Little Blue Run: Is A Pennsylvania Coal Ash Facility Contaminating Water And Giving Residents Cancer? (VIDEO)

The recent toxic sludge that flooded through Hungary after an alumina waste reservoir wall collapsed is a tragic reminder of the dangerous byproducts left in the wake of mining and dirty energy. In the United States, there are around 600 surface facilities that are pumped full of toxic coal ash -- the remains left behind from coal-fired power plants.

In the 1970s, when Pennsylvania Power first proposed building their coal ash waste disposal facility "Little Blue Run" in Beaver County, the image they painted was much prettier than the one that remains to this day. According to longtime resident Marcy Hughes, "They said that they were going to have it where you could swim, you could picnic - they even showed a sailboat."

This video from CNN takes a look at toxic truth of the facility and the plight of those western Pennsylvania citizens, who decades down the line are dealing with an array of health issues, which they believe Little Blue Run is to blame for.

Hughes's daughter, Tracey Heinlein, has suffered three types of cancer since the age of 18. Now, with the proposal of the coal ash facility expanding, Heinlein can't think of any other option but to uproot her family and leave. She recounts to CNN how the first time she visited her cardiologist, he asked her and her mother after the exam, "Why do you still live there?"

According to CNN, the EPA is currently considering reclassifying coal ash as hazardous, rather than the regular garbage it's presently treated as. And although the EPA says coal ash contains toxins like arsenic, cadmium and lead, the owners of Little Blue Run continue to assert that their facility has nothing to do with the myriad of health effects local residents are blaming it for, and that it isn't contaminating groundwater.

WATCH:

Comments

[h23154]

08:39 PM on 11/18/2010

The new GOP governor and legislature can just let the free market handle it.

[JCCross]

09:43 PM on 10/15/2010

Well, it's making ME sick to my stomach, and I live 2,000 miles away!

[Pandoras Folly]

09:29 PM on 10/15/2010

some people you can reason with. the realize there is a right and a wrong. some people can be bargined with, meaning you have something they want and they have something you want and you are on an evenish playing field and they can't just take it from you or you them. Some people are just stupid and bound to do stupid things. Some people are sociopaths, and psychopaths, they can only be delt with by force. I remember this kid highschool, always picking on me. always picking on me, pick pick. Got him in trouble, he got detention, got suspended. he did not care pick pick pick. finally he dumps a carton of milk on my head, im allergic to milk, im two and half times his size. I break two lunch trays on his head in three hits edge wise, i pick him up over my head go to throw him over the lunch table when my friends tackle me and keep me from really hurting the guy. He doesn't pick on me anymore, I don't even get in trouble at school. I guess the moral is properly applied violence may not solve every problem, but it sure doe solve some of them and Had i simply applied a smaller amount of violence sooner he i would have not had to severly injure another human being.

[Doug Capehart]

02:48 PM on 10/14/2010

Beam me up, Scotty. This place is becoming uninhabitable.

[Bruce Nilles]

11:44 AM on 10/14/2010

Thanks for writing about this. Folks should read more about the harmful effects of toxic coal ash - I've been posting community coal ash profiles for a few weeks now - visit my profile to read more of them. Then, take action! www.sierraclub.org/coalash

[rougebaisers]

11:42 PM on 10/13/2010

Naw. Energy companies poisoning all life around them?

[Waterphoneman]

09:51 PM on 10/13/2010

There is something terribly wrong when our government and our people allow dirty energies to wreck environments and kill people with their products and waste products. Our country has been talking about clean energies for at least 40 years and look how far we have progressed. The profit motive is working against the will of the people and the bickering in our government has stalled out progress and righteousness. Nano coal particles are everywhere and invisible but killing us anyway but as long as the money wheel is rolling in the $, then everything is OK. The next person to die because of these dirty fuels could be you or someone in your family. Is that OK? Speak out, and resist as these companies are messing with your health and your environment.

[So-called-bob]

01:08 PM on 10/13/2010

Cedar Rapids IA has 3 unregulated coal ash dumps within city limits.

[babyboomerorig]

12:42 PM on 10/13/2010

To use the GOP's normal "common sense approach" to this issue, which is probably in every state, if you're using dirty coal, how could the byproducts be clean? We need more demanding laws concerning coal, gas and oil, not fewer.