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Lisa Evans

Senior Counsel Clean Energy Program

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Kathryn McGrath
Public Affairs and Communications Strategist
(202) 516-6932
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MA

Lisa Evans is an attorney specializing in hazardous waste law. Ms. Evans has been active in hazardous waste litigation and advocacy for over 25 years. Since 2006, she has been a senior administrative counsel for Earthjustice.

Evans is an expert on coal ash issues and testified before Congress in 2008, 2010 and 2011 and before the National Academies of Science in 2005. Prior to Earthjustice, Ms. Evans worked on toxic coal waste issues for the Boston-based nonprofit Clean Air Task Force.

Ms. Evans began her legal career as an Assistant Regional Counsel at the Environmental Protection Agency, Region I. Ms. Evans is also the author of six nonfiction books, including one children’s book. She has three children and lives in Marblehead, MA.

Media Highlight with Lisa Evans:

The Latest from Lisa Evans

October 9, 2024

Toxic Coal Ash Used in Neighborhoods Poses Health Risks Even Decades Later

By Lisa Evans

The use of toxic coal ash as a substitute for clean soil in construction and landscaping remains largely unregulated despite the risks.
May 23, 2024

In the News: IndyStar

Error in Pines coal ash cleanup plan put residents’ health at risk

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“They have a motivation to not find as much contamination.”
April 26, 2024

In the News: NC Newsline

New EPA rules will force fossil fuel power plants to cut pollution

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“We’re going to see a long-awaited crackdown on coal ash pollution from America’s coal plants, and it’ll be a huge win for America’s health and water resources. They are all likely leaking toxic chemicals like arsenic into groundwater and most contain levels of radioactivity that can be dangerous to human health.”
March 13, 2024

In the News: Indiana Public Radio

Pines residents, activists worry coal ash cleanup standard for soil based on flawed data

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“It may result in very few properties being cleaned up if that [natural level of arsenic] standard is set artificially high."
February 20, 2024

In the News: Indianapolis Star

EPA: Cancer risk from coal ash higher than previously revealed. Could it be in your yard?

Quoted: Lisa Evans

"Nothing prevents power plants from moving radioactive waste from their own backyards into the backyards and neighborhoods where American families live.”
February 8, 2024

In the News: Inside Climate News

EPA Reports “Widespread Noncompliance” With the Nation’s First Regulations on Toxic Coal Ash

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“We see this as the first shot across the bow informing the utilities and states and stakeholders that EPA indeed does find significant noncompliance with the coal ash rule.”
January 24, 2024

In the News: Inside Climate News

Environmentalists Rattled by Radioactive Risks of Toxic Coal Ash

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“The EPA has not come close to doing a risk assessment of the placement of coal ash in residential areas. They project that these utility sites may be redeveloped in the future and that this ash will pose a problem to human health at that point, which is true. But it begs the question of what about the ash that’s actually in people’s yards right now?”
August 24, 2023

EPA announces that cleaning up coal ash will be a top priority for enforcement

By Lisa Evans

EPA acknowledges widespread noncompliance from coal-fired power plant owners.
June 20, 2023

In the News: Grist

Closing the coal ash loophole

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“It’s unfortunate that it had to take this many years for industry to be called out to admit that numerous dump sites were contaminating groundwater, but it’s how this system works. Unless you have a specific rule requiring investigation and cleanup, industry is just not going to do it.”
January 25, 2022

In the News: Corporate Knights

Could rare earth minerals give coal country a second life?

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“How do you extract [rare earth] in a way that doesn’t create more of an environmental hazard, that doesn’t endanger workers and that doesn’t leave toxic waste for the community? All these questions have to be answered.”
January 11, 2022

In the News: CNN

EPA begins enforcement on clean up of toxic coal-ash ponds

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“Enforcement of the rule's provisions is desperately needed, as coal plants have demonstrated they don't care about polluting water or putting people's health at risk, and they have taken full advantage of the Trump EPA's hands-off policy. The result is nationwide pollution of water at coal plants.”
January 11, 2022

In the News: The Hill

EPA takes steps toward addressing toxic coal residue

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“EPA, has not, to date, since the rule was promulgated in 2015, enforced the rule. It’s stunning that there have been no enforcement actions when in fact there is widespread, substantial noncompliance.”
December 5, 2021

In the News: CNN

Gambling ‘America’s Amazon’

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“You can’t see coal ash contaminating underlying groundwater … you can’t see the slow pollution of the adjacent river and the dying of the fish.”
May 24, 2021

In the News: Albuquerque Journal

Turning NM coal ash into green products

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“The question is, can it be done technically and economically? If this company can do it, it could bring employment to an area where coal plants are retiring while also providing a recycling solution for coal ash.”
February 20, 2021

In the News: The New York Times

Texas Blackouts Point to Coast-to-Coast Crises Waiting to Happen

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“We should be evaluating whether these facilities or sites actually have to be moved or re-secured. [Places that] may have been OK in 1990, may be a disaster waiting to happen in 2021.”
February 10, 2021

In the News: IndyStaf

Other states are making utilities dig up toxic coal ash. Indiana is letting it sit there.

Quoted: Lisa Evans

“That says it all when we see what Duke is doing or not doing in Indiana and what IDEM is making them do versus what other states are making them do. We have to ask why?”
February 3, 2021

In the News: E&E News

Michael Regan's coal ash cleanups set template for EPA regs

Quoted: Lisa Evans

"The emphasis on excavation of coal ash when it is in contact with groundwater or when it threatens a nearby water body is incredibly important. I would hope that he would bring that to the federal EPA to be implemented throughout the nation."
Andrew Rehn, right, of the Prairie Rivers Network and Lan Richart of Eco-Justice Collaborative paddle past toxic coal ash waste seepage on the Vermilion River in Illinois.
October 1, 2020

Leaking and Looming, Legacy Coal Ash Ponds Spew Poisons. Is There One Near You?

By Lisa Evans

Despite a court order, Trump's EPA is dragging its feet on regulating this toxic threat.
August 29, 2018

Huge Win for Communities Threatened by Toxic Coal Pollution

By Lisa Evans

A landmark court decision requires the EPA to significantly increase protections for more than 850 coal ash ponds.
The groundwater beneath the Tennessee Valley Authority's 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.
July 19, 2017

Walking in Memphis—Just Feet Above a Coal Ash Cesspool

By Lisa Evans

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.
Jens Lambert/Shutterstock
April 20, 2016

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

By Lisa Evans

Fracking-induced earthquakes and unstable coal ash dams are a deadly combination.
Nenad Zivkovic/Shutterstock
April 14, 2016

Earthjustice Victory Offers New Hope for Communities Living with Coal Ash

By Lisa Evans

A court has ordered the EPA to create financial assurance rules, providing hope to communities living near coal ash lagoons that companies will pay to clean up their toxic spills.
February 3, 2016

Ceniza de Carbón: Un Problema de Derechos Civiles

By Lisa Evans

La EPA de no proteger a los Americanos de grupos minoritarios o de bajos recursos de la contaminación por la ceniza de carbón.
Coal ash industrial waste
February 3, 2016

Coal Ash: A Civil Rights Issue

By Lisa Evans

The EPA has a well-documented problem with allowing coal ash waste to pile up in low-income communities of color.
A coal ash spill on the Dan River in North Carolina in 2014.
September 30, 2015

Feds Seek Informants on Duke's Spreading Coal Ash Threats

By Lisa Evans

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.
September 3, 2015

Coal Ash’s Unhealthy Glow

By Lisa Evans

A new study reveals dangerous radioactivity in coal ash, the toxic waste generated by burning coal for electricity.
A Duke Energy coal fired power plant
July 21, 2015

Politics as Dirty as Coal Ash: House Bill Lets Polluters Off the Hook

By Lisa Evans

The House of Representatives is voting on HR 1734, Rep. David McKinley’s (R- WV) sixth attempt at a coal ash bill that protects his largest campaign contributors while weakening critical health protections.
These are the 1985 and 1978 coal ash ponds next to the retired Cape Fear coal plant near Moncure, NC.
April 27, 2015

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

By Lisa Evans

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
March 24, 2015

Big Coal Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

By Lisa Evans

The House Majority continues the dirty business of protecting polluters like the coal ash industry.
The devastating coal ash spill at Kingston, TN in December 2008.
December 8, 2014

Five More Things You Need to Know About Coal Ash

By Lisa Evans

Five things that the 60 Minutes investigation on coal ash didn't tell you.
A bluff collapse near the Oak Creek Power Plant in Wisconsin that sent coal ash and debris into Lake Michigan.
November 18, 2014

New Report: Coal Ash Reuse Threatens Drinking Water Supplies

By Lisa Evans

The use of coal ash as construction fill has contaminated water resources across the nation.
October 28, 2014

Will the EPA Coal Ash Rule Survive?

By Lisa Evans

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.
October 9, 2014

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

By Lisa Evans

Greenwash fund is just another spin cycle for Duke
A coal ash spill in Tennessee in 2008 destroyed or damaged two dozen nearby homes
September 29, 2014

More Coal Ash Disasters in Waiting

By Lisa Evans

EPA finds eight more dangerous coal ash ponds in poor condition
The devastating coal ash spill at Kingston, TN in 2008.
September 12, 2014

Industry's Coal Ash Claims are Bogus

By Lisa Evans

Polluter arguments against coal ash regulations are disproved by their own data
Toxic coal ash dust at the Making Money Having Fun Landfill in Bokoshe, OK.
July 31, 2014

Ash in Lungs: How Breathing Coal Ash is Hazardous to Your Health

By Lisa Evans

Coal ash dust causes asthma attacks, lung disease, even cancer.
The toxic coal ash turned the Dan River gray for 20 miles east of the North Carolina border.
February 24, 2014

NC Regulators Ding Duke for a Penny Per Toxic Ton

By Lisa Evans

Duke Energy's $99,000 penalty was nothing—it's like one of us, earning $50,000 a year, getting fined $1.90. Barely amounting to a library fine, this is no deterrent for the likes of Duke.
February 10, 2014

East of Eden: NC Toxic Coal Ash Spill Defies State Borders

By Lisa Evans

Hellish coal ash mess in North Carolina is Virginia’s problem, too.
February 6, 2014

NC Coal Ash Spill Demonstrates Urgent Need to Close Ponds

By Lisa Evans

The EPA doesn’t need yet another reason to require the safe closure of the nation’s 1,070 coal ash ponds. But the massive leak of 82,000 tons of toxic coal ash from Duke Energy’s Dan River Power Station this week should set off a siren to wake our sleeping regulators.
Moapa Band of Paiutes Tribal Chairman William Anderson holds a photo of the Reid Gardner Power Station.
January 30, 2014

Celebrating An Historic Agreement on Coal Ash

By Lisa Evans

On January 29, 2014, the Department of Justice on behalf of the EPA lodged a consent decree with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that requires the EPA to publish a final rule addressing the disposal of coal ash by Dec. 19, 2014.
January 13, 2014

In West Virginia, Who Pays for Poisoning a River?

By Lisa Evans

If the EPA had complied with the 1985 Superfund mandate, the chemical spill in West Virginia may never have occurred and Freedom Industries would be guaranteed to have the resources to clean up the mess
January 9, 2014

Kryptonite for Superfund

By Lisa Evans

It’s a hustle of grand proportions and deadly consequences. The House of Representatives will vote today on H.R. 2279, a bill that guts Superfund—the law that requires industries to handle their hazardous waste safely and clean up their toxic spills.
December 2, 2013

In Remembrance: Jan Nona

By Lisa Evans

“You have the right to safe drinking water in this country. They took that right away from us.” Jan Nona, 1939–2014 This Thanksgiving the world lost a great woman. With unequaled intelligence and tenacity, Jan Nona fought for clean water in her small Indiana town after toxic coal ash from the Northern Indiana Public Service…
November 26, 2013

Giving Thanks for the End of Catfish Stuffing

By Lisa Evans

Five years ago, fish biologists scooped up a catfish full of toxic ash from the Kingston coal ash disaster. Last month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia brought us one step closer to ensuring such a disaster will never happen again. The court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must set federal…
November 6, 2013

Messed Up in Michigan

By Lisa Evans

Clean Water Fund’s new report, Toxic Trash Exposed: Coal Ash Pollution in Michigan, reveals widespread damage from coal ash dumping in Michigan. The report discloses dozens of waterways and aquifers already poisoned and warns of statewide harm due to failure to impose reasonable safeguards on toxic dumping. Clean Water Action released Toxic Trash Exposed on…
October 30, 2013

A Spooky Premise

By Lisa Evans

What if EPA’s coal ash rule doesn’t close unlined lagoons? Wet dumping is the cheapest way, in the short-term, to dispose of toxic coal ash—but it is also the most dangerous.
October 24, 2013

TVA Five Years Later—Lessons Not Learned

By Lisa Evans

Attorney Lisa Evans visited Harriman, TN, five years after the nation's worst coal ash spill. After half a decade and more than a billion dollars, the visible ash is gone, but so is the entire neighborhood closest to the plant.
July 24, 2013

Absolutely NO on HR 2218

By Lisa Evans

This week the House will vote on the “Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act of 2013” (HR 2218) sponsored by Rep. David McKinley (R-WV). The bill ruthlessly guts longstanding public health and environmental protections of the nation’s decades-old statute protecting communities from solid and hazardous waste disposal. This shameless industry giveaway creates a giant loophole…
June 18, 2013

Strike Three: CRS Makes Key Call on McKinley’s Coal Ash Bill

By Lisa Evans

In advance of an upcoming vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week, the nonpartisan think tank, Congressional Research Service (CRS), delivered a frank memorandum evaluating HR 2218, the latest effort by Rep. McKinley (R-WV) to prevent the EPA from completing its coal ash rule. CRS exposes HR 2218’s superficial “fixes,” concluding that…
June 7, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: GOP Rushes to Quash Protections for Coal Ash

By Lisa Evans

Reps. David McKinley (R-WV) and John Shimkus (R-IL) are on a mission to ram through an anti-public health, anti-public safety and anti-environmental coal ash bill. After filing their trifecta on the evening of June 3, the House Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy voted on June 6 to pass HR 2218, the Coal Residuals Reuse…
May 2, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: Danger in the Schoolyard

By Lisa Evans

Recent sampling of paths constructed of coal ash near J.L. Wilkinson Elementary School in Middleburg, Florida reveal high levels of vanadium, a hazardous substance linked to cardiovascular disease and nervous system damage. Vanadium levels were up to seven times higher than levels deemed safe for residential soil by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Earthjustice…
February 1, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: Not In Our Drinking Water

By Lisa Evans

Utility giant FirstEnergy Corp unveiled plans last week to barge 3 million tons of coal ash annually nearly 100 miles on the Monongahela and Ohio rivers for disposal in an unlined pit in LaBelle, PA. The ash comes from its Bruce Mansfield Power Station—one of the largest coal burning power plants in the U.S. There’s…
January 22, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: Bullying the Messenger, Burying the Truth

By Lisa Evans

The Congressional Research Service, the non-partisan research arm of the Library of Congress, drew anger from two legislators after it issued an unfavorable report on their coal ash bills (S. 3512 and H.R. 2273). Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) and Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) have aggressively pursued the CRS since early December, after it gave both…
January 15, 2013

Tr-Ash Talk: Is There Something In Missouri's Water?

By Lisa Evans

In Missouri, rape apparently does not cause pregnancy, and it’s OK for children to eat coal ash. When Missouri Republican Todd Akin said last August that “legitimate rape” rarely results in conception, the congressman caused quite a stir—and this offensive nonsense, broadcast coast to coast, likely cost him a Senate seat. More provocative baloney was…
December 30, 2012

Landmark Mercury Decision is Jackson’s Legacy

By Lisa Evans

During her four-year tenure as administrator of the EPA, Lisa Jackson was a true champion for public health and environmental justice. One of her greatest legacies is the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, a rule that will help Americans breathe a little easier since it sharply limits the amount of mercury and other toxic metals…
December 18, 2012

Congressional 'Think Tank' Exposes Flaws of Coal Ash Bill

By Lisa Evans

The Congressional Research Service, dubbed the U.S. Congress’ ‘think tank’, recently released an authoritative analysis of S.3512 and—to the dismay of the bill’s stalwart sponsors—it’s a bust. CRS, a department of the Library of Congress and nonpartisan research tool for the House and Senate, recently weighed in definitively on the Senate and House coal ash…
November 28, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: Legislating Disaster

By Lisa Evans

In the aftermath of a major catastrophe, lawmakers and regulators should be held accountable to create new safety protocols to avert future disasters. Incidents like the Cuyahoga River catching fire and the Exxon Valdez oil spill prompted changes in how we protect our nation’s waters from industrial chemicals. The Buffalo Creek disaster in West Virginia…
September 27, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: Puerto Rico Communities Seek Justice, Protection

By Lisa Evans

Fed up with the illegal dumping of toxic waste in their communities, a group of concerned citizens from Guayama and Salinas, Puerto Rico, Comité Dialogo Ambiental (CDA), has drawn a line in the sand. CDA will take AES Corporation—theVirginia-based energy giant—to federal court unless it meets the group’s demands and stops the dangerous dumping of toxic waste from its Guayama power plant.
September 20, 2012

Waging War On Health And The Environment

By Lisa Evans

Officially (but ironically) titled “Stop the War on Coal Act,” H.R. 3409 actually represents the House leadership’s own elaborate and well-funded war on longstanding protections of clean air and water enjoyed by all Americans.
September 14, 2012

Groups Across U.S. Unite Against Coal Ash Bill

By Lisa Evans

Seeking protection from unsafe dumping practices, more than 300 public interest groups from 43 states, representing millions across the nation, sent a letter this week to the U.S. Senate opposing S. 3512, the “Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act of 2012.” The bill, introduced last July by Sens. Hoeven (R-SD), Conrad (D-SD) and Baucus (D-…
September 5, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: The High Price of Coal Ash Ponds

By Lisa Evans

Each year millions of gallons of toxic chemicals flow into lakes, streams, rivers and bays from our nation’s “surface impoundments”—often referred to as “coal ash” ponds. The well-documented result is the death and mutation of fish and wildlife. Recently, two senior scientists examined the damage from those ponds and put a price on their immense…
August 28, 2012

Judge Holds TVA Liable For Kingston Disaster

By Lisa Evans

In a stunning victory for victims of the 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash disaster, a federal judge in Knoxville, Tennessee ruled that TVA is responsible for damages caused by the massive spill. U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan ruled that TVA’s decisions concerning the location and design of the Kingston Fossil Plant’s enormous, six-story coal…
August 2, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: A Dangerous Trojan Horse

By Lisa Evans

Today, Sens. Hoeven (R-SD), Conrad (D-SD) and Baucus (D-MT) introduced a new coal ash bill, the “Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act”  This is an amended version of the disastrous vehicle  filed last October by Conrad and Hoeven. The improvements, however, are marginal, and most are nothing more than window dressing.  The 43-page bill contains…
July 30, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: The Summer of Coal Ash

By Lisa Evans

Summer on Capitol Hill has been a hot one—especially for coal ash. The 11th hour removal of a devastating coal ash provision tacked onto the federal transportation bill  gave hope to thousands of communities that Congress would not turn its on public health and the environment. When the smoke cleared and President Obama signed a transportation bill…
July 5, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: The Good And Bad Coal Ash News

By Lisa Evans

(Note from Lisa Evans: Last week, we nearly lost the battle for Environmental Protection Agency regulations. However, thanks to the chorus of voices from affected communities and public interest groups across the nation and to the amazing work of our champions in the House and Senate, a provision blocking an EPA coal ash rule was…
June 21, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: Two Years is Too Long

By Lisa Evans

Although the EPA’s proposed coal ash rule was published two years ago, a final rule is nowhere in sight. Two years is more than enough time for the EPA to decide on a set of reasonable, health-protective standards for the country’s second largest industrial waste. The EPA blames the delay on 450,000 public comments. However,…
April 20, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: The Coal Breath of Betrayal

By Lisa Evans

The House’s embrace of David McKinley’s (R-WV) amendment and its attachment to the transportation bill is nothing short of a deadly betrayal of public health. This measure ensures that the nation’s dangerous and leaking coal ash ponds and landfills will continue to operate indefinitely without regulation or federal oversight. If it passes the Senate, it…
April 4, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: It’s About Time

By Lisa Evans

Today, 3 years after the largest toxic waste spill in U.S. history, 11 environmental and public health groups will file a lawsuit to force the Environmental Protection Agency to complete its rulemaking and finalize public health safeguards against coal ash pollution. The EPA has delayed federal protection for decades despite overwhelming evidence that carcinogenic, neurotoxic, mutagenic…
March 21, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: The Wait For Clean Water

By Lisa Evans

Tomorrow is World Water Day and across the globe, the United Nations and many grassroots groups are holding events to highlight the importance of clean water to our health and global security. In North Carolina, Appalachian Voices will gather residents in and around Asheville for a “Clean Water Not Coal Ash” Rally to call attention…
March 14, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: “Charleston, We Have A Problem”

By Lisa Evans

Has Rep. David McKinley had a change of heart?  In a letter dated March 8, 2012, the primary author of EPA- bashing HR 2273 and best friend of coal ash, McKinley (R, WV) wrote Secretary Randy Huffman, head of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, to request that he accompany him on a visit…
March 7, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: Risky Retirement

By Lisa Evans

Across the country, communities near retiring coal plants are breathing collective sighs of relief. Closures, however, raise vexing questions about the millions of tons of toxic waste that may lie beneath the surface. Over decades, most plants have buried battleship-sized deposits of coal ash in landfills and lagoons near their plants. In the absence of…
February 27, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: Lessons Unlearned from Buffalo Creek Disaster

By Lisa Evans

February 26, 2012 marked the 40th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek disaster—the “most destructive flood in West Virginia history,” which took 125 lives in Logan County, West Virginia, injured 1100, and left 4000 homeless. The accounts of the manmade tsunami, borne of greed and negligence, are heartbreaking. The close-knit community was destroyed in an instant…
February 22, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: $2 Billion Coal Ash Suit In Chesapeake

By Lisa Evans

On Tuesday, Virginia attorney Ted G. Yoakam, representing nearly 400 people living near the Battlefield Golf Club in Chesapeake, refiled a lawsuit against Dominion Virginian Power, MJM Golf LLC (the owner of the golf course) and two additional parties involved in building the course, requesting more than $2 billion in damages.  The refiling doubles the demand…
February 15, 2012

Two-Headed Fish, Brought to You by Polluters

By Lisa Evans

An Idaho stream is home to two-headed trout, thanks to selenium pollution, a common contaminant from phosphate mining, agriculture and—you guessed it—coal ash.
February 3, 2012

Tr-Ash Talk: Coal Numbers Don’t Add Up

By Lisa Evans

The American Coal Ash Association is trying with might to mislead us. In a recent press release, they exaggerated the impact the Environmental Protection Agency’s rulemaking process is having on coal ash recycling, claiming a decrease in the recycling of combustion waste from coal plants since the EPA started work on a coal ash rule.The…
August 24, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Shake, Rattle and Coal

By Lisa Evans

The earthquake that yesterday rattled foundations along the eastern seaboard, shut down a nuclear power plant and cracked the Washington Monument also shook a great many dangerous coal ash dams, similar to the one that failed in Harriman, Tennessee almost three years ago. Several large ash ponds are located near the epicenter of the quake,…
June 22, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Coal Over Clean Water

By Lisa Evans

Tomorrow morning, the House Energy and Commerce Committee will vote on a bill to eviscerate the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate coal ash, introduced by Rep. David McKinley (WV-R).  To quote Jeff Goodell of Rolling Stone, this is not just a fight about coal ash,  “it’s about demonizing the EPA, stalling the clean energy…
May 25, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Dumping On The Americas

By Lisa Evans

The arrogance and disregard for public health of the Virginia-based power giant, AES Corporation, is stunning. In 2002, AES, one of the world’s largest power companies, built a coal-fired power plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico without a solid waste landfill of any kind. Although the 450-MW power plant churns out almost 400,000 tons of toxic…
May 18, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: EPA Delays Leave Americans at Risk

By Lisa Evans

Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released final assessment reports that detail the structural integrity of 38 coal ash dams.  The agency began inspecting coal ash dams in May 2009, and EPA contractors have, to date, completed assessments of 228 dams.  Of these 228 coal ash dams, EPA inspectors gave a rating of “poor” to…
April 29, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Setting the Record Straight

By Lisa Evans

Several House members and right-wing bloggers believed they struck gold after House members indulged in a bit of chicanery at an April 15th Environment and Energy subcommittee hearing on a bill to remove EPA’s authority to establish strong coal ash regulations. The ruse started when Rep. Cory Gardner (R, CO) excerpted a single sentence from…
April 27, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Deliberate and Dangerous Delay

By Lisa Evans

News that the EPA may delay the coal ash rule until the end of 2012 or even 2013 will come as a bitter disappointment to communities across the United States. Many had faith in Administrator Jackson’s promise that this Administration would finally issue effective controls on toxic ash disposal in 2010. The regulation of coal…
March 28, 2011

Coal Ash Conundrum—The Biggest Loser?

By Lisa Evans

The verdict is in. the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency turned a blind eye to coal ash reuse during the Bush Administration, and, in fact, the agency went a considerable way toward promoting reuses that were dangerous to human health and the environment.  After a nine-month investigation, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General concluded that the EPA failed…
March 14, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Reaching Beyond Rhetoric

By Lisa Evans

“We all have a responsibility to ensure that the American people have facts and the truth in front of them, particularly when fictions are pushed by special interests with an investment in the outcome.”  – EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in testimony before Congress on March 10 in response to false claims by Republicans and special…
March 8, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Under the Influence

By Lisa Evans

When members of the House of Representatives return to their districts for April recess, many should be called to task for supporting a budget rider that would kill a coal ash rulemaking designed to protect the health, homes and livelihood of their constituents. How, for example, can one explain the voting record of most of…
March 2, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Dam Shame

By Lisa Evans

If you live in Indiana, it’s best not to live below one of the state’s 53 coal ash dams. The state’s laissez-fare attitude toward these deadly structures has created a potentially disastrous public hazard. Recent dam breaks in Indianapolis should have sounded the alarm, but apparently it takes more than 30 million gallons of toxic…
February 23, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: House Broken

By Lisa Evans

Early Saturday morning, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the House budget bill that had nothing to do with trimming the federal deficit, but everything to do with sweetening the bottom line of the likes of Duke Energy, AEP, Ameren and Southern Company. The House passed this amendment at about two in…
February 16, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: Riders In A Stormy Congress

By Lisa Evans

The highwaymen of the 112th Congress are trying to take away the authority of the EPA and rob the will of the people on a variety of critical public health and environmental issues by attaching riders to the House budget bill (the Continuing Resolution). The spending legislation introduced by the House Appropriations Committee this week…
February 1, 2011

Tr-Ash Talk: EPA’s Blind Spot

By Lisa Evans

(Barb Gottlieb of Physicians for Social Responsibility contributed to this report.) Just three weeks ago, after a study found chromium, a toxic heavy metal, in tap water in 31 of 35 U.S. cities tested, the Environmental Protection Agency issued new guidelines recommending that all public water utilities test their drinking water for hexavalent chromium or…