As public awareness of climate change has increased, the power plants that use coal to generate our electricity all across the country have been giving lip-service to decreasing pollution.
Yet, as statistics gathered from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency by the New York Times have shown, often the pollution is moving away from the air we breathe only to show up in the water we drink, to devastating effect.
According to the same data, coal-powered generators of electricity are the number one producers of toxic waste in the U.S.
To comply with clean air legislation, power companies such as the Allegheny Energy Hatfield's Ferry plant in Masontown, Pa., have been installing scrubbers that spray water and chemicals through airborne emissions.
This effectively removes the toxic waste from the air coming out of their smokestacks, and environmentalists were happy when they did so.
Companies such as Allegheny Energy are required by their stockholders to make a profit, and rightly so. That is how our capitalist system works.
But the water and the chemicals that have been "scrubbed" out are released into the environment as polluted water, and this toxic water is finding its way into the drinking water supplies of communities for miles around.
The Obama administration has been attempting to address the problem.
Last January, Lisa P. Jackson was sworn in as the new head of the EPA. One of her highest priorities is to toughen up regulations that govern power companies such as Allegheny Energy in order to decrease pollution risk.
But she has been facing an intense lobbying campaign by not just coal companies, but by state and federal legislatures, whose members fear increased regulation would also increase the cost of energy.
Higher energy costs would anger constituents, and these legislators do not want to lose their jobs in the next election.
In addition to such indirect pressure, according to statistics gathered by the New York Times, energy companies spent $20 million in 2008 alone lobbying the federal government, attempting to weaken cleaner environment laws.
There currently are no federal regulations that specifically address water pollution from wastes of these coal-burning power plants.
The Clean Water Act does restrict water pollution, but, remarkably, it does not specify limits to some dangerous disease-causing elements like arsenic and lead.
According to EPA records, 90 percent of 313 coal-powered plants have violated those limits, but have not been fined or sanctioned.
The fines that have been levied are laughable.
According to EPA statistics, the Hatfield's Ferry plant was not in compliance 33 times since 2006.
The company has only paid fines of $26,000, while Allegheny Energy has earned $1.1 billion.
When levels of contaminants do exceed legal limits, the company files suit and has successfully petitioned a judge to delay enforcement until their appeal in court has been decided.
Meanwhile, a laundry list of heavy metals, that have been linked to cancer and organ failure, is being released daily.
A 2007 EPA report states that people living near power plants face a cancer risk 2,000 times greater than what is safe by federal health standards.
This risk is unacceptable.
We, our children and our grandchildren, deserve to live in an environment that is healthy and free from such risks.
It is obvious that companies like Allegheny Energy and their Hatfield's Ferry plant are unwilling to comply with the law. Therefore, they should be sanctioned until they do.
How much money do the coal and coal-fired energy companies think human life is worth?
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