(The following appeared on the Virginian Pilot website on April 4, 2011.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern Corp. makes a lot of money moving coal around the country.
In 2010, coal contributed $2.7 billion of business – 28 percent of the company’s total revenue.
In the last couple of years, however, the Norfolk-based railroad has identified an emerging coal-related market: transporting fly ash, the charcoal-gray powder left from the burning of coal for electricity, to landfills.
There are roughly 440 coal-fired power plants in the United States and each has to deal, in one way or another, with fly ash, which is laced with heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead.
The full story is on the Virginian Pilot website.