JEA: Now Delivering Toxic Mercury Right to your Front Door?

By now, you probably know of JEA's abundant emissions of toxic mercury from its coal-fired power plants on the Northside. Just in case that wasn't heinous enough for you, JEA might now be sprinkling this toxic substance on the road in front of your house. According to a recent Folioweekly article (7/31/07, "Burning Questions: A JEA road project raises concerns about impacts to environment and health"), JEA is using a material derived from a coal ash byproduct in local road projects (basically some of the stuff left over after it burns the coal in its plants).

Folioweekly goes on to say, "Though the use of ash in concrete, gypsum board and road construction is permitted by the federal and state governments, and promoted as a green way to reuse waste, the ash does contain toxins, including mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium." And in one project in Mandarin, it seems like JEA basically sprinkled this toxic fairy dust on to the road and let it blow around for a few weeks in a residential neighborhood.

Of course, this isn't all a bad idea. Reusing waste saves money, time, and resources. But apparently JEA is selling this product, called EZBase, based on one test it conducted itself. There have been no independent tests, which for a product with this much potential toxic downside seems irresponsible. And it doesn't seem like the product is always applied responsibly, if its true that JEA as been letting this potentially toxic dust blow around a residential neighborhood in Mandarin.

Perhaps environmental advocate and mechanical engineer Nelson Helmuth said it best, "The greatest story never told is how we're polluting ourselves to death in this country. In the industrial world, the asthma rate is going up, the cancer rate is going up, the rate of children with attention deficit disorder is going up. We are poisoning ourselves."