Following up: "An Indiana county is paying a steep price for burying toxic coal ash." That's us, folks.

Kudos to Bob Frederick for keeping this story alive. He went through a fair amount of crap, but today's piece in the CJ has to feel like vindication for him.

November 16, 2016
Floyd County government and illegal dumping: Who knew, and when did they know it?

March 12, 2018
Impound cinder remediation questions: "Floyd County government and illegal dumping."

Here it is.

An Indiana county is paying a steep price for burying toxic coal ash, by Grace Schneider (Louisville Courier Journal)

If Floyd County officials could do it over again, they’d order their highway crews to scoop up a massive mound of coal ash and haul it back to Louisville.

Instead, taxpayers in the Southern Indiana county will have to pay at least $50,000 for a cleanup of 20,000 tons of the toxin-laced black cinders — stuff that ended up on private property in neighboring communities nine years ago.

The ash might have stayed buried for good, but a retired employee who was worried about the ash sickening people blew the whistle on Floyd County two years ago. That led to remediation plans in New Albany and at a farm near Elizabeth, Indiana, where excavations kicked off this month.

Floyd officials say they’re just glad to near the final chapter of an embarrassing episode.

"If it cost $20,000, $30,000, $50,000, the county has stepped up to satisfy the property owners," said Mark Seabrook, a county commissioner. "It was an accidental mistake. We didn't try to sneak these cinders through anywhere" ...