Coal ash: ‘Why are we importing it?’

RICHMOND, Va. — Shipping containers full of coal ash from China, Poland and India have come into the U.S. through the Port of Virginia as foreign companies find a market for the same industrial waste that America’s utilities are struggling to dispose of.

Critics call it a missed opportunity. Coal ash is treasure as well as trash, useful for projects from roads to concrete to wallboard. They want Virginia to mandate more recycling of ash that’s already here, threatening to contaminate water sources or create an environmental disaster.

“We have millions of tons of this sitting along our riverbanks,” said Travis Blankenship, former government affairs manager for the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. “Why in the world would we be importing it from other states and countries?”

The nation’s shift away from coal for electricity has reduced the supply of fresh coal ash, forcing industries that depend on it to look farther afield. Some turn to companies that reprocess ash discarded years ago in pits and ponds. Others look overseas.

The Port of Virginia handled just one shipping container of coal ash in 2015, from India. Last year, there were about 22, from China and Poland. It all went on to Ohio and Wisconsin, according to a port spokesman who didn’t know the final destinations. More ash has been trucked in from other states for concrete production in Virginia.

Coal ash includes bottom ash, which settles in boilers; fly ash, a powdery material captured in exhaust stacks; and synthetic gypsum, a byproduct of smokestack “scrubbing.” These materials can be had for several dollars a ton if trucked directly from a utility to a factory or job site. They’re more expensive to obtain in a useful form after decades underground or underwater. That makes foreign imports economically viable.