One million gallons of coal ash wastewater spill at Minnesota Power plant

[rhino]

Since there are still people who think we need coal base load:

One million gallons of coal ash wastewater spill at Minnesota Power coal plant

The Duluth-based electric utility said an unknown amount of polluted water had reached nearby Blackwater Lake after a pipe leaked.

www.startribune.com

Minnesota Power said about 1 million gallons of coal ash wastewater spilled at its large coal plant in Cohasset, Minn., pouring out over land with at least some reaching nearby Blackwater Lake.

 

[740GLE]

This is no where near as bad, but I’m sure some people on vacation are pissed!!

Nantucket's south-facing beaches are closed to swimming as debris from a damaged wind turbine washes ashore

"Floating debris and sharp fiberglass shards" from the damaged turbine are landing on nearby beaches.

www.boston.com

 

[wattmatters]

Coal power is the single largest source of waste (much of it pretty toxic) in Australia. Waste from end of life PV and wind turbines will be tiny (and benign) in comparison.

 

[Danke]

Good thing there’s no toxins created with the production of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries.

 

[bolhuijo]

"Massive photon spill at nearby solar farm, details at 6"

 

[Citlalatonac]

"Massive photon spill at nearby solar farm, details at 6"

Once Monsanto gets into sun farming all bets are off.

 

[CVCPJared]

Since there are still people who think we need coal base load:

One million gallons of coal ash wastewater spill at Minnesota Power coal plant

The Duluth-based electric utility said an unknown amount of polluted water had reached nearby Blackwater Lake after a pipe leaked.

www.startribune.com

Minnesota Power said about 1 million gallons of coal ash wastewater spilled at its large coal plant in Cohasset, Minn., pouring out over land with at least some reaching nearby Blackwater Lake.

Well....at least the lake doesn't have to get renamed

 

[bolhuijo]

Once Monsanto gets into sun farming all bets are off.

Since the dawn of time, mankind had yearned to block out the sun...

 

[KevinC_63559]

Once Monsanto gets into sun farming all bets are off.

Minor problem that Monsanto no longer exist. It was engulfed by Bayer, yeah the aspirin people, years ago.

 

[Zwy]

Since there are still people who think we need coal base load:

One million gallons of coal ash wastewater spill at Minnesota Power coal plant

The Duluth-based electric utility said an unknown amount of polluted water had reached nearby Blackwater Lake after a pipe leaked.

www.startribune.com

Minnesota Power said about 1 million gallons of coal ash wastewater spilled at its large coal plant in Cohasset, Minn., pouring out over land with at least some reaching nearby Blackwater Lake.

Wait until the new nickel and copper mines get up and running in MN, the environmental damage will be worse than this spill.

Two metals needed for green energy.

 

[HarryN]

There definitely is insufficient storage quality for ash and mining waste tailings.

IIRC, copper mining creates about 500 Kg of permanently contaminated waste for each Kg of refined, wire quality copper.

Aluminum via bauxite is not too far off from that. Not just at the mines, but also at the refiners - who have massive quantities of "red mud" byproduct. ( mostly contaminated iron compounds that are hard to extract from it )

I am convinced that there are much less waste by product methods of doing this and have worked through a few chemically, but cost of course will be somewhat higher and it requires a real change in approach.

Coal ash is mostly a result of scrubbing the exhaust of the coal furnace, so unfortunately tends to be wet.

 

[AFC_Darla]

Can't get rid of coal, aren't Teslas charged by energy produced by coal fired power plants!

 

[seneysolar]

Wait until the new nickel and copper mines get up and running in MN, the environmental damage will be worse than this spill.

Two metals needed for green energy.

Exactly
---->
Talon Metals

 

[wattmatters]

Wait until the new nickel and copper mines get up and running in MN, the environmental damage will be worse than this spill.

Relatively minor in the grand scheme, especially considering global coal consumption is more than triple the tonnage of iron ore mined.

 

[ricardocello]

"Massive photon spill at nearby solar farm, details at 6"

Must have been blinding!

 

[ThaiTaffy]

I thought it was already proven that coal ash makes a great additive for concrete maybe supply outweighs demand but I highly doubt it's being put to use as it should be.

 

[Quattrohead]

I thought it was already proven that coal ash makes a great additive for concrete maybe supply outweighs demand but I highly doubt it's being put to use as it should be.

That might be the aerated concrete shit that is dissolving in UK buildings now.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

That might be the aerated concrete shit that is dissolving in UK buildings now.

From what I understand coal ash increases density and bonds with Portland reducing cracking it might be used in aerated concrete but that has nothing to do with why it's failing. Aerated concrete should never be used as load bearing, actually I think it's a great product when used correctly and that should only be as a thermal barrier/cladding the idiot structural/civil engineers and architects who used it as a load bearing material are to blame on why there's so many issues in the UK not the product itself.

 

[Zwy]

Relatively minor in the grand scheme, especially considering global coal consumption is more than triple the tonnage of iron ore mined.

Then this coal ash spill must be just a tiny pimple in the Grand Scheme?

I didn't say iron ore, although that still occurs and I've been thru the Iron Range several times. New copper and nickel mines are coming to MN.

 

[Zwy]

I thought it was already proven that coal ash makes a great additive for concrete maybe supply outweighs demand but I highly doubt it's being put to use as it should be.

Coal ash is one of the worst things to use in concrete. The reason it was "proven" was to find a place to park the ash which contains mercury.

Years ago, busted up concrete was used as rip rap along waterways. It is no longer allowed. The reason? The newer concrete could contain fly ash and the mercury could be released into the waterway. The concrete industry embraced fly ash because it is a filler they get paid to take and profit from. The local concrete company owner with 120 locations across the US (Croell) just loves the stuff, he is now adding on to his house once again.

Think of all the concrete in roads and all of that potential mercury that could be released as the concrete deteriorates.

 

[ScrotpusGobbleBottom]

I thought it was already proven that coal ash makes a great additive for concrete

I'm glad you are here you delightfully chewy taffy fellow.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

Coal ash is one of the worst things to use in concrete. The reason it was "proven" was to find a place to park the ash which contains mercury.

Years ago, busted up concrete was used as rip rap along waterways. It is no longer allowed. The reason? The newer concrete could contain fly ash and the mercury could be released into the waterway. The concrete industry embraced fly ash because it is a filler they get paid to take and profit from. The local concrete company owner with 120 locations across the US (Croell) just loves the stuff, he is now adding on to his house once again.

Think of all the concrete in roads and all of that potential mercury that could be released as the concrete deteriorates.

From what I'm reading the concrete only excretes 0.5 % of the mercury contained in the fly ash during the curing process, seems like a much better option than just dumping it into a waterway which is what happened.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

I'm glad you are here you delightfully chewy taffy fellow.

Taffy as in river taff which isn't so chewy or delicious

 

[Zwy]

From what I'm reading the concrete only excretes 0.5 % of the mercury contained in the fly ash during the curing process, seems like a much better option than just dumping it into a waterway which is what happened.

I didn't know it excreted during curing. Interesting.

I'm referring to using old concrete around waterways, lakes and streams for riparian purposes. Exposed edges will leach mercury into water if the concrete contains fly ash.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

I didn't know it excreted during curing. Interesting.

I'm referring to using old concrete around waterways, lakes and streams for riparian purposes. Exposed edges will leach mercury into water if the concrete contains fly ash.

Is that from the water eroding the surface or flushing out when absorbing water? Fly ash really does have many positive aspects(lowering porosity being one)when used purely as an additive but I'm guessing many are using it as a bulking agent as a way to cheap out on Portland. If I could source it easily I'd be using in my own mix but the closest thing here would likely be ash from the making of charcoal, Minnesota is to far for me to go pick up a few bags.