Researchers at Duke University have discovered that coal ash — that viscous by-product of coal-fired power plants — is extremely detrimental to living, as samples taken from last December’s disastrous Kingston, Tenn., spill have been found to contain high levels of arsenic, mercury and radium — things you really don’t want to be breathing.

“Our findings emphasize the fact that although you may stop the emission of toxic elements from coal-fired power plants into the air, they remain in the fly ash that gets stored in power plants’ containment ponds, and may still end up in the environment,” said Avner Vengosh, associate professor of earth and ocean sciences at the Nicholas School.

On December 22, 2008, the containment pond at the TVA Kingston plant collapsed, spilling more than 4.1 million cubic meters of ash into the surrounding environment.

In the weeks following the spill, the Duke team analyzed toxic elements – including radium, arsenic and mercury – in ash, sediment and water samples they collected from standing water in a tributary of the Emory River in Tennessee that had been dammed by the sludge spill, and from multiple locations downstream and upstream on the Emory and Clinch rivers.

“There are hundreds of similar coal-ash storage ponds located in the United States, and all are located next to rivers,” Vengosh said. “Yet the water in these containment ponds is not regulated.” [DukeNews]

According to the EPA’s website, Kentucky is home to four of the nation’s 49-most hazardous coal ash surface impounds, aka “storage sites,” including an LG&E ash pond right here in Louisville, located on Cane Run Road.

So what does 4.1 million cubic meters of ash look like, you might wonder?