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Gallery: Toxic Coal AshImages from Arroyo Barril, Samana Region, Dominican Republic. The hill and beach on Samana Bay where the toxic coal ash was dumped illegally 2003 and 2004.Today, it's a beautiful beach off a green sloping hill in Arroyo Barril. But looks can be deceiving. To a Web visitor the long view of the beach and hill with its verdant growth appears to have recovered from the illegal dumping of one hundred million pounds of toxic coal ash in 2003 and 2004. But that toxic material remains just below the surface; in many places it's clearly visible in many forms, from big rocks to small pebbles and flat compacted flakes. When it first was illegally deposited on the beach the coal ash waste was front loaded off dump trucks and then left in giant gray piles on the hill. Toxic coal ash that was not blown into the village or surrounding areas was carried away by rain and surface water, its chemicals making their way into the groundwater or down to the ocean. In a Grand Canyon-esque way the rivulets created craters and valleys among the tons of toxic ash. So today what looks like a green sloping hill down to the bay in Arroyo Barril remains an environmental crime scene in disguise.
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