A report last week claims that AEP’s Muskingum River Plant in Beverly has demonstrated damage to groundwater moving off-site because of coal combustion waste leaching from the upper fly ash reservoir.

Monitoring at the plant from 2005 to 2008 showed exceedances of federal Maximum Contaminant Levels for alpha particles in the shallow aquifer that is the source of water for private wells in the area.

Seepage from the fly ash reservoir dam, which flows into the Muskingum River, had arsenic concentrations exceeding the Maximum Contaminant Level by more than triple, boron concentrations approaching EPAs Child Health Advisory standard, and mercury concentrations three times the Maximum Contaminant Level and nearly five times the water quality level set by the EPA to assess acute toxicity to aquatic life in freshwater.

The Muskingum Plant has 70 private drinking water wells within a two-mile radius of the fly ash disposal facility. However, no public drinking water intakes were found within a five-mile radius of the site.

The report cited 39 such locations in 21 states where coal ash is a potential problem. The report’s authors included the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club.