Judge tells EPA it's time for coal ash disposal rules

In a positive step for community throughout Kentucky, a federal judge last week agreed with a broad coalition of local, state and national groups that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency needs to set federal regulations for the safe and proper disposal of toxic coal ash.

The groups, including KFTC, filed the lawsuit in April 2012 challenging the EPA’s lack of federal standards for the nation's second largest industrial waste stream.

"In Kentucky, toxic coal ash landfills and ponds are not even regulated as well as municipal garbage dumps," explained KFTC member Mary Love. "When LG&E [Louisville Gas & Electric] built the Cane Run power plant in Louisville – right across the road from an existing neighborhood – they simply dug a hole 100 feet from the river and began filling it with coal ash. Today, that landfill is over 10 stories tall and continues to operate on a permit that expired in 2007 and has yet to be renewed. We need EPA regulations on coal ash."

The order (found here) of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia offered little details about the timing or substance of the EPA’s rule-making but said it will issue an opinion within 30 days with more specifics.

For now, the decision marks the first step towards federally enforceable safeguards, monitoring and protections against the exposure of the public to coal ash.

Coal ash has already contaminated more than 200 rivers, lakes, streams and aquifers with toxic pollutants like arsenic, lead, selenium and mercury.

In 2008, a spill at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, Tennessee, dumped one billion gallons of coal ash over 300 acres, destroying homes and poisoning rivers. That spill led to the EPA proposing in May 2010 the first federal regulations for coal ash disposal. The agency never finalized that rulemaking, leaving open the opportunity for the power generating industry and some members of Congress to push for legislation that would prevent the EPA from ever setting federal regulations.

Resources:

Physicians for Social Responsibility coal ash report