Last week we announced our intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency to force the release of long-awaited public health safeguards against toxic coal ash. Here is just another example of why states aren’t doing an adequate job keeping this toxic muck out of our drinking water. This Charlotte Observer article reports on elevated levels of coal ash metals in groundwater at all 14 coal-fired power plants in North Carolina.

According to the article, “sulfate, dissolved solids and chromium were found at seven plants. Boron was found at six, arsenic at three, and selenium, thallium and antimony at two. Chloride and nickel were each detected at one plant.”

(I know the answer to this question) Who would want any of these toxic chemicals in their drinking water?

Aerial image of the TVA spill. (TVA)

Last month we marked three years since the Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston coal ash spill, underscoring the fact that the EPA has yet to regulate toxic coal ash waste.

Now we have even more reason to be concerned.

According to analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project, the most recent U.S. Toxic Release Inventory indicates that coal ash disposal into these big ponds was much higher in 2010 than it’s been since 2007. Shortly after the Dec. 23, 2008 spill, the EPA pledged it would take this toxic menace seriously, yet the agency has still not published a final rule addressing the waste.

Tennessee coal ash spill three years ago

So much has happened since that terrible day three years ago when more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge burst through a dam at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant in Harriman, about 150 miles from Nashville.

For starters, the Environmental Protection Agency, which had promised to move swiftly to protect the public from future coal ash disasters soon after the TVA spill, has still not finalized a national rule.  In the absence of EPA action, more contamination has been uncovered at 19 new sites and additional disasters have occurred, such as the October 31, 2011 25,000-ton coal ash spill in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where a bluff collapsed sending coal ash and debris from We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant into Lake Michigan.

Energy-saving incandescent light bulbs available now look and work like the bulbs we have been using for decades—but are 28–33 percent more efficient.

Usually when our elected leaders fight federal rules, they are going to the mat for their corporate benefactors. Yet we scratch our heads in wonder over who exactly has pushed them to take on this light bulb fight. Last week, the House GOP majority included in their must-pass funding legislation a rider to block funding for DOE’s enforcement of certain light bulb efficiency rules.

What is so strange about this latest action is not that the GOP is relying on a hollow argument about protecting “freedom of choice” for light bulbs (my colleague Liz Judge did a fantastic job debunking the assertion that the standards will force incandescent light bulbs off the market) but that industry is not behind the GOP’s attempt to block these regulations.

Coal ash landfill

Looks like that murky glass of water shouldn’t be your only concern.  Several states weak on coal ash disposal also have another dubious claim: many are the worst offenders of air pollution.
In August, we released a report detailing the lack of state-based regulations for coal ash disposal and the 12 worst states when it comes to coal ash dumping.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) opposed H.R. 2273, calling it a "green-light pass for utility companies to dispose of their waste without regard to public health or the environment."

It’s been a hard year for those of us who dream of our drinking water being free from coal ash contamination.  We waited for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to release standards for regulating toxic coal ash and were dismayed to find out they would be delayed until the end of 2012 or even 2013. Then in October, the House of Representatives passed a bill that allows for coal ash to keep polluting our drinking water. That same month a 50-year-old coal ash fill in Wisconsin collapsed, sending toxic waste directly into Lake Michigan.

And if all of that wasn’t enough, the Senate has an identical companion bill, S. 1751, that they will be voting on imminently.

But despite all this, we are grateful.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson

A few months ago when the Obama Administration abruptly scrapped a stronger ozone standard, we were blindsided.
Turns out, we weren’t the only ones.

This New York Times article gives an illuminating look at the political wrangling behind the scenes of the decision, and indicates that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson herself was blindsided. So much so that she even contemplated resigning.

Administrator Jackson thought the rule was in the bag; instead, just before Labor Day weekend President Obama indicated that it was a no-go. In a statement from the White House at the time, President Obama mentioned the importance of “reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover” and that he himself requested Administrator Jackson to withdraw the rule.

Massive clean-up operations in the aftermath of the 2008 Kingston coal ash spill. (TVA)

This week, the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment will investigate how the Environmental Protection Agency incorporates science into its rulemaking process. Given that the EPA has been Public Enemy Number 1 for the GOP-controlled House, this is likely to be another opportunity for Republicans and their comrades to target the EPA.

Yes, we’ve had enough of this. But we’re not alone. Republicans have come under fire for questioning science by Democrats as well as members of their own party. In an article in E&E News, former EPA Administrator Bill Reilly, who served under President George H. W. Bush, said “for some of the most prominent leaders of the Republican Party, science has left the building.”

Ouch - but we couldn’t agree more.
 

As part of the Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities series, NPR investigated the toxic air pollution being pumped out of the Ash Grove cement plant in Chanute, Kansas, a town of roughly 9,000 people.

The Ash Grove facility, which emits some 500 pounds of mercury a year when operating full blast, is not violating any air pollution standard. In fact, it essentially has permission to pollute the air with four times the allowed amount of certain toxic pollutants. The reason: loopholes in the form of permits that allow cement plants to burn hazardous waste as fuel. The problem:  these kilns can pump out several times the amount of lead, cadmium and mercury that is allowed by actual hazardous waste incinerators, according to NPR.

“The problem with cement plants that burn hazardous waste is that they are not designed to burn hazardous waste,” Earthjustice's Jim Pew was quoted in the segment saying. “In my view it’s a loophole for the cement industry.”

Coal ash spill into Lake Michigan

We’re closing in on the 3-year anniversary of the TVA coal ash disaster and there are still no federal regulations in place protecting us from coal ash. And now, another spill: in Oak Creek, Wisconsin a bluff collapsed, sending coal ash and debris from We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant into Lake Michigan.

Writing this off as a “freak accident” or “mudslide” is a dangerous err in judgment. Coal ash has toxic levels of arsenic, hexavalent chromium, mercury, lead and other chemicals. Would you want that in your drinking water? No, and sadly, that is a reality to people who live near these sites in Wisconsin.

We’re still waiting on details from this spill (how many tons of coal ash, how far does it extend, etc.) and there are many questions. Maureen Wolff lives a mile from the power plant and walked to the shoreline shortly after the incident. She saw the dark color of the debris and wondered if it was coal ash.

“All this is going along the coast line and they’re telling people all it is is just a few trailers and possibly some tools. No one is saying what exactly is in it,” she is quoted saying in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.