NEWS
The Truth Regarding Beneficial Use
08/06/2009
There are four Iowa quarries engaged in the business of accepting coal combustion by-products (CCB). If you follow this topic in the media however, you may be confused as to what that means to our industry and the environment in general.
CCB related activities are governed under Chapter 108, "Beneficial Use Determinations" of the Iowa Administrative Code (IAC). The intent of Chapter 108 is to divert solid wastes from landfills. Under Chapter 108, CCB's are specifically regulated for their acceptability for a number of reuses. One of those reuses is to be deposited into quarries to act as backfill for reclamation.
The IDNR mandates that these sites be evaluated for suitability and the CCB is characterized to insure that it meets a long list of chemical criteria. To be specific, before a quarry starts taking in CCB, an engineering study must be completed and a Beneficial Use Determination made by the DNR. CCB coming into a Beneficial Use site is tested to make sure it qualifies. The entire process is all very explicitly spelled out in the regulations.
If you read some of the many articles written, it is frequently stated that a "waiver" has been granted. This leads the reader to believe there is an exception to the IAC as it exists. Articles written in such a manner imply quarries are operating outside of the law when accepting CCB as backfill material. This is absolutely not the case.
Reference has also commonly been made to the incident in Tennessee where an earthen berm ruptured and allowed CCB slurry to be released; the topic has become a hot one. People are concerned that the same situation could happen here in an Iowa quarry. That concern has led to a wide spread emotional response from Iowans whose motives though sincere are misguided and fueled by misinformation. In Iowa, our members take the CCB, use a pug mill to mix it with water and deposit it in the quarry. As it dries it becomes a concrete like substance. There is no chance for a Tennessee like occurrence.