UNC needs to kick the coal habit and addiction

TO THE EDITOR:

Yes, the cogeneration facility, our University’s personal coal-fired plant, over there on Cameron Avenue is pretty efficient for its kind; it operates at around 70 percent energy efficiency. Yes, the cogeneration facility’s use of district energy has saved our University and taxpayers a bunch of money. But at what cost do these pluses come? An answer to this lies in what comes out of the plant.

The coal residues produced by UNC’s coal plant, as reported by UNC Energy Services, are used for structural fill or for soil supplements. This coal ash contains radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium. In fact, a study from Oak Ridge National Laboratory concluded that the ash from a coal plant carries into the environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear plant that produces the same amount of energy. Add to this the fact that coal ash isn’t regulated by the EPA, and we have a real concern over the presence of toxic substances in and around Chapel Hill — uranium in our fertilizers?

Coal’s effect on global warming and our economy aside, right now it looks like UNC’s coal plant is putting harmful, radioactive elements into the local environment.

Why don’t we switch to the sustainability of solar and wind energy? Someone will say: “Because, given the current economic climate, it will be too much of a burden on UNC’s budget. Coal is cheap.”

But coal is not cheap. Combine its effects on our health, the destruction of Appalachia via mountaintop-removal mining and its part in global warming and you get something that is going to cost us a lot more than money.

Robert Edmiston
Freshman
Chemistry, Psychology