Once we stop relying on fossil fuels, we can forget about
coal-related accidents.
2014 has been a bad
year for drinking water. First, a coal industry chemical spill left West
Virginia residents in nine counties with water so polluted they could only use
it to flush their toilets. And now 82,000 tons of
coal ash have found their way into a river that supplies
drinking water to parts of North Carolina and Virginia.
Coal ash, by the way,
is what remains after coal is burnt for electricity. And it’s chock full of stuff you don’t
want in your drinking water, like cadmium and arsenic.
In a letter,
Waterkeeper pointed out that these heavy metals are “bioaccumulative.” That
means that while the authorities and the company that spilled the coal ash,
Duke Energy, fumble to clean up the mess, these toxins will find their way into
the web of life in the river and they will stay there for a long time.
Bioaccumulation occurs
when microbes, plants, or other critters on the bottom of the food chain take
in a contaminant. Let’s say it’s a type of small fish that takes in the toxic
chemical. A larger fish might eat several of those small fish every single day
— and along with them, it will accumulate the toxin from each of them. Then
perhaps a bird of prey will eat several of the large fish. More and more of the
chemical accumulates with each step up the food chain.
Maybe the
concentration of the chemical will kill the top predator immediately — or maybe
it won’t. But it might impact that animal’s ability to reproduce, or it could
result in severe health problems for the animal’s young.
All the while, Duke
Energy will be cleaning its coal ash out of the water (we hope) — but the
damage is done for the species that have already consumed toxic chemicals and
stored them in their own bodies.
By the way, humans are
the top of the food chain, and we like to eat fish too. Hope you didn’t plan on
fishing in the Dan River anytime soon. I wouldn’t.
Some will use this
occasion to call for stricter regulation or more inspections. And that’s
probably a really good idea, since apparently the coal industry cannot seem to
keep its harmful byproducts out of our drinking water supplies these days.
But what about the
other alternative? That is: getting our energy from sources that do not pose
any risk for such disasters in the first place.
The obvious
low-hanging fruit is efficiency. If your light bulbs or your refrigerator are
twice as efficient as older models, then you still get all of your modern
conveniences while using half as much energy. If you’ve got excellent
insulation in your house, then you can use less power — and pay less money — to
keep your home the same comfortable temperature.
Better yet are
innovations that require no electricity at all, like designing homes to
maximize natural light and to naturally keep warm in the winter and cool in the
summer. And if you aren’t remodeling your house, you could strategically plant deciduous trees near
your home to block the sun in the summer while letting it through in the
winter.
But in the end, the
only real fix will be switching to sustainable technologies like wind and solar
energy. Even a very efficient car still requires oil. After all, another name
for a massive solar energy spill is “a sunny day” — and I prefer that to toxic
drinking water. Don’t you?
OtherWords columnist
Jill Richardson is the author of Recipe
for America: Why Our Food System Is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It.
OtherWords.org