, for the White House to get so involved in the process before draft rules are released to the public for hearings and comment, and is an unsettling sign that the EPA may once again take a pass on tough coal ash rules.

State Sen. Dennis Black, who chairs the the Senate Environment and Energy Independence Committee, said he’s attempted numerous times to get clarity from the EPA on their timeline and on what sort of scope the rules may have. He wrote a letter in November and has attempted calling the agency several times. He has received no response to his inquiries.

When contacted by The Iowa Independent, Tisha Petteway, press officer for the EPA, referred to her agency’s December press release announcing an indefinite delay in coal ash rules.

The delays and secrecy surrounding the federal government’s efforts to regulate coal ash disposal has renewed calls for state action. Carrie Le Seur, president of Cedar Rapids-based environmental law center Plains Justice, said it is imperative that Iowa begin the process of toughening regulations on ash disposal.

“In response to intense industry pressure, the EPA is now continuing to delay a rulemaking it has already delayed for 30 years,” she said “Iowa has a responsibility for public health and safety that it can’t delegate to EPA under these circumstances. Iowa must act.”

Unlined, unmonitored disposal sites

Coal ash contains much greater concentrations of elements such as mercury, zinc, lead, arsenic and selenium than the coal itself. The by-product is also believed to be radioactive. Exposure to these toxins can lead to cancer, birth defects and reproductive problems.

Despite the well-documented dangers of coal ash, the EPA does not regulate its disposal, leaving each state to set its own rules. In Iowa, four disposal sites received a waiver from the state allowing them to accept ash without installing protective liners and without mandatory groundwater monitoring. Environmentalists fear the lack of oversight and protective measures could lead to dangerous toxins leaching off the site and into local groundwater supplies, something that has been documented in states that mandate monitoring. The DNR’s lead staffer on coal ash issues acknowledged to The Iowa Independent that contamination might already be taking place but without monitoring there is no way of knowing.

In its 2007 report, Plains Justice showed that there is evidence that even at properly lined dump sites there is an increasing level of contaminants escaping, making the likelihood that leaching is taking place in unlined sites even larger. Peter Taglia, a hydrogeologist with environmental watchdog Clean Wisconsin who worked for five years as a consultant for utilities, said he’s seen leaching into groundwater at even the most state-of-the-art disposal sites.

An EPA report released last 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.

The push for tougher regulations got a boost last September when the state’s three largest public universities announced they would bow to mounting pressure and begin testing groundwater at the disposal site they shared — a quarry in Waterloo. Jeffrey Witt, assistant director of utilities at Iowa State University, said at the time that “we know whatever new [federal] regulations come out are going to require groundwater monitoring at the very least. So we figure we would just get a head start on that.”

Many are pointing to the university’s answer and wondering why the state can’t go down a similar path and at the very least mandate that groundwater must be monitored at the three remaining sites — quarries in Goose Lake and Waterloo and a mine in Buffalo — to ensure toxins are not leaching out of the site.

Federal delays

The DNR’s Gieselman said the requirements and the extent of groundwater monitoring is dependent on any decisions that EPA may make as to whether the ash falls under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s Subtitle D, which would regulate coal ash at the federal level as a solid waste, or Subtitle C, which would designate coal ash as hazardous waste.

Iowa’s DNR has come out in support of Subtitle D, saying it would force the state’s most potentially hazardous sites to install protective liners, test groundwater for contamination, and provide financial assurances and corrective action provisions, among other provisions. Environmentalists say under this method the EPA couldn’t inspect disposal sites or require permits, and public involvement would be limited. They also contend states may not be able to regulate the sites as well as the federal government due to lack of resources.

“It is hard for DNR to do its job without appropriate funding for monitors and other staff,” said Donna Wong-Gibbons, a public health specialist with Plains Justice. “It is an unfortunate side effect that many state agencies are facing — limited or inadequate funding to do work that is critical to protecting the lives and health of Iowa citizens, and its an issue that I wouldn’t presume to have answers to.”

The long process

If the state wanted to regulate coal ash, tougher rules couldn’t happen overnight, Gieselman said.

“The fastest we can do it is six months because of legal requirements for public comments; the department responding to comments; public hearings; EPC meetings; and Legislative review of the rules,” he said.

Since it appears the EPA is having its own problems figuring out whether coal ash should be considered a hazardous waste, “it’s fairly apparent that there is not universal agreement as to how this should be classified.”

But it has already been more than a year since the state’s efforts were abandoned, and many national environmental groups are not sure regulations will be coming any time soon from the EPA.

Wong-Gibbons said she understands the arguments DNR is making about the perils of moving forward on coal ash regulations before federal action. But her stance remains the same.

“Iowa should not be waiting on EPA to provide guidance before taking steps to protect the health of Iowans,” she said.

Black, a Democratic state senator from Newton, said he isn’t surprised by the lack of openness in regards to the EPA’s rules, calling it “almost typical.” He said it wouldn’t be prudent to move forward until the state has some idea of what the EPA’s rules will look like, and he continues to be unable to get any response from federal regulators.

“It’s paramount that we know what the EPA’s intentions are,” he said. “I’ve been contacted by several Iowans who are trying to figure out what regulations are going to look like. I can’t give them any answers because I can’t get any myself from the EPA.”

Creative Commons photo by jimmywayne via Flick

The bills — Senate File 2219 and House File 2281 — are identical, and both have been approved by their respective legislative committees. Although the House bill passed on a party-line vote, the Senate version has one Republican supporter, Sen. Merlin Bartz of Grafton.

Bartz did not respond to a request for comment concerning his vote. The House version is now ready for full floor debate while the Senate bill has been referred to appropriations.

If passed as currently written, the legislation would expand Medicaid coverage for family planning services to women who meet the income guidelines and who have insurance that does not cover such services. For the first time, men meeting existing income guidelines would also be eligible for family planning services, and income guidelines for all services would be increased to 300 percent of the poverty level. While the existing program arbitrarily cuts off services for women over the age of 44, the new legislation would keep women on the program up to the age of 54.

“The bottom line, from our perspective, is that this is a bill that helps patients,” said Kyle Carlson, staff attorney for Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. “This is a bill that includes a lot of people who are currently excluded from receiving services. For instance, women who have insurance, but are under-insured. Women who are 44, but can still become pregnant. And, of course, men. Why are we excluding men from access to family planning services? That’s what the current program does. We are trying to stop cutting people out [from services], who shouldn’t be cut out.”

To date the only opposition declaration made by a lobbyist against the bill has come from Tom Chapman, representing the Iowa Catholic Conference. Lobbyists for the Family Planning Council of Iowa, Planned Parenthood, Iowa/Nebraska Primary Care Association, AARP Iowa, the March of Dimes and the Iowa Department of Human Rights have all signaled their approval.

The measure received a boost earlier this month when researchers at the University of Iowa’s Public Policy Center and the University of Northern Iowa released a study showing the cost of unintended pregnancy in the state. The researchers — Dr. Belinda Udeh, Dr. Mary Losch and graduate student Erica Spies — determined that publicly funded family planning services are cost-effective for women who would use Medicaid and other public assistance programs if they became pregnant and gave birth. Using data from women being served by Iowa’s publicly funded family planning clinics during 2009, the study reported a weighted average of $3.78 saved for every $1 spent on family planning services in the first year for women newly eligible for assistance, and $15.12 when the savings are forecast for five years.

The savings are even more significant given that funds used by the Iowa Family Planning Network (IFPN) are assigned via a waiver request to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and carry a 90-10 federal match. That means that for every $1 invested into the program by the state, the federal government kicks in $9. If the state puts in $1 million, the federal government contributes $9 million, making the total investment $10 million.

Using the study’s weighted average, that $10 million could then be translated to a total cost savings of$37.8 million in the first year alone.

“This is not just a little cost-savings initiative,” Carlson explained. “This is a major cost-savings initiative.”

In its fiscal review of the bill, the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency estimated that an additional 35,491 women would be eligible, and that roughly 75 percent of those eligible would use the services during the first two years. The additional cost to the state’s general fund would be $332,000 in fiscal year 2011, and $901,000 in fiscal year 2012 — both well below the estimated cost savings.

“According to the Congressional Budget Office, providing family planning services to women between the age of 15 to 44 with incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty level saves more than the program costs,” wrote analyst Jess Benson. “It is difficult to quantify what the savings will be by expanding age and financial eligibility requirements, but if there are fewer unintended pregnancies there will be some cost avoidance in the future considering Medicaid currently covers pregnant women and infants up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.”

According to The Iowa Initiative, a program that aims to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies among Iowa women ages 18 to 30, roughly half of all pregnancies in Iowa are unintended.

“Approximately one-half of the 52,000 women who will become pregnant in Iowa this year will become pregnant unintentionally,” said Christie Vilsack, executive director of the Iowa Initiative. “Helping low-income or uninsured women to avoid unintended pregnancy can save taxpayers thousands of dollars in health care costs, food assistance and child care assistance for women, infants and children.”

Vilsack notes that more than 170,000 Iowa women and teenage girls qualify for publicly funding contraceptive services. However, only 41 percent of them are served by family planning clinics. The Guttmacher Institute estimates the 72 clinics operating in 49 Iowa counties help women avoid as many as 16,000 unintended pregnancies annually. Yet the state ranks 48th nationally in the availability of family planning services. Patients who qualify for services under IFPN are free to access services from any Iowa provider that accepts Medicaid funding.

Federal law mandates that taxpayer funds, which include Medicaid assistance, cannot be use for abortion services.

The coal plant at Iowa State University, which disposes of its coal ash in an unlined quarry in Waterloo (photo by Jason Hancock/Iowa Independent).

Iowa State University, the University of Iowa and Northern Iowa University are three of the state’s biggest producers of coal ash, the toxic byproduct of burning coal. All three dispose of their ash in a quarry in Waterloo that received a waiver from the state allowing it to accept ash without abiding by landfill requirements, which include protective liners and groundwater monitoring.

Environmental watchdogs and students were 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. 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 in late 2008, 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 that was expected by the end 2009 but was delayed indefinitely in December.

For nearly a year, all three schools publicly declared their confidence in the safety of the disposal method. But in September, after repeated media inquiries and pressure from students and school administration, the school’s utility departments reversed course and pledged to pool their resources to pay for groundwater testing at the quarry, which is owned by BMC Aggregates.

Jeffrey Witt, assistant director of utilities at Iowa State University, said weather has delayed the process slightly, as crews could not drill the monitoring wells in extreme cold weather. But the wells are expected to be completed this week and testing will begin immediately.

“This statistical analysis must be run over a series of samples that take into account the seasonal variations in the groundwater,” Witt said. “We are meeting with an engineering firm [this] week that does these statistical analyses for several municipal landfills around the state. We are beginning the sampling program but will not have enough data to accurately run the statistics for approximately one year.”

A testing well already exists upstream from the quarry, Witt said, and the schools have used that well since December to gather background data. Four wells will be dug downstream to complete the process. The actual testing will be done by a certified independent lab that is not affiliated with the schools or the disposal site owners.

Peter Taglia, a hydrogeologist with environmental watchdog Clean Wisconsin who worked for five years as a consultant for utilities, said it appears the schools’ monitoring program is a good first step and will go a long way to determine whether a problem exists.

“They could do better, but this is a good start,” he said.

The benefit of the testing program is that if a problem is discovered someone will have to address it.

“If they find toxins at high levels in the groundwater, they can’t simply sweep it under the rug,” Taglia said. “Any problems they discover will have to be taken care of, or at least explained.”

The testing could also help answer other questions about the site, Taglia said. Currently, because the site owners received a state waiver, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has never mandated a soil or hydrogeologic investigation, so even basic information about the site — such as direction of groundwater flow — is not known.

While testing is considered a positive first step, problems with the regulation of coal ash in Iowa still exist. 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, told The Iowa Independent last year that 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.”

The possible impacts on the surrounding communities go beyond health risks, Laurian said.

There are currently three other sites in Iowa that received similar waivers allowing them to accept ash without liners or groundwater monitoring – quarries in Goose Lake and Cedar Rapids and a mine in Buffalo.

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.

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.”

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.”

Geoffroy approved a "volunteer life skills" position for the department to provide faith-based counseling and referrals to athletes but warned that the adviser would be watched closely.

"In carrying out the volunteer work associated with this position, there must be no indication that the university, as a public body, is perceived to be promoting or giving preference to one religious faith or viewpoint over any others or promoting religion over non-religion," Geoffroy said in a memo to Jamie Pollard, Iowa State athletic director.

Geoffroy also incorporated guidelines requiring that no state, university, foundation or athletic department money be spent on the position.

Iowa Independent has been following the story and found that neither of Iowa's other two public universities–University of Iowa and University of Northern Iowa–plans on following suit.

William David, a music professor at ISU and a leader of faculty opposed to the proposal, initially expressed disapproval.  "Essentially, what has been approved today didn't change anything from the original proposal made by [athletic director] Jamie Pollard," he told the Register. "I don't think it is a compromise at all."

But later in the day, David changed his mind, the Register reported: "After reviewing President Geoffroy’s statement more closely, I am a lot more encouraged that he listened to all sides of this issue and made a sincere effort to make sure that this very important and critical issue was addressed appropriately.

The reasons behind David's change of heart remain somewhat unclear, though he may have been comforted by the guidelines' requirement that the adviser be subject to an annual evaluation to guard against inappropriate activity. "Many interested parties will be watching and carefully examining the activities of the person filling the position," Geoffroy said.

Iowa Independent sat down with Bill Menner, executive director of Poweshiek I-80, a nonprofit organization that promotes economic development in Poweshiek County and the neighboring region. He emphasized the need for rural entrepreneurship, downplayed the "brain drain"and encouraged presidential candidates to find their voice on issues of economic development.

Poweshiek I-80, or Pow I-80, celebrates its third anniversary next month (Poweshiek County, halfway between Des Moines and Iowa City, is located on Interstate 80, thus the name). Menner, who helped found the organization, said that Pow I-80 developed out of several existing economic and community development organizations. “There was a broad consensus that there needed to be streamlining” between Grinnell Tourism; Grinnell Renaissance, a community development organization; and Poweshiek Area Development, a county organization. “We wanted to try to get as many of the organizations under one umbrella," he said.

Though development sometimes has broad definitions, it basically means “helping an area grow,” Menner said. This includes expanding an area’s population to build the work force, increasing the wealth of a community by raising the incomes of all residents, increasing the number of jobs available (Poweshiek County has only 2 percent to 3 percent unemployment, he said.), helping new businesses succeed, and simply building a better quality of life for members of the community.

One of Pow I-80's main goals is to encourage new businesses that are connected to the community. “Businesses actually last longer and stay longer [if] they have roots in the community,” he said. “It’s more effective than pursuing that big Saturn plant.” He noted that the recently closed Maytag plant in Newton was originally a “homegrown company” but after it became a multinational company and was purchased by a stranger, "Well, the rest is history.”

Pow I-80 is “the first point of contact for people considering business” in the area, Menner said. He credited the organization with recruiting FiberWorks, a fairly new quilt-and-fabric store, to come to the city of Grinnell. Pow I-80 also helped KLR Manufacturers grow from a garage to a 20,000-square-foot facility, he said.

Poweshiek I-80 also works closely with the University of Northern Iowa-sponsored MyEntreNet, which, according to its website is "a rural based business accelerator program which creates community-based support networks for entrepreneurship, provides startup and existing companies with advanced technical assistance and training, and connects entrepreneurs and resources in rural regions nationwide through technology." “It’s a great online resource center,” so that “rural Iowans don’t need to travel for creating a network within the county,” Menner said. “Rural people are really under-served[and] we provide a lot of resources to those people right here.”

Discussions of economic development usually include the “brain drain,” the fact that many young Iowans leave the state after getting an education. But Menner said he thought that young Iowans would return later in life. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do to a 22-year-old to make them stay in Iowa,” he said. “Frankly, I don’t think it’s a bad idea for them to go out and experience life out there.” But when they get older, there is a good chance they will return, he said. “[Iowa] is a great place to live, a great place to raise a family,” he said, noting that with inexpensive housing prices, safe streets and a clean environment, ex-Iowans could be lulled back. “We would like to see more high-tech business that might keep some students after graduating,” he said. “But we can’t compete with the Austins, the Bostons.”

Pow I-80 intends to play a role in the presidential race, if a small one. Menner said that the organization had promoted the county to all the presidential candidates and mailed them a list of issues and potential businesses to visit when making their cases. The issue of Medicare reimbursement rates are an important one for Poweshiek County residents, he said. Iowa ranks last in the nation, and Grinnell is the sixth-lowest city in the state, for getting reimbursed.  The cities of Grinnell, Brooklyn, and Montezuma pay $1.50 per capita for Medicare, Menner said, which is higher than many other places. The perhaps unlikely problem is that they are "way too efficient," Menner said.

He hopes to make candidates aware of the issue. “If you’re Hillary Clinton, your state gets very high reimbursement rates,” he said. “We hope to raise their awareness and maybe elicit some promises.” Pow I-80, a 501(c)organization, can't make  endorsements, but Menner said that he hoped the candidates would address the issues important to Poweshiek County citizens, such as rural entrepreneurship, trails, health care, and quality of life. “We want to have them listen to what our residents are talking about,” he said.