By Jennifer Peters, National Water Campaigns Coordinator
Frustrated by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) continued delay in issuing a final rule to protect the public and environment from toxic coal ash pollution, today a group of
environmental organizations filed a
lawsuit to force EPA to finish its rule. Coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity, contains a concentrated smorgasbord of nasty metals – including arsenic, lead, mercury, and selenium (just to name a few!). Power plants generate over 140 million tons of coal ash annually – making it the second largest waste stream in the U.S. – but there have never been federal standards adopted to ensure it is managed and disposed of safely.
Though EPA concluded in 2000 that national safeguards for the disposal of coal ash were needed, it took another decade (and several disastrous coal ash spills) for the agency to propose a rule. Over 455,000 public comments were submitted on the 2010 proposed rule. Three years after the catastrophic coal ash spill in Kingston, TN, which spewed over a billion tons of toxic waste into nearby communities and streams, it is inexcusable that no regulations have been finalized to prevent future disasters from occurring. There are hundreds of known contaminated sites all over the country that are leaking toxic metals into community drinking water supplies.
Complicating EPA’s efforts to regulate coal ash are polluter-friendly members of Congress pushing legislation to block EPA from ever finalizing a rule. In October 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the deceivingly named
Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act of 2011 (H.R. 2273). Proponents of this bill claim that over forty percent of coal ash can be reused or recycled safely and that federal regulation of coal ash will “kill” the ash recycling industry. While a modest percentage of coal ash can be recycled or reused safely, it can be downright devastating when recycled recklessly. Just ask Steve Johnson, of Blackwater Creek, Florida,
whose land is heavily contaminated with road fill made from recycled coal ash.
You can help Steve Johnson and other communities that have been harmed by toxic coal ash pollution by telling your Senators that
coal ash is too toxic not to regulate. For more information about coal ash
visit our coal ash page.
