Researchers have found heavy metals leaking from unlined coal ash ponds near 21 power plants in five US states: Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina.
High levels of heavy metals, including arsenic and selenium, were found in surface waters or groundwater at all of the sites tested. Concentrations of trace elements in 29 percent of the surface water samples exceeded EPA standards for drinking water and aquatic life.
“In all the investigated sites, we saw evidence of leaking,” says Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry and water quality in Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “Some of the impacted water had high levels of contaminants.”
Credit: Duke University
