Is Coal Ash Safe to Discard on Your Property?

I am curious about the coal ask. The fly ash is silky smooth like flour but the ash coming off my stoker grates is more like granola and when I put that in the garden is is very sharp like little shards of glass and rough on the hands when digging around in the flower beds

Never just spread it as cover. Always tilled/turned the soil. Mine is pretty much always pretty silky smooth, a minimal amount of unburned.

So, after reading this thread and doing some Google-fu, I put together a screen with scraps from the shop. Sifting the ash and chunks and putting the ash in the compost area and spreading the "clinkers" and chunks around the house and shed foundation. There has not been too many chunks, so that process should take a while
(Hint - I learned a valuable lessons many years ago - stand up wind when doing something like this )

Get it of your property and in the trash so that the toxins are concentrated and the area is identified for sake of future generations. The stuff is not healthy. use as anti skid might be OK as other methods are toxic as well. Do your research and benefits analyses. Enough articles show reason for concern about heavy metals and health / water related problems. Mercury, lead, arsenicum, chromium.
That it is used as soil enhancer / clay breaker/ does not mean it is healthy for consumption. A reference as the tomato is twice the size is irrelevant about the healthy components in that tomato. That ash is used as filler or base in other products is more a matter of how do I get rid of something bad and make a buck on the side. Typical short term economics. Lead paint is another nice example of not being able to think ahead in time for financial gain right now. That is what it is all about. Coal is still cheaper then anything else as long as we do not think about the extended cost down the road for out children. Insulate today and save everyday after. Use as little as possible and turn the thermostat down.

The concentrations of heavy metals in coal and coal ash are of the same order of magnitude as those in common soil. This isn't a surprise if you think about how coal is formed.

It is reasonable to be careful of heavy metals in a vegetable garden, but if present they are virtually certain to be the result of things like leaded gasoline, lead-based paints and pressure-treated lumber. Even the EPA, with its pretty blatant anti-coal agenda, declined to classify coal ash as a hazardous material. Enough with the fear-mongering.

Mike

Coal is still cheaper then anything else as long as we do not think about the extended cost down the road for out children. Insulate today and save everyday after. Use as little as possible and turn the thermostat down.[/quote]

Really? What are you heating with? This is Anthracite.

joeblack5 wrote:Typical short term economics. Lead paint is another nice example of not being able to think ahead in time for financial gain right now.

Notwithstanding the rest of the post, the part about lead paint being cheaper left me confused. I do understand that Lead oxide was, until the adoption of Titanium Dioxide, the pigment, filler, and dryer of choice for the making of paint. Are you suggesting that Lead paint was used because it was cheaper (and indisputably more durable) its competing options?

Furthermore do you have any valid, and by that I mean non-politically tainted, analysis or reports that support your claim?

Lastly, if coal is so horrible...why do you burn it? If its for fiscal reasons, I challenge you to reread your own quote.

joeblack5,Your 42nd post since Jan 2009 & you wasted it on some worthless false drivel?? So we should buy coal because it is cheap,insulate to the max,turn the t-stat down,stay cold so we use as little as possible of the dangerous coal.??

I believe this was a quote from joeblack?

Coal is still cheaper then anything else as long as we do not think about the extended cost down the road for out children. Insulate today and save everyday after. Use as little as possible and turn the thermostat down.

Hmmmm....what kind of insulation would you like us to use that has been declared non-hazardous for future generations?

joeblack5 wrote:Get it of your property and in the trash so that the toxins are concentrated and the area is identified for sake of future generations. The stuff is not healthy. use as anti skid might be OK as other methods are toxic as well. Do your research and benefits analyses. Enough articles show reason for concern about heavy metals and health / water related problems. Mercury, lead, arsenicum, chromium.
That it is used as soil enhancer / clay breaker/ does not mean it is healthy for consumption. A reference as the tomato is twice the size is irrelevant about the healthy components in that tomato. That ash is used as filler or base in other products is more a matter of how do I get rid of something bad and make a buck on the side. Typical short term economics. Lead paint is another nice example of not being able to think ahead in time for financial gain right now. That is what it is all about. Coal is still cheaper then anything else as long as we do not think about the extended cost down the road for out children. Insulate today and save everyday after. Use as little as possible and turn the thermostat down.

When lead paints were in use, the lead helped the paint do it's job of lasting protection much better.

But more importantly, when those type of paints were in use, parents taught their kids not to eat paint chips.

So, I guess folks became too dumb to know that, so the paint is the problem, not the lack of common sense ? There's plenty of other things left in life that can harm people. Teaching how to safely live with them instead of worrying needlessly how to eliminate all things bad in life, is a much better method. It teaches one of the most valuable lessons - common sense.

It's a shame that so many today have lost how to teach common sense instead of teaching ignorance. Teaching is supposed to eliminate ignorance.

Paul

I'm glad I was raised in the NO SEATBELT era--made it real hard for my Dad to whack me when I was actin like an ass. Yep, he would pull over & do it right!

and thats what these dam kids need nowa days a good ass whoopin and no dam fancy phones !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ha I figured I would get some flack.

Mike, you are right about the vegetable garden and about fear mongering. No need to fear as long as people have the correct information so that hey can make an informed decision. As with lead in gasoline and in paint, asbestos, mercury in thermometers and so on it was the low cost easy solution for the problem in that day. It was well known that lead was dangerous but it was used anyhow. As a result we have soil around most old houses that is contaminated with lead. Historically all criteria for "hazardous" have been tightened up and as a result we do not have lead in gasoline, sulfur in diesel or lead in paint, just to name a view. That coal ash is not labeled hazardous does not mean it is not toxic or dangerous. We can all discuss about how toxic and how dangerous and that is different for different people. Very similar to smoking, their is no discussion it is unhealthy but their can be a discussion if an individual wants to take the risk. Funny enough smoking was advertised as good and healthy in the old days, we know better now.

In good health and merry christmas.
Later J

Yep 2001 sierra.
That is what I use anthracite rice three to five ton. Price is here about $ 225 /ton, maybe more expensive in your area? Still a lot less expensive then NG or oil.

In good health and Merry christmas

later J

Seems to me that if anthracite ash posed any threat, we'd know it by now.. Has it been linked to various diseases in the past? Before natural gas, fuel oil and propane came along, most people burned coal. How is it that millions of people have burnt coal in the past and the ash hasn't been discovered to be harmful? Just curious..