Where is the coal ash?

The Town of Pines is an example. Many residents saw contamination in their drinking water wells from coal ash in an unlined landfill in the town more than 20 years ago. As a result, they were provided with bottled water for some time before being hooked up to municipal water.

The water was not the only concern. For years, residents also raised concerns about contamination in the soil. It wasn’t until 2014, a few years after Jensen sent his report to the EPA, that federal officials began testing the soil in Pines, said Cathi Murray, a longtime resident. They found coal ash in people’s yards, under roads and even beneath the playground outside the city hall building.

In many areas, NIPSCO has dug up the coal ash to a depth of a few feet and covered it with soil. But more remains, including beneath an unpaved road that runs along the back of Murray’s property.

Pines is a small town, only about 600 residents – too small to do a health study they were told by the government. But Murray said there is someone with cancer on nearly every block.

“We can’t say for sure what caused it,” said Murray, who herself has lost more than 60% of her thyroid gland. “But it makes you wonder.”

In one North Carolina community, coal ash also was used extensively as fill, including next to the public high school. Structural fill issues have also released coal ash into tributaries of Lake Norman, a popular recreation spot and the drinking water source for the town of Mooresville.

Dozens of teenagers and other residents in the town of have been diagnosed with cancer. One mom whose daughter was diagnosed raised more than $100,000 to fund a health study conducted by Duke University. They found that thyroid cancer rates in the town were as much as three times higher than expected. The connection to coal ash is suspected, but not confirmed.

Experts worry there are numerous other communities where residents may be exposed to increased cancer risk – yet not even be aware.

Where exactly, though, remains unknown because there are few public records, if any, on where coal ash was used outside power plants. Indiana, for example, did not require any tracking. Indra Frank with the Hoosier Environmental Council said utilities might be the only entities that have records.

Indiana’s major utilities, when asked by the Indianapolis Star, said they had no such records.