Widows Creek coal plant composite

This a Google Earth, composite image. The green on the left dates from 2015 when the plant was still in operation. There is an evaporation tower plume just North of the line between the two river colors at the "D" in "Date." On the right is a 2018 image showing the 'ash' ponds and dumps.

Bob Wilson

 

I saw that too:

. . .
Under the new rule, state and EPA officials will be able to suspend groundwater monitoring requirements at coal ash sites if it is determined there is no potential for pollutants to move into certain aquifers. The rule also extends the life of some coal ash ponds from early 2019 to late 2020.

Coal ash is stored at hundreds of power plants throughout the country. Spills in Tennessee and North Carolina leached sludge containing toxic materials into rivers in those states over the last decade.
. . .​

That is why I took a peek at Widow's Creek. I drove up there last year just to confirm it was shutdown. But the future of the ash ponds raise a question about what minerals might be extracted?

Source: http://mineral.eng.usm.my/web%20halaman%20mineral/Components%20of%20coal%20ash.pdf

Still digesting this paper.

Bob Wilson

 

Source: WVU opens new research facility to extract valuable rare earth elements from acid mine drainage - Green Car Congress

. . .
Studies show that the Appalachian basin could produce 800 tons of rare earth elements per year—approximately the amount the defense industry would need.
. . .
The researchers are using a two-step process to separate the rare earths from acid mine drainage: acid leaching and solvent extraction, which they call ALSX.

Researchers will dissolve the sludge in an acid. That solution will then be transferred to glass mixers and settlers that will make an emulsion that allows the oil phase and its extractant chemical to grab rare earths from the water, leaving the non-rare earth base metals like iron in the water.

When that process is completed, the rare-earth-laden organic liquid enters another series of mixers and settlers that will strip the rare earths out as a concentrated solution and precipitate the rare earths as a solid, creating a concentrated rare earth oxide that can then be refined and further concentrated into pure rare earth metals to supply the metal refining industry.
. . .​

Bob Wilson

 

The article address coal mining waste water. Not an ash driven process, I'm thinking these same elements are likely to include the same rare earths only without the coal carbon. Whether it goes up the flue remains an open question.

Bob Wilson