Clean air efforts lead to solid waste problems, and possibly

So there are these efforts to cut emissions from coal fired power plants, reducing greenhouse gases and helping to clean our air.  Good thing, right?

Not so fast.  The answer is maybe, maybe not.

I wish I could recall where I was reading on this topic, as it was fascinating stuff, but suffice it to say that the people that are calling for cleaning our air and reducing emissions from burning coal are perhaps creating a much bigger problem by producing more solid waste, with more toxic material in it, that could wind up becoming a huge problem for us in the not so distant future.  First there is the issue of just plain disposing of the waste, and then, well, there is the issue of disposing of that solid waste in a way that doesn't come back to haunt us years down the road when chemicals in the waste seep into the ground water supply.

What many people may not realize is that as things currently operate the ash from coal burning power plants gets 're-used' as an additive for concrete and/or asphalt.  It helps build roads for us and helps reduce the solid waste that goes into landfills or other waste disposal facilities/areas.  Unfortunately, as the power plants work towards the requirements to clean their air, they produce ash that contains many more by nasty chemicals in them in levels that make them unusable for that purpose which basically results in the creation of many tons of toxic waste that must be stored somewhere it won't eventually seep back into ground water supplies, or wind up becoming the ground upon which housing developments are built.

For all of the fuss that environmentalists and NIMBYs put up about the problems associated with nuke-u-lar pow-R plants, nuclear would seem to be better for the environment by far when compared to continuing to burn chunks of black material in big furnaces with nasty smoke stacks.

How long will it be before the global warming alarmists are over-ruled by the protect mother nature's lands and waters people?  I don't know, but personally I'm thinking it may not be soon enough.