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NEXT WEEK'S QUESTION:
How do you celebrate the end of summer and Labor Day?
E-mail your response to oologahspeaks@sbcglobal.net.
Please include your name and a daytime telephone number. Your response might be published in next week's Leader
LAKEVIEWS
By John M. Wylie II, Publisher
DRINK THE WATER-IT'S FINE
Our community has become Ground Zero in a campaign by several environmental groups, led by the Sierra Club, to persuade federal regulators to change the way coal ash is regulated.
That's fine. It is a complex issue on which reasonable scientific minds can disagree.
But it is not fine that the groups are using misleading scare tactics and language designed to frighten local residents into thinking their drinking water is not safe.
That is absolutely untrue.
The groups say the state is not doing anything about groundwater contamination that they imply has gone beyond the boundaries of the Northeastern Station reservation.
In fact, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has been working with AEP Public Service Co. of Oklahoma for two years to determine the precise cause of the contamination on the Northeastern Station reservation and the best way to fix it.
They also suggest that states aren't capable of dealing with the root issue, which is how disposal sites for coal ash should be designed, built and regulated and don't have adequate standards to limit contaminants.
But in Oklahoma, the limitations on heavy metals-a component of coal ash-in water are generally stricter than the national standards.
PSO does not dispute that there are excessive levels of arsenic, chromium, selenium, vanadium and sulfate in the groundwater on the plant site. The materials appear to originate from the ash landfill at the plant, which has been in operation since 1978. Monitoring wells were not installed until 2008, and the company is working with DEQ on what is called a nature and extent study. When that is completed, PSO has pledged that, "We are very committed to taking corrective action for whatever the nature and extent study shows."
Bud Ground, PSO manager of state governmental and environmental affairs, says the utility's problem with the study is that it claims contamination has gone offsite and that drinking water is endangered.
There's no question that drinking water has not been impacted, and Ground adds that, "There's no indication whatsoever (that any contamination has left the site). In fact there are indications it is not offsite."
Julie Hendrix, office manager of Rural Water District No. 4 says there is no contamination of drinking water. In fact, the drinking water supply is drawn for Oologah Lake several miles upstream from the power plant.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is watching the situation. This newspaper, the Corps and the water district got a detailed briefing from PSO on Monday.
The real focus of this controversy is an EPA rulemaking proceeding to determine whether coal ash should be reclassified as a hazardous waste. The nearest public hearing on the issue will be next week in Dallas, and the environmental groups are trying to stir up support for making ash a hazardous waste.
The report cites examples of plants in other parts of the country that might bolster that case. But PSO's Northeastern Station is not one of them. The current system is working precisely as it is supposed to. (Judge for yourself-we've posted the entire 270-page report on our website at www.oologah.net. Pages 149-154 are devoted to Northeastern Station. Just remember the facts above when you read.).
We're charter members of the Society of Environmental Journalists. We belonged to the Sierra Club for years. But we also know that the environmental movement can get carried away and make claims designed to sway public opinion but which are not supported by the evidence.
When that happens, it hurts the environmental movement. And that's precisely what has happened here.
Bottom line: Don't be fooled, and do drink the water. We are.
Click here to read the Sierra Club report
Click here to read Cherokee Chat
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