A big reason for Indiana’s pollution is coal.

Coal has shown to be a very dirty and detrimental fossil fuel for the environment, one of the main causes to climate change.

Coal ash is the product of burning coal for electricity use. The waste product contains toxic chemicals such as arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium.

Indiana currently has the largest amount of coal ash disposal sites in the country.

Over the decades, this coal ash has reached and contaminated the groundwater of Indiana communities, making some water unsafe for drinking.

Background: How does this affect the environment?

According to southeastcoalash.org, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 72 percent of all toxic water pollution in the country comes from coal-fired power plants.

Indiana is known to be fairly coal-centered in terms of generating electricity for Hoosiers. And as in fairly, that’s 95 percent coming from coal.

The state produces between 32 and 35 million tons of coal per year.

Many officials have documented over 200 cases where coal ash pollutants were released into waterways surpassing state or federal standards.

One example is the case of Morgan County.

Exhibit A, Morgan County:

Morgan County, North of Bloomington, has been facing health effects caused by water contamination for years.

15 years ago the City of Martinsville added carbon filters to clean their main water source, however it seems that the filters are not stopping potentially dangerous chemicals from reaching drinking water and wells and affecting residents.

So what are the effects?

Well, when taking a look at the statistics of Morgan county versus the rest of Indiana, we can see some interesting results.

For the state of Indiana, 2018 cancer rates were shown at 470 people per 100,000 tested. Morgan County had 537 per 100,000 tested which made it the highest in the state.

Morgan County’s rates of other various types of cancer and rates of mortality from those cancers were all higher than the state rate.

The rate of childhood cancer in the county is 17.7 per 100,000 residents with the state average being 18.5, according to the National Cancer Institute.

As for the causes, many companies are hesitant to agree that they are environmental causes.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry came out with a report that said cancer risk for the majority of Martinsville residents was low and recommended residents to avoid drinking water from private wells. The EPA was noted also as an option for getting homes tested or removing chemicals if requested.

Mayor of Martinsville, Kenneth Costin answered concerns of pollution and mentioned the installation of new carbon filters to water systems saying that “Martinsville’s municipal water is safe to drink, and all testing has concluded that it is… the carbonization filtering that we do for removal of the contamination effectively removes the PCE to an undetectable level.”

History:

Going to the beginning of suspicion, Martinsville’s main water plume sits on a 38-acre property in downtown Martinsville. According to the EPA, the site used to hold Master Wear dry-cleaner which operated from 1986 to 1991.

Various complaints were made to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management between the same time frame for illegal dumping and mishandling of waste drums at the facility.

In 1991, a leak from the chemical processing equipment resulted in a fire at the facility.

One month after Master Wear closed, IDEM conducted an investigation and reported 44 55-gallon drums behind the building. Seven of them were labeled “perchloroethylene”.

Perchloroethylene or perc, is a nonflammable liquid solvent primarily used for dry-cleaning fabrics and in other industrial settings.