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Where are Coal Ash Dump Sites? [1]
['The Legal Case']
Date: 2023-07
The EPA issued a proposed rule to address most of these exemptions on May 17, 2023. The revisions must address the failure of the 2015 Coal Ash Rule to regulate approximately half of all coal ash in the U.S. — more than a billion tons — stored in legacy coal ash ponds and landfills. At many of these legacy sites, EPA determined that coal ash has contaminated groundwater but does not require monitoring, closure, or cleanup. Making matters worse, industry has often blamed pollution from regulated dumps on nearby unregulated dumps, a sleight of hand that allows them to avoid cleanup responsibility.
The 2015 coal ash rule does not currently apply to:
Coal ash ponds at retired plants that ceased generating power by October 19, 2015 (legacy ponds)
Coal ash landfills that stopped receiving waste by October 19, 2015 (“inactive” or legacy landfills)
Legacy coal ash dump sites displayed in this map were identified via analysis of EPA datasets used in 2007 and 2014 coal ash risk assessments (Human and Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Residuals). These EPA datasets rely on industry-reported data. Ash may have been excavated from some of these historic dump sites since then. Earthjustice expects that this analysis underestimates the number of legacy dump sites, given that it likely does not include plants that stopped burning coal long before EPA conducted the 2007 and 2014 risk assessments. Even if coal ash is fully or partially excavated, contamination at the site may remain, and most sites are not monitored or fully remediated.
Detailed information on regulated coal ash sites is also available.
What is Coal Ash?
For decades, utilities disposed of coal ash – the hazardous substance left after burning coal for energy – by dumping it in unlined ponds and landfills.
Coal ash contains hazardous pollutants including arsenic, boron, cobalt, chromium, lead, lithium, mercury, molybdenum, radium, selenium, and other heavy metals, which have been linked to cancer, heart and thyroid disease, reproductive failure, and neurological harm.
Industry’s own data indicate that across the country 91% of coal plants are currently polluting groundwater above federal health standards with toxic pollutants.
Coal ash remains one of our nation’s largest toxic industrial waste streams. U.S. coal plants continue to produce approximately 70 million tons every year.
EPA must move quickly to stop the flow of toxic releases from hundreds of leaking dumps and require effective cleanups before communities are irreparably harmed.
The companies that profited from burning coal for decades must not be allowed to walk away from dealing with the hundreds of coal ash dumps leaking toxic waste into groundwater.
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[1] Url:
https://earthjustice.org/feature/coal-ash-map-sites-legacy-inactive-regulated
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