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Document October 5, 2020

List of Plants Where Coal-Ash Contaminated Groundwater Exceeds Allowable State and/or Federal Limits

List of 124 plants in 28 states and Puerto Rico whose owners have posted notifications that the groundwater exceeds state and/or federal limits of contamination, without an alternate source demonstration, for one or more of the following toxic substances: Antimony, Arsenic, Barium, Beryllium, Cadmium, Chromium, Cobalt, Lead, Lithium, Molybdenum, Selenium, Thallium, and Radium 226 and 228 combined.

From the Experts: Victory August 29, 2018

Huge Win for Communities Threatened by Toxic Coal Pollution

A landmark court decision requires the EPA to significantly increase protections for more than 850 coal ash ponds.

Mabette Colon, 18, from Puerto Rico, lives near a massive coal ash pile. She testified about how coal ash exposure has harmed her community at a recent EPA hearing.
(Matt Roth for Earthjustice)
Article April 27, 2018

Teen Who Grew up Beside a Coal Ash Pile Would Like a Word With the EPA

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants to weaken a rule that protects people like Mabette Colon from toxic coal waste.

Mountaintop removal coal mining devastates the landscape, turning areas that should be lush with forests and wildlife into barren moonscapes.
(Photo courtesy of OVEC)
Article January 31, 2018

The ‘War on Coal’ Isn’t Over, and It Won’t Be Trump Who Wins It

Contrary to the president’s State of the Union address, Earthjustice is working on dozens of court cases to put an end to coal power. And we are winning.

Coal ash pollution keeps Kentucky college professor Brett Werner from fishing in the lake near his home. Earthjustice is suing Kentucky Utilities to compel it to clean up the 6 million cubic yards of buried coal ash that are contaminating the lake's groundwater.
(Photo Courtesy of Aaron Sole)
Article January 29, 2018

We’re Fighting to Keep Coal out of a Kentucky Lake

Represented by their lawyers at Earthjustice, Kentucky Waterways Alliance and Sierra Club just filed an appeal to force Kentucky Utilities to clean up toxic coal ash pollution in Herrington Lake.

The Reid Gardner coal plant stood about 300 yards from the Moapa River Indian Reservation in Nevada.
(Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)
Article October 31, 2017

Tribe Fought for Coal Ash Safeguards, Then Pruitt Came Along

For decades, coal ash has been affecting the lives of the Paiute Indians who live on the Moapa River Reservation some 30 miles from Las Vegas.

The groundwater beneath the coal-fired Allen Fossil Plant in southwest Memphis—only two miles from the city's drinking water supply—is contaminated with dangerously high amounts of arsenic and lead.
(Tennessee Valley Authority / CC BY 2.0)
Article July 19, 2017

Walking in Memphis—Just Feet Above a Coal Ash Cesspool

Residents of Memphis just learned about major groundwater contamination. Cities across America could be facing the same problem, but won’t know about it if the EPA gives in to utilities.

Fracking-induced earthquakes and unstable coal ash dams are a deadly combination.
(Jens Lambert/Shutterstock)
Article April 20, 2016

Will Fracking-Induced Earthquakes Cause the Next Coal Ash Disaster?

Fracking-induced earthquakes and unstable coal ash dams are a deadly combination.

A coal ash spill on the Dan River in North Carolina in 2014.
(Rick Dove/Waterkeeper Alliance)
Article September 30, 2015

Feds Seek Informants on Duke's Spreading Coal Ash Threats

Duke Energy, responsible for a massive coal ash spill in North Carolina last year, is finally opening up about pollution and structural problems at its other ash ponds nationwide, but the truth may need some more coaxing.

Scientists have found that coal ash has up to 10 times more naturally occurring radioactive materials than the parent coal it comes from.
(David Olah/iStock Photo)
Article September 3, 2015

Coal Ash’s Unhealthy Glow

A new study reveals dangerous radioactivity in coal ash, the toxic waste generated by burning coal for electricity.

These are the 1985 and 1978 coal ash ponds next to the retired Cape Fear coal plant near Moncure, NC.
(Waterkeeper Alliance Inc. / Flickr)
Article April 27, 2015

Trick or Tweak? What Congress Is Really Doing to New Rules on Coal Ash

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has approved a 50-page bill that will gut the nation's first-ever federal standard for coal ash disposal.

North Carolina coal ash plant and pond
(Photos courtesy of Waterkeeper Alliance)
Article March 24, 2015

Big Coal Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

The House Majority continues the dirty business of protecting polluters like the coal ash industry.

A bluff collapse near the Oak Creek Power Plant in Wisconsin that sent coal ash and debris into Lake Michigan. Read the report »
(Courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via Clean Wisconsin)
Article November 18, 2014

New Report: Coal Ash Reuse Threatens Drinking Water Supplies

The use of coal ash as construction fill has contaminated water resources across the nation.

Coal ash contaminated sludge from North Carolina's Dan River
(Waterkeeper Alliance)
Article October 28, 2014

Will the EPA Coal Ash Rule Survive?

The White House has made it official: its review of the Environmental Protection Agency'scoal ash rule has begun.

Buck Steam Station in North Carolina. Good can start by offering bottled water to worried citizens living next to Duke’s leaking coal ash lagoons at their Buck Steam Station.
(Duke Energy Photo)
Article October 9, 2014

Tr-Ash Talk: Duke Spends $10 Million to Clean Up Image, Not Coal Ash

Greenwash fund is just another spin cycle for Duke

A coal ash spill in Tennessee in 2008 destroyed or damaged two dozen nearby homes
(United Mountain Defense)
Article September 29, 2014

More Coal Ash Disasters in Waiting

EPA finds eight more dangerous coal ash ponds in poor condition

The devastating coal ash spill at Kingston, TN in 2008 flooded the Emory and Clinch Rivers with toxic ash.
(Tennessee Valley Authority Photo)
Article September 12, 2014

Industry's Coal Ash Claims are Bogus

Polluter arguments against coal ash regulations are disproved by their own data

William Gibbs and his wife live near the massive coal ash dump in Uniontown, AL. "I wanted to move away from the noise and the hardness of the city. So I came here for some peace and quiet in the country ... now they've pushed this thing right on top of us. Now, I'm too old to move and no one would want to buy this place anyways," says Gibbs.
(Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)
Article August 19, 2014

Uniontown Prepares to Demand Justice

Residents of Uniontown, Alabama prepare for EPA visit to investigate the complaint filed by many of its citizens under the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.