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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Coal consumption is increasing in many parts of the world, driven by skyrocketing energy demands in rapidly developing countries like China. But with coal comes pollution: from climate-changing carbon dioxide to coal ash, the powdery toxic waste left over from burning coal to produce electricity.
在很多经济快速增长的国家里，例如中国，由于对能源的需求直线上升，煤炭的消耗量也与日俱增。但是污染问题随之而来。这些污染物质包括导致气候变化的二氧化碳，以及发电厂燃烧煤炭后产生的有毒煤灰。
In the United States, coal-fired power plants produce more than 130 million tons of coal waste each year. The debate over how to dispose of it is playing out in the small town of Labadie, Missouri where the controversy is pitting local residents against the Midwestern utility company, Ameren.
在美国，以煤为燃料的发电厂每年产生1亿3千万吨煤灰。密苏里州小城镇拉巴迪正在辩论如何处理这些废料。辩论的一方是镇上居民，另一方是中西部的阿莫林电力公司。
It all started with the Labadie ladies book club back in the summer of 2009.
2009年夏天，拉巴迪镇妇女读书俱乐部聚会。
"Everybody was just gathering, and somebody kind of off-handedly said, 'Oh, did you all hear that so-and-so just sold his bottom ground,'" says long-time area resident Kay Genovese. "And nobody had heard about that, and she said, 'Yeah, I heard he sold it to Ameren.'"
闲聊时，一位名叫吉诺维斯的会员说起，镇上某人刚刚把他的一块低地卖给了阿莫林公司。
Bottom ground is land in the floodplain of the Missouri River. Genovese says at the book club the next month, they found out another farmer had sold his land.
低地指的是指密苏里河滩上的地。吉诺维斯说，在读书会下个月的聚会上，知道又有一个农民把他的土地卖掉了。
"And we were like, 'Oh, to Ameren again?' Three months in a row, we kept hearing about these different farmers selling their ground to Ameren."
“我们当时就问：又是卖给阿莫林公司吗？此后三个月，我们不断听说有农民把地卖给阿莫林公司。”
The book club ladies started asking questions. They found out that the utility company Ameren was planning to build a 160 hectare [400 acre] coal ash landfill in the floodplain, next door to its massive power plant in Labadie.
读书会的女士们开始有了疑问。她们得知，阿莫林电力公司正计划在拉巴迪镇这片临近公司的河滩上，开一个占地160公顷的煤灰掩埋场。
Shift supervisor Jim Dean says, with its four huge turbines, Labadie can generate enough power to supply electricity to almost half a million homes. To do it, the place burns coal by the train load.
公司当班主管吉姆·狄恩说，拉巴迪工厂这4座巨型涡轮机生产的电力可以供应将近50万个家庭。为了达到这个发电量，他们得成车成车地烧煤。
"Each train has about 130 cars in it. Each car holds 100 tons of coal. And we’ll burn one car, 100 tons of coal, in about four minutes with all four units at full load," Dean says.
“每列火车有130节车皮，每节车皮装100吨煤。我们这4座涡轮机大约每4分钟就要烧一整车皮、也就是100吨煤。”
At two coal trains a day, that works out to about 10 million tons of coal a year. Approximately seven percent of that - over half a million tons - is left over as coal ash.
每天需要两列火车的煤炭。一年要燃烧1千万吨煤。其中大约百分之7、也就是50多吨最后变成了煤灰。阿莫林公司可以回收这50多万吨煤灰的一半。
Ameren recycles more than half of it. The rest gets mixed with water, and sluiced out to two open ponds next to the plant. The coal ash settles out to the bottom, and the remaining water gets discharged, untreated, into the Missouri River.
另外一半跟水搀在一起，经由闸门进入发电厂附近的两个池塘。煤灰沉入水底，而未经处理的水则就流入密苏里河中。
Ameren’s Vice President of Environmental Services, Mike Menne, says those ponds are running out of room. At a 160 hectares, the new landfill would be big enough to replace them both, and take ash from Ameren’s Meramec and Rush Island plants, too.
阿莫林公司主管环保的副总裁迈克·门尼说，这两个池塘都满了，新开掘160公顷面积的掩埋场，除了足以取代这两个池塘之外，还可以收容阿莫林公司在马雷马克和拉什岛两处发电厂的煤灰。
Menne says the new landfill would have protection systems the current ponds lack. It would be double-lined to protect groundwater, and have a berm around it - about as high as a two-story building - to keep floodwaters out.
门尼说，新的掩埋场将增加现在这两个池塘没有的保护系统，比如双层防渗层，以保护地下水，还有四周两层楼高的护堤，防止掩埋场内的积水流出。
"And then it has what’s referred to as a leachate collection system which is a water collection system," says Menne. "Any water that would percolate through the material is collected and sent back to the plant to be used for process water."
他说：“另外，还有截留渗水的系统，就和储水设施一样，收集渗出的水，送回工厂作为工业用水。”
Even with all the new safety precautions, many area residents are worried about all that ash, and what’s in it: toxic elements like arsenic, chromium, and lead, which can cause cancer, developmental problems, and other serious health issues.
尽管有这些安全设施，很多当地居民还是担心煤灰问题。因为煤灰里的有毒物质，例如砷、铬和铅，会导致癌症、发育不良，和其它严重健康问题。
They’re afraid those hazardous substances could wind up in groundwater or the Missouri River, and contaminate area drinking water supplies. They’re also concerned about property values, and increased truck traffic.
他们害怕，这些有害物质会渗入地下水和密苏里河，污染这个地区的饮水系统。他们还担心房地产价格因此跌落，以及日益增加的卡车流量。
The Labadie book club ladies, who first found out about Ameren’s landfill plans, got organized, and gave themselves a name - the Labadie Environmental Organization - which now has close to 400 members.
还记得妇女读书会的女士们吗？她们已经组织起来，为读书会取了名字，叫作“拉巴迪环保组织。”目前这个组织有将近400名成员。
One of them is Labadie resident Petra Haynes. She hopes Ameren will, as she puts it, "do the right thing" and not build a landfill in the floodplain.
成员之一是当地居民裴特拉·海恩斯。她希望阿莫林公司做“正确的事”，而不是在河滩上建掩埋场。
"We really firmly believe that there has to be a better, safer location," she says. "We would like Ameren to really consider the safety and well-being of their customers, rather than the bottom line."
海恩斯说：“我们坚信，一定有一个更好的、更安全的地点做煤灰掩埋场地。我们希望阿莫林公司真正考虑客户的福利，而不是只顾公司赚钱。”
She and other area residents have been voicing their concerns at public hearings with the local county board of commissioners. The board is trying to decide whether to change county zoning regulations to allow utility waste landfills like Ameren’s.
海恩斯和其他居民们都在拉巴迪镇所属的弗兰克林县公听会上提出了他们的关切。县政府正在考虑是否改变涉及阿莫林公司等企业掩埋工业废料的土地区划法。
Presiding Commissioner John Griesheimer says he understands why people don’t want a landfill in the floodplain.
县委会主席约翰·格里斯海默说，他了解人们为什么不希望在河滩地上建掩埋场。
"But the bottom line is we have to put it somewhere. To be opposed to it, and have an alternative is one thing, but to be just opposed to it without giving us another option here, that’s another matter, and that’s what’s hard for everybody to do."
他说：“问题是总得有一个地方处理废料。反对这个计划、并提出一个替代方案是一回事，但是如果只是反对却又提不出其它选择，就是另一回事了。这就是大家的难处。”
Griesheimer says a final decision on the county’s landfill regulations is still months away.
格里斯海默说，就县里废料掩埋规定做出最后决定，还要经过几个月的努力。
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