Coal Ash Waste from Power Station

Shippingport, PA
This is the largest coal ash dump in the USA, spanning the border between Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Every yesr, 625,000 tons of ash from one of the most toxic power plants in the country were pumped 7 miles through an underground pipeline into this impoundment. It is also known to be leaching arsenic, selenium chromium, boron, and other toxins into the groundwater. The power plant producing the waste ash going into this dump was closed in 2019 because of fire damage, but the ash remains, leaching toxins into groundwater, and threatening a potential spill of the 20 billion gallons of coal ash and smokestack scrubber waste it contains into the Ohio River, source of drinking water for more than three million people.

Many thanks to Lighthawk for flight support!