An Indiana county is paying a steep price for burying toxic coal ash

If Floyd County officials could do it over again, they’d order their highway crews to scoop up a massive mound of coal ash and haul it back to Louisville.

Instead, taxpayers in the Southern Indiana county will have to pay at least $50,000 for a cleanup of 20,000 tons of the toxin-laced black cinders — stuff that ended up on private property in neighboring communities nine years ago.

The ash might have stayed buried for good, but a retired employee who was worried about the ash sickening people blew the whistle on Floyd County two years ago. That led to remediation plans in New Albany and at a farm near Elizabeth, Indiana, where excavations kicked off this month.

Floyd officials say they’re just glad to near the final chapter of an embarrassing episode.

"If it cost $20,000, $30,000, $50,000, the county has stepped up to satisfy the property owners," said Mark Seabrook, a county commissioner. "It was an accidental mistake. We didn't try to sneak these cinders through anywhere."

Coal ash is highly toxic because it contains heavy metals and combustion chemicals that can harm humans, waterways and wildlife. Federal regulators imposed stricter safety rules in recent years for ash ponds at coal-fired power plants and for landfills, which must be lined to accept such waste.

They also recommended nearly a decade ago that communities exhaust their coal ash supplies and switch to rock salt to melt ice- and snow-covered roads.

You may like: Ford says idled Louisville workers could be back at work by Monday

In late 2008, Floyd’s highway department had a huge black mound at its works yard on Ind. 64 in Georgetown, hauled there for free from University of Louisville Hospital's coal plant near downtown Louisville. In rainy weather, black residue washed off the pile and into a nearby creek, so the county was told to get rid of the stockpile, former highway superintendent Ron Quakenbush said.

A few neighboring counties came and took truckloads, then more went to C.C.E., a contractor grading land on Ind. 111 in New Albany for real estate agent and owner Pat Harrison.

Quakenbush later sent more tons of ash to a farm near Elizabeth then owned by Harlan Heinze, who he said had asked for the fill to cover over a former swimming hole and hog pond. Heinze did not return phone calls seeking comment.

State and federal laws allow for spreading ash in limited quantities on farm fields and using it as fill for road building, but dumping in a pond wasn't allowed in 2008 and it wouldn't be now, said Brady Hagerty, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Floyd County officials have indicated that Quakenbush acted on his own in deciding what to do with the ash. But Quakenbush said Don Lopp, Floyd's director of operations and planning, and others were aware of how it was being disposed.

"They OK'd it as far as I know," Quakenbush said.

Quakenbush retired in 2011 after county officials placed him on leave and launched an investigation into allegations that Quakenbush had pocketed proceeds from recycling scrap metal at the department. The state eventually sued Quakenbush and an insurance company to recover more than $17,000.

The ash had been covered for more than six years when Bob Frederick, a former infrastructure coordinator, alerted the Indiana Department of Environmental Management about the deposits in August 2016. He met with two investigators from Indianapolis and showed them both locations.

You may like: AOL co-founder Steve Case visits Louisville to promote local startups

Frederick, who retired four years ago, said that despite Floyd officials’ assertions that they’ve been transparent about the coal ash deposits, the commissioners warned him during a 2011 executive session never to mention the ash disposal.

“They threatened my job,” he told Courier Journal.

Lopp said he doesn’t recall anyone being told to keep quiet. When county officials learned of Frederick’s complaint two years ago, they contacted the state and confirmed where highway crews had deposited the coal ash. In 2009, county leaders figured that the disposal was permitted because the state had reviewed plans for compacting the ash at the future tow-in lot.

A lawyer for C.C.E. wrote to the state then to point out that law allows for ash to be used as fill material for road building. Since the state took no action, county officials concluded then that there were no issues with the deposits, Lopp said.

Now, state environmental officials “directed the county in a different pattern,” Lopp said, adding that the residential zoning for the impound lot made it apparent to them that they should remove it as the property owner requested.

Hagerty said that the state hasn't changed its position. In particular, Floyd was certainly in the wrong when it sent truckloads of the ash to fill a pond. It's only intended for spreading periodically on farm acreage, he said in an email.

Harrison, the real estate agent who owns the police impound lot and nearby land, said it was a shock to learn what was there when contacted about it two years ago. “I didn’t know they dumped it there in the first place. I own a lot of property and those I lease to, I figure they’re taking care of it.”

Current plans for the removal there are on hold because Harrison said she’s refused to sign a letter to the county asserting that she had knowledge of the ash deposits from the beginning.

That provision is a non-starter because “it wasn’t like I knew. I didn’t allow it,” Harrison said, adding that she intends eventually to build houses and possibly a small shopping center on the property. So she wants to avoid any questions later over the safety of the land.

“I want it (the coal ash) off there,” Harrison said.

For the county, the tab for cleaning up the mess is adding up. The state ordered the removal in Harrison and approved the county's offer to dig up the impound lot. Floyd’s remediation plans submitted last February included test results on what’s in the coal-laden deposits and whether any toxins leached into groundwater and soil.

You may like: Louisville's Brown Theatre, home of Kentucky Opera, is sold to Kentucky Center Foundation

Environmental consultants checking the farm found lead, naphthalene, benzo(a)pyrene, and arsenic, with the latter three shown at levels exceeding the state's remediation closure guidelines. Concentrations of lead beyond the federal tap water screening level - another guideline used by regulators - were also found in a water sample, according to reports by consultant Lynn-Douglas.

Consultants noted that two nearby properties use a spring and a cistern for their water.

The work plan calls for digging up 4,500 tons of ash and soil at the Harrison County farm now owned by Guy Heitkemper. The environmental work includes excavations going 4 feet deep over a 22,000-square-foot area, plus landfill fees at the Outer Loop facility in Louisville. The estimated cost is $10,000 to $20,000.

County officials are not sure, Lopp said, what the bigger excavation of 15,000 tons over 151,000 square feet at the tow-in lot property will cost.

Heitkemper, who bought the Green Road property after the pond was filled, said the former owner didn’t see a problem with using the ash for fill. But Heitkemper said he wanted it hauled away because “I didn’t want it to come back to haunt me or anybody else in the future.”

Floyd officials have tried to be above-board, Lopp said. When residents have asked about what’s up with the ash, “we’ve answered those questions,” he said.

But George Mouser, a watchdog from Greenville, said the county has provided details reluctantly. It took 15 months to get a requested timeline on when Floyd disposed of the ash, a delay that county officials blamed on by litigation and a state investigation, he said.

The costs will be paid for from proceeds of a sale of surplus highway equipment, Lopp said, so the money won't come directly from taxpayers' pockets. The sale raised $90,000 this year and ordinarily would go into a fund for highway expenses.

Grace Schneider: 502-582-4082; gschneider@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @gesinfk. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/graces.

Is coal ash really toxic?

Whether it's microscopic particles flying in the air off an ash pond near a coal-fired power plant or coal ash buried and covered with soil, the presence of coal ash poses serious risks to health. Scientists have found that breathing the dust causes asthma, inflammation and immunological reactions. Studies have linked exposure to several types of cancer and other serious diseases, and stroke, according to Earthjustice.org, an organization that pushed with other groups to tighten federal regulations on ash.

What chemicals are in coal ash?

Lead, arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, selenium, thallium, and uranium are among the chemicals and heavy metals listed with coal ash deposits.

Is coal ash a hazardous waste?

Environmental activists say yes, and regulators have wrestled with explaining why they haven't slapped the hazardous label on it. The EPA acknowledges that if coal ash waste is not properly "controlled," its toxins can contaminate drinking water, food and air.