By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to force some utilities to clean up older piles of toxic coal ash at their power plants to prevent contamination of groundwater, in the latest in a series of rules to clean up the sector.
The proposed rule follows a legal petition by environmental groups last August asking the EPA to end exemptions to its 2015 coal ash rule that had enabled utilities across the country to sidestep responsibility for handling up to a half a billion tons of cancer-causing toxic waste.
The new proposal requires the safe management of coal ash that has been dumped in areas that are currently unregulated, including inactive power plants with surface impoundments that are no longer in use – facilities that were not covered by the 2015 rule issued by the Obama administration.
Coal ash contains hazardous pollutants including arsenic, chromium, lead, and mercury, which have been linked to cancer, heart and thyroid disease and other illnesses. It tends to have a larger impact on low-income, minority communities living near power plants.
“Many of these communities have been disproportionately impacted by pollution for far too long. This proposal will better protect their health and our environment,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
The groups that filed the petition last year, led by Earthjustice, found that the EPA exempted coal ash heaps at nearly 300 landfills in 38 states.
The rule comes just days after the EPA proposed what could become the first-ever rules aimed at curbing carbon dioxide from new and existing power plants, which could hasten the closure of coal plants around the country by requiring the installation of carbon capture technology starting in 2030.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
