"Obama issued rules regulating coal ash in 2015 but left a giant loophole exempting all closed dumps. Scattered across 38 states, they contain more than half the coal ash ever produced."
"Environmental groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency to close a gaping loophole in the agency’s rules regulating the management of coal ash dumps that have leached toxic pollutants into rivers and lakes across the country.
The environmental advocates identified buried ash from power plants dumped in open pits in nearly 40 states, often with no liner systems to protect groundwater, or dumped in old landfills—all still unregulated by EPA.
Together, these coal ash pits and landfills and other coal ash disposal sites are among the most costly of long-term legacies from more than a century of burning coal.
The Obama administration in 2015 took action to require safe management of coal-burning waste but left more than half of the coal ash ever produced—as much a half billion tons—unregulated, according to Earthjustice, which planned to file the lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C."
James Bruggers reports for Inside Climate News August 25, 2022.
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