EPA Proposes to Delay Closure of Some of the Largest Toxic Coal Ash Ponds, in Violation of the Law

Washington, D.C. —

Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a proposal to further delay closure deadlines for coal ash ponds at 11coal power plants for three years and allow these power plants to apply to continue operating past their planned retirement dates. All of these unlined coal ash ponds are known to be leaking toxic pollutants such as arsenic, lead, mercury, and radium into surrounding groundwater.

The EPA’s proposed revisions would allow these 11 coal power plants to burn coal until October 2031 and continue to dump toxic coal ash into unlined ponds, most of which contain more than a million cubic yards of toxic waste held back by decades-old earthen or ash berms.

“Even if the EPA wants to allow coal power plants to further delay cleaning up their coal ash ponds, that is a clear violation of the law,” said Mychal Ozaeta, Earthjustice senior attorney. “The courts have ruled that they cannot continue to put toxic coal ash into holding ponds that are leaking toxic contaminants into groundwater. None of these power plants are able to qualify for these extensions, regardless of what the EPA says.”

Federal safeguards in place since 2015 (the Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Rule) required all unlined coal ash ponds to cease receiving waste by April 11, 2021 and begin closure and cleanup of the toxic pollution.  Five years ago, these 11 power plants applied for exemptions to closure requirements under a rule established during the first Trump Administration for coal power plants that were set to retire by October 2028 (Part A extensions 40 CFR 257.103(f)(1) and (2)). To qualify, they had to demonstrate, among other things, that no alternative ash disposal capacity was available; potential risks to human health and the environment from the coal ash pond are mitigated; and the facility is in compliance with all other CCR Rule safeguards, including the requirement to clean up contaminated groundwater.

The EPA has never approved any power plant’s application for this extension, but the filing of these applications allows the plants to continue dumping until the extension date is reached or an EPA determination is issued. If approved, the proposal issued today by the EPA would allow the continued operation of unlined coal ash ponds for at least an additional 13 years after a D.C. Circuit decision in 2018 requiring their closure.

The longer industry fails to take action to control its toxic coal ash, the more toxic waste enters our water, and the more difficult cleanup becomes.

“Coal power companies have been letting unlined coal ash ponds leak toxic pollutants into nearby water in violation of the law for more than a decade,” said Lisa Evans, senior counsel at Earthjustice. “In 2023, the EPA designated coal ash a national enforcement priority, but now this EPA is asking coal power companies how long they would like to continue dumping toxic coal ash into dangerous unlined ponds.”

 

Power Plant	Coal ash units	Location
Baldwin Energy Complex	Baldwin Bottom Ash Pond	Baldwin, IL
Big Cajun 2	Bottom Ash Pond	New Roads, LA
Brame Energy Center	Bottom Ash Pond	Lena, LA
Coleto Creek	Coleto Creek Primary Ash Pond	Fannin, TX
Intermountain Generating Facility	Bottom Ash Basin, Waste Water Basin	Delta, UT
Kincaid Generation LLC	Ash Pond	Kincaid, IL
Miami Fort	Miami Fort Basin A, Miami Fort Basin B	North Bend, OH
Naughton	South Ash Pond	Kemmerer, WY
Newton	Newton Primary Ash Pond	Newton, IL
R M Schahfer	Waste Disposal Area	Wheatfield, IN
Welsh	Primary Bottom Ash Pond	Pittsburg, TX

 

Background

Earthjustice represents communities across the U.S. that have fought for years to hold coal-fired power plant operators responsible for their reckless disposal and storage of coal ash.

An Earthjustice lawsuit compelled the EPA to adopt its first-ever safeguards to protect people from toxic coal ash in 2015, but the rule excluded landfills and waste piles that stopped receiving coal ash before the rule went into effect. As a result of our litigation, the Legacy Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR) Surface Impoundment Rule extended federal monitoring and cleanup requirements to hundreds of older coal ash landfills and ponds across the country. In July of 2025, Trump’s EPA announced that it intends to extend compliance deadlines for monitoring and cleaning up coal ash, effectively allowing coal plant owners to stall clean up beyond 2030, and will issue a new Legacy Coal Ash Rule in January of 2026.

Coal ash is a toxic mix of hazardous pollutants, metals, carcinogens, and neurotoxins, including arsenic, boron, cobalt, chromium, lead, lithium, mercury, molybdenum, radium, selenium, and other heavy metals. These have been linked to cancer, heart and thyroid disease, reproductive failure, and neurological harm. Coal ash is disproportionately located in low-income communities and communities of color.