Slightly Cleaner Coal, Much Dirtier Water

A devastatingly great story in today’s NYT about Allegheny Energy installing scrubbers at a coal plant to reduce carbon emissions. The problem, however, is that the scrubbing is done by spraying water and chemicals through the plant’s chimneys; the pollution-laden water is dumped into the Monongahela River, which supplies drinking water to 350,000 people. “It’s like they decided to spare us having to breathe in these poisons, but now we have to drink them instead,” said Philip Coleman, who lives about 15 miles from the plant and has asked a state judge to toughen the facility’s pollution regulations. “We can’t escape.”