Question About Coal Ashes?

I have been burning nut coal for some years now and love it. Each fall I dig a large hole on the edge of my property where I bury the ashes removed from the stove all winter long. In the spring I cover the hole with dirt and grass grows over it.

A relative who happens to live in California and is over the top with green energy, absolutely down on coal and just about any other fossil fuels, is here visiting now. He tells me that the ashes from my coal stove are extremely toxic, laced with numerous heavy metals and my practice of burying the ashes will eventually seep into my well and contaminate it. My well is a good 150 feet away from the ash pits I dig.

I don't normally listen to anything stated by the Greenies among us so I figured this might be a worthy discussion and I want to ask how others deal with their ashes.

Are the ashes really that toxic?

Will my practice of burying the ashes really allow bad things to seep in to my well that is 150 feet away and 180 feet deep?

OR,

Could it be my relative is just smoking too much medicine and full of false information?

What say you?

Gary L

Coal ash is toxic in that you shouldn't mix it into your salad and eat it....but unless you have a veritable TON of coal ash and you're dumping it directly into your aqualifer, the risk is minute at best.

http://blog.pennlive.com/gardening/2010/11/coal_a ... arden.html

http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/ch01/final/c01s02.pdf (good reference for anthracite coal ash composition)

There is a huge difference between your stove ash and fly ash from a coal power plant (and that is what your relative is probably thinking of when he's talking about contamination). Fly ash is bad and you wouldn't want your water supply contaminated by it. And bituminous coal is far worse than anthracite...bituminous being what powerplants use as anthracite costs far too much for industrial use (outside of maybe some blacksmithing operations and that's more small-scale industry than real industry anymore).

Others will chip in with far more insight but you probably have nothing to worry about...things to actually be careful of:

Handling your ash with your bare hands...wear gloves to avoid that sort of contact with it.
Breathing in coal dust...never dump your ash pan in your house for example and make sure you have a lid for your ash bucket so the dust settles...those tiny particulates are bad for your lungs.

I would say the same about wood ash though...FWIW.

When you visit him in California, tell him you think it's a little dry.
If they buried coal ash, it would make it rain like here in Pennsylvania.

... it sounds like he has coal envy as well...

This has been covered in other threads. The contaminants in coal and coal ash are about the same as what you would find in natural soil, which is not surprising, since that's where the coal has been sitting for millions of years. You wouldn't want a pond of coal ash to flood your house, but it has nothing to do with heavy metals, etc. If anyone is worried about heavy metal contamination, there are inexpensive tests for that, and they will show that you should be worrying about PT lumber, lead paint, the aftermath of leaded gasoline, etc.

Mike

I brought up coal to a co worker and he asked me if I worried about me and my family getting black lung disease... Just thought Id throw that into the pot...

The science is settled; everyone who has ever burned coal or handled coal ash will certainly die.

Thank your relative for his concern and smile and be nice but plan your next vacation for the next time he ventures east.

A modern well is drilled through rock and a sealed casing placed from ground level to the rock. You do not want surface water getting into your well. Cloudy well water after a significant rain = trouble.

You could just as well throw the ash out with the trash since it is buried in a lined dump area to prevent any contamination with ground water. That should make your 'green with envy' relative happy. Well, NOTHING makes the kooks happy!

Lightning wrote:I brought up coal to a co worker and he asked me if I worried about me and my family getting black lung disease... Just thought Id throw that into the pot...

Friends that visit during the heating season have said,"I thought you burned coal? I don' see any smoke coming out of your chimney!"...it's not like London in Mary Poppins!
Thank god for ignorant people, more coal for me.

Indeed MA

Thank you all for the insight and just as I had expected, he needs to stay on the Left Coast. Coal Envy, LOL

Living here and just over the border from NE PA I have been around coal as a residential heat source my entire life. My tiny Russo stove burns a little more than a ton of coal every season and I would guess the amount of ash I bury is close to about a 55 gallon drum each year. As a child my dad used to spread it on the stone/pebble drive way all winter long and claimed it helped keep the stones glued together because the ash got packed down between them. I would think that a black topped drive way has every bit as much environmental impact as my coal ash.

Gary L

Danger! Beware!!

Tell your friend that every CFL bulb that burns out potentially exposes him/her to far more mercury than coal ever will. There are virtually hazmat level disposal procedures for CFL bulbs, while coal for residential use isn't even (to my knowledge at least) regulated by the EPA.

lsayre wrote:Tell your friend that every CFL bulb that burns out potentially exposes him/her to far more mercury than coal ever will. There are virtually hazmat level disposal procedures for CFL bulbs, while coal for residential use isn't even (to my knowledge at least) regulated by the EPA.

I would say that is accurate for anthracite coal but for bituminous and sub-bituminous out of a power plant...not so much.

Do you have an authoritative source for that?

Mike