A federal judge in Washington has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to set a deadline, within sixty days, by which it will review and revise, if necessary, regulations for coal ash disposal.
The memorandum opinion by U.S. district judge Reggie Walton followed an order released last month indicating that he would rule in favor of the environmentalist plaintiffs in the case.
The Oct. 29 order is here.
EPA announced a lengthy proposed coal ash disposal rule in June 2010 but has not acted to finalize it during the ensuing three-plus years.
The agency has not reviewed existing coal ash disposal regulations, or formally revised them, since 2000. The nation's principal hazardous waste law, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, requires it do so every three years.
In 2009 Public Integrity published an investigative story that examined the damage caused by existing coal ash disposal methods. The piece provides excellent background on the issue.
Showing posts with label coal ash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coal ash. Show all posts
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Friday, October 4, 2013
Federal court orders EPA to regulate coal ash
A federal court has held that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must regulate the disposal of the toxic byproduct of coal-fired power plants into slurry ponds.
The decision comes in a case that turns on the application of the nation's principal hazardous waste law, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
In June 2010 EPA proposed a regulation that would tighten the current weak limits applicable to handling of coal conversion residues. However, the agency has declined to finalize it.
The aim of the lawsuit is to force EPA to do so.
Coal combustion residues contain a variety of toxic metals, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium. EPA has identified at least 36 other heavy metals and other substances in CCRs.
Discharge of CCRs by coal-fired power plants means that such facilities are the source of more than half of all the toxic pollutants discharged into the nation's surface waters by permitted industrial facilities.
There are hundreds of CCR sites in the United States. According to an EPA web page, 45 of them are considered to pose a "high hazard."
Judge Reggie B. Walton's Sept. 30 memorandum order does not explain his reasoning beyond mention that the environmental group plaintiffs prevailed on their second cause of action listed in a complaint.
The litigation in which the order was issued does not relate to CCR discharges directly into surface waters, either as a result of leaking earthen dams or otherwise. That issue is the subject of a proposed rule announced by EPA last April. The agency faces a May 2014 deadline to finalize that regulation.
The Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives approved in July a bill that would strip EPA of any authority to regulate CCR disposal.
Coal ash pond failures in the past have proven to be highly destructive of the environment. A 1976 incident on Virginia's Clinch River contaminated 90 miles of the watershed, killing several hundred thousand fish, while another in Dec. 2008 in eastern Tennessee released more than billion gallons of coal ash slurry into the Clinch and Emory rivers.
The decision comes in a case that turns on the application of the nation's principal hazardous waste law, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
In June 2010 EPA proposed a regulation that would tighten the current weak limits applicable to handling of coal conversion residues. However, the agency has declined to finalize it.
The aim of the lawsuit is to force EPA to do so.
Coal combustion residues contain a variety of toxic metals, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium. EPA has identified at least 36 other heavy metals and other substances in CCRs.
Discharge of CCRs by coal-fired power plants means that such facilities are the source of more than half of all the toxic pollutants discharged into the nation's surface waters by permitted industrial facilities.
There are hundreds of CCR sites in the United States. According to an EPA web page, 45 of them are considered to pose a "high hazard."
Judge Reggie B. Walton's Sept. 30 memorandum order does not explain his reasoning beyond mention that the environmental group plaintiffs prevailed on their second cause of action listed in a complaint.
The litigation in which the order was issued does not relate to CCR discharges directly into surface waters, either as a result of leaking earthen dams or otherwise. That issue is the subject of a proposed rule announced by EPA last April. The agency faces a May 2014 deadline to finalize that regulation.
The Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives approved in July a bill that would strip EPA of any authority to regulate CCR disposal.
Coal ash pond failures in the past have proven to be highly destructive of the environment. A 1976 incident on Virginia's Clinch River contaminated 90 miles of the watershed, killing several hundred thousand fish, while another in Dec. 2008 in eastern Tennessee released more than billion gallons of coal ash slurry into the Clinch and Emory rivers.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Rahall Introduces Coal Ash Dump Bill
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV) today introduced legislation requiring federal regulation of coal ash dumps.
There are currently no federal standards for coal ash impoundments as exist under SMCRA for coal slurry. Instead, such impoundments are constructed and maintained under a patchwork of state requirements, or on a voluntary basis.
"The disaster witnessed at the Kingston, Tennessee facility - which could have been avoided had TVA exercised appropriate engineering and monitoring regimes - was a clarion call for action," Rahall said. "Now is the time to take that action, before any lives are lost to a similar disaster, which is why I am introducing legislation to provide a basic level of safety for our communities and the environment from the hazards of coal ash waste."
The Coal Ash Reclamation and Environmental Safety Act of 2009 (H.R. 493) would impose uniform federal design, engineering, and performance standards on coal ash impoundments to avoid a repeat of the damage done in Kingston. The legislation, which requires minimum design and stability standards for all surface impoundments constructed to hold coal ash, draws on the regulatory model for impoundments that is used for coal slurry management under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA).
The majority of coal ash, a byproduct of the combustion of coal at electric utility power plants, is deposited in impoundments, landfills, or mines. By comparison, coal slurry is one of the main refuse streams from the treatment of raw coal when it is mined.
"It is impossible to write off the disaster in Tennessee as a freak accident," Rahll said. "The absence of national standards for coal ash has resulted in environmental damage and threats to human health throughout the country - not just last month, or last year, but for decades, and as far as we know this may be just the tip of the iceberg."
Requirements for coal slurry impoundments under SMCRA that would be made applicable to coal ash impoundments under H.R. 493 cover aspects of design, construction, operation, and closure, including:
* Regulations detailing the engineering and stability of the embankment.
* Regulations requiring all applications for an impoundment to have a foundation investigation to determine design requirements for stability.
* Each design plan must include a geotechnical investigation of the embankment foundation area.
* Each impoundment plan must include a survey describing the potential effect on the structure from subsidence of the subsurface strata resulting from past mining operations in the area.
* Plans for impoundments must be reviewed by a geologist or an engineer.
* Regulations requiring that a qualified engineer, with experience in construction of impoundments, inspect each impoundment regularly during construction, upon completion of construction, and periodically thereafter.
"For those states that do not already have careful standards for coal ash disposal, my legislation will require immediate attention to the shocking gaps in coal ash management," Rahall said. "The American public and our environment simply cannot afford to wait any longer to rein in the hazards posed by the shoddy and irresponsible coal ash disposal practices that currently exist."
A 2006 National Academy of Sciences study, along with a 2007 Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources oversight hearing, pointed to the pressing need for a federal regulatory regime governing the disposal of coal ash.
A coal ash spill covering more than 300 acres occurred at a Tennessee Valley Authority facility about three weeks ago.
There are currently no federal standards for coal ash impoundments as exist under SMCRA for coal slurry. Instead, such impoundments are constructed and maintained under a patchwork of state requirements, or on a voluntary basis.
"The disaster witnessed at the Kingston, Tennessee facility - which could have been avoided had TVA exercised appropriate engineering and monitoring regimes - was a clarion call for action," Rahall said. "Now is the time to take that action, before any lives are lost to a similar disaster, which is why I am introducing legislation to provide a basic level of safety for our communities and the environment from the hazards of coal ash waste."
The Coal Ash Reclamation and Environmental Safety Act of 2009 (H.R. 493) would impose uniform federal design, engineering, and performance standards on coal ash impoundments to avoid a repeat of the damage done in Kingston. The legislation, which requires minimum design and stability standards for all surface impoundments constructed to hold coal ash, draws on the regulatory model for impoundments that is used for coal slurry management under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA).
The majority of coal ash, a byproduct of the combustion of coal at electric utility power plants, is deposited in impoundments, landfills, or mines. By comparison, coal slurry is one of the main refuse streams from the treatment of raw coal when it is mined.
"It is impossible to write off the disaster in Tennessee as a freak accident," Rahll said. "The absence of national standards for coal ash has resulted in environmental damage and threats to human health throughout the country - not just last month, or last year, but for decades, and as far as we know this may be just the tip of the iceberg."
Requirements for coal slurry impoundments under SMCRA that would be made applicable to coal ash impoundments under H.R. 493 cover aspects of design, construction, operation, and closure, including:
* Regulations detailing the engineering and stability of the embankment.
* Regulations requiring all applications for an impoundment to have a foundation investigation to determine design requirements for stability.
* Each design plan must include a geotechnical investigation of the embankment foundation area.
* Each impoundment plan must include a survey describing the potential effect on the structure from subsidence of the subsurface strata resulting from past mining operations in the area.
* Plans for impoundments must be reviewed by a geologist or an engineer.
* Regulations requiring that a qualified engineer, with experience in construction of impoundments, inspect each impoundment regularly during construction, upon completion of construction, and periodically thereafter.
"For those states that do not already have careful standards for coal ash disposal, my legislation will require immediate attention to the shocking gaps in coal ash management," Rahall said. "The American public and our environment simply cannot afford to wait any longer to rein in the hazards posed by the shoddy and irresponsible coal ash disposal practices that currently exist."
A 2006 National Academy of Sciences study, along with a 2007 Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources oversight hearing, pointed to the pressing need for a federal regulatory regime governing the disposal of coal ash.
A coal ash spill covering more than 300 acres occurred at a Tennessee Valley Authority facility about three weeks ago.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Times Published Article on Unregulated Coal Ash Dumps
Today's New York Times includes an article exploring the state of regulation applicable to coal ash dumps in the United States, pointing out that the dump that spilled toxic sludge in Tennessee last week is one of many that are not regulated.
A 2007 report by EPA identified 63 sites in 26 states where the water was contaminated by heavy metals from coal ash dumps, including three other Tennessee Valley Authority sites.
Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any federal regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment.
A 2007 report by EPA identified 63 sites in 26 states where the water was contaminated by heavy metals from coal ash dumps, including three other Tennessee Valley Authority sites.
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