Source: Matt Shipman, WRAL TECHWIRE, 3/4/19

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a technique that uses bacteria to produce “biocement” in coal ash ponds, making the coal ash easier to store and limiting the risk of coal ash spills into surface waters. Coal ash is produced by coal-fired power plants and is often stored in ponds. If the walls of these ponds fail, they can spill coal ash into nearby surface waters – as happened in the wake of Hurricane Florence in 2018, in Virginia’s Dan River in 2014, and in Tennessee in 2008. These spills can have significant consequences, because coal ash contains contaminants such as mercury and arsenic.

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