Coal Ash Is Killing 900,000 Fish Each Year In A North Carolina Lake, Study Finds

[ScienceRocks]

Coal Ash Is Killing 900,000 Fish Each Year In A North Carolina Lake, Study Finds

Coal ash is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of fish in a North Carolina lake, according to a new study.

The study, commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center, looked at more than 1,400 fish from Sutton Lake and found some species showed deformities such as curved spines, misshaped or missing fins, and mouth and jaw defects — defects that the study said are consistent with elevated levels of selenium, a toxic element found in coal ash. Dennis Lemly, a research professor at Wake Forest University who conducted the study, said concentrations of selenium in Sutton Lake were “five to ten times the toxic threshold for the beginnings of deformities.”

“Selenium is well-known to cause deformities and abnormalities in young fish,” he said. “Deformities of all sorts of bony structures in the fish — everything from the mouth, to the skull, to the spine, to the tail, to the fins. You name it.”

Because these deformities can kill young fish, the study estimates that about 900,000 fish are killed each year due to selenium exposure, a monetary loss of between $4.5 million and $7 million each year for the popular fishing lake.

Sutton Lake has long served as a cooling lake for a Duke Energy coal-fired power plant, and though Duke retired the plant’s coal-burning units last month, a group of environmental organizations is pushing the company to clean up coal ash from the lake. In September, the Southern Environmental Law Center and three other environmental groups filed suit against Duke Energy for its failure to clean up coal ash from Sutton Lake.

Coal Ash Is Killing 900,000 Fish Each Year In A North Carolina Lake, Study Finds | ThinkProgress

Coal probably kills near a billion animals per year and you want to debate dead animals? Takes nerve.

 

[flacaltenn]

You'll never get pertinent facts and quotes from a ThinkProgress article. They believe facts pollute their journalistic style...

Duke’s coal ash kills, deforms fish, study says | CharlotteObserver.com

State catch tests of largemouth bass in Sutton Lake indicated that numbers fell by about half between 2008 and 2010 but have since rebounded somewhat, said Christian Waters, fisheries program manager for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
The lake’s bass numbers have cycled up and down for years, he said. Selenium is among the factors that could account for that, he said, as well as other factors such as the presence of aquatic plants, which provide cover for bass, and flathead catfish that eat bass.
“Through (scientific) literature we know selenium can have impacts on reproduction,” Waters said. “We know it’s present in the lake, we know it’s present in fish at different levels, and we know it could make a difference.”

Waters said he’s not aware of reports of deformed fish in the lake.

Concentrations of selenium in Sutton Lake itself are within the federal standard, Lemly said, suggesting the standard is too high. The Environmental Protection Agency last reviewed the standard about a decade ago, he said, but has not changed it.

Read more here: Duke’s coal ash kills, deforms fish, study says | CharlotteObserver.com

Let's see..

1) State Wildlife Biologist had no inkling of Selenium defects --- ((Fire his ass))
2) Selenium levels are within EPA standards.. ((Fire their asses if they got it wrong))

I'm not happy with the situation.. But Lembly (or whatever) is ESTIMATING a mortality rate. Hasn't CONFIRMED a mortality rate.. But it sounds to me to be mostly another failure of regulation, monitoring and oversight..

OR

Just a renegade environmentalist campaigning for lower EPA standards and manufacturing press attention..

 

[Mr. H.]

Agriculture is the true destroyer of the environment on all levels.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Agriculture is the true destroyer of the environment on all levels.

Well, we need to eat right? We can't do anything about agriculture but we can do something about our energy mix.

 

[Politico]

Tell us what you are doing besides posting on the internets.

 

[Abraham3]

Lemly's actual paper.

You folks should all try to be less satisfied with second hand reports.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1dk6uYv0lc2RktfRlhPM0ltTms/edit?pli=1

Lemly has published two prior studies in the peer reviewed literature concerning the effects of selenium on fish. His methods and conclusions regarding Sutton Lake fish abnormalities and deformations is well documented here.

From my way of looking at things, taking the local paper's word that their ignorance of any such thing means it doesn't exist is putting a little too much faith in the honesty of commercial enterprises. I'd say the a very high probability exists that the Charlotte Observer and Duke Energy are frequent bed-partners and if they can throw the slant in a Duke-friendly direction by simply failing to say something, they'll do it in a heartbeat. And, personally, I prefer the science I get from scientists to the 'science' one can get from newspaper journalists. You?

 

[Abraham3]

Tell us what you are doing besides posting on the internets.
__________________
If you want a neg make a clueless comment about my political affiliation.

I think you're a born-again-neo-Nazi, artsy-fartsy Communist-pinko LP-hoarder with a fetish for whipping large frogs as you both inhabit a large child's splash pool filled with cheap wine and stale meringue. I think you vote for ugly women and black liberals in a futile attempt to throw off the government agents constantly pestering you with tracking and control devices implanted in your brain while you sleep.

"Whip me, beat me, make me write bad checks". Neg the living SHIT out of me.

 

[ScienceRocks]

A few eagles or probably tens of millions of animals. Powering our civilization comes with a cost.

This is reality.

 

[flacaltenn]

Lemly's actual paper.

You folks should all try to be less satisfied with second hand reports.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1dk6uYv0lc2RktfRlhPM0ltTms/edit?pli=1

Lemly has published two prior studies in the peer reviewed literature concerning the effects of selenium on fish. His methods and conclusions regarding Sutton Lake fish abnormalities and deformations is well documented here.

From my way of looking at things, taking the local paper's word that their ignorance of any such thing means it doesn't exist is putting a little too much faith in the honesty of commercial enterprises. I'd say the a very high probability exists that the Charlotte Observer and Duke Energy are frequent bed-partners and if they can throw the slant in a Duke-friendly direction by simply failing to say something, they'll do it in a heartbeat. And, personally, I prefer the science I get from scientists to the 'science' one can get from newspaper journalists. You?

You just dont like the facts as presented.

1) Lembly himself acknowledges that the levels are within Fed standards.

2) State wildlife officials were unaware of abnormalities and continued to stock the lake and encourage fishing.

3) RegulTion and oversigght obviously failed to improve the condition during the acttive creation and use of that lake for the power plant.

All my previous conclusions are supported y the evidence. Yours are speculation and accusations. BTW Yyour link doesnt work.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Matthew/Jake supports Obama's drive to kill the US Coal industry

 

[ScienceRocks]

Matthew/Jake supports Obama's drive to kill the US Coal industry

I support transitioning away something that kills thousands of people per year. You bet.

 

[flacaltenn]

Matthew/Jake supports Obama's drive to kill the US Coal industry

I support transitioning away something that kills thousands of people per year. You bet.

You are gonna kill 1000 times MORE PEOPLE THAN THAT --- killing the coal industry before you have a viable replacement..




Just like Stalin and Mao did....

 

[Abraham3]

FCT, are you unfamiliar with the word "transition"?

 

[Politico]

Tell us what you are doing besides posting on the internets.
__________________
If you want a neg make a clueless comment about my political affiliation.

I think you're a born-again-neo-Nazi, artsy-fartsy Communist-pinko LP-hoarder with a fetish for whipping large frogs as you both inhabit a large child's splash pool filled with cheap wine and stale meringue. I think you vote for ugly women and black liberals in a futile attempt to throw off the government agents constantly pestering you with tracking and control devices implanted in your brain while you sleep.

"Whip me, beat me, make me write bad checks". Neg the living SHIT out of me.

One word.....Meds....