Comment on 'Wildlife and the Coal Waste Policy Debate: Proposed Rules for Coal Waste Disposal Ignore Lessons from 45 years of Wildlife Poisoning'

摘要

A recent assessment of direct and indirect costs of fish and wildlife poisoning attributable to surface impoundments of coal combustion waste (CCW) was based on 21 surface impoundment case studies in the United States.1 Selenium was the primary chemical stressor in 14 of the 21 case studies. For those 14 case studies the authors noted that the initial "Period of Damage" ranged between 1967 and 1981. This is prior to and during the time when the potential effects of elevated selenium concentrations on fish populations were just beginning to be understood, mainly due to the observations and research being conducted at Belews Lake (NC).