Once again, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to weaken or eliminate the federal safeguards and protections against the dangers posed by toxic coal ash stored in ponds on the banks of our rivers. This is another blatant giveaway to powerful utilities and the coal industry. Relaxing common sense, science-based rules now would mean ignoring the lessons learned from the coal ash accidents in Tennessee and North Carolina and ignoring the progress made in safe disposal of coal ash that in states like Virginia and North Carolina.
Rather than addressing the significant deficiencies in the rules as ordered by the court in 2018, EPA is now focusing on making it easier for companies to irresponsibly store and dispose of coal ash.
Communities across our region are struggling with impacts from decades of irresponsible storage and disposal of toxic coal ash. The last thing EPA should be doing is putting more communities in harm’s way. Please join us by filing your comment today calling for regulations on coal ash that protect all communities. The deadline to comment is October 15, 2019, and there will be a public hearing held on October 2 in Arlington, VA.
Here are the ways you can make your opposition heard:
1. Sign our petition (below) and we will file it with the EPA.
2. Go to Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov/ and make your comments under Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2018-0524 using our template as a guide. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments. Read Earthjustice blog for more info.
3. Attend the October 2nd public hearing in Arlington, VA. Register by September 26th if you want to speak.
EPA’s latest rulemaking would make it easier for companies to keep ash in “storage piles” for indefinite periods of time without requiring clear measures to prevent contamination. Coal ash waste piles are more dangerous than landfills because greater amounts of toxic waste are exposed to wind and water, causing ash to become windblown and leak into groundwater.
The rule would also make it easier to use large amounts of coal ash as fill in construction sites. Incredibly, the rule allows companies to keep the public completely in the dark when coal ash is used as fill at construction sites, even though EPA’s own research has shown that coal ash fill can contaminate drinking water and waterways. Communities would have no idea that their groundwater and surface water are at risk of being poisoned by toxic coal ash. Additionally, companies would only have to demonstrate that the coal ash fill will not cause environmental harm when it is used in high-risk areas — areas such as schools, playgrounds and homes that we should not be dumping any coal ash into in the first place.
The best way to stop pollution from leaking out of unlined coal ash sites and into groundwater and surface water is to remove the coal ash from leaking storage ponds on the banks of our rivers. However, in order to prevent this toxic pollution from burdening other communities, the coal ash needs to be transported, stored, and disposed of responsibly.
EN 
ES