Our Stories

The Latest by Jared Saylor

Campaign Director

Jared was the head coach of Earthjustice's advocacy campaign team from 2004 to 2014.

Coal ash-contaminated sludge from North Carolina's Dan River, retrieved on July 17, 2014.
July 23, 2014

A Coal Ash Clean Up Job Not Well Done

By Jared Saylor  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Duke Energy cleans up only six percent of coal ash into NC river, leaves the rest

The devastating TVA Kingston coal ash spill of 2008.
July 8, 2014

Coal Ash Stories Come to Washington

By Jared Saylor  /  Policy and Legislation Team

Federal coal ash protections are due in December, provided Congress doesn’t get in the way. Citizens arrived in Washington to tell their coal ash stories.

December 17, 2013

Missouri Communities Pay a High Price for Lack of Toxic Coal Waste Regulation

By Jared Saylor  /  Washington, D.C. Office

The community surrounding the Labadie power plant in Missouri has been exposed to 40 years of coal ash pollution.

December 5, 2013

"Pure Michigan" Might Not be So Pure

By Jared Saylor  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Every year in Michigan coal plants produce more than 1.7 million tons of coal ash. In addition to the threats posed by unchecked coal ash storage sites, “beneficial reuse” provisions of Michigan law allow for coal ash to be used in trenches as construction fill or spread on agricultural fields.

November 27, 2013

The Insanity of Pennsylvania Coal Ash

By Jared Saylor  /  Washington, D.C. Office

How is coal ash dumped at one site hazardous, but beneficial at another? The Little Blue Run coal ash impoundment has poisoned nearby waters with arsenic, selenium, boron and more. Residents tell of murky sludge oozing from the ground around their homes.

November 21, 2013

Dirtying America’s Land of the Midnight Sun

By Jared Saylor  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Alaska—a place of untamed American wilderness. Unfortunately, it’s also home to dirty coal. The second part of our ongoing series about communities dealing with coal ash problems takes us far north where in Fairbanks four coal-fired power plants generate coal ash used as fill for nearby lowlands.

November 13, 2013

No EPA Progress on Anniversary of Coal Ash Disaster

By Jared Saylor  /  Northeast Office

It was early October, but the trees were still a vibrant green. Fall had not yet arrived and winter was still a distant concern in Kingston, TN. Fishing boats and jet skis were tied to docks along the Clinch River, and even though it was a Thursday morning it was obvious that folks in this …

September 11, 2013

Never Say Die in the Fight For Clean Water

By Jared Saylor  /  Washington, D.C. Office

Earlier this summer, I was talking to a colleague and friend in Missouri, Patricia Schuba. She lives only a few miles from the Show Me State’s biggest coal-fired power plant, Ameren Corporation’s Labadie Power Station. She was preparing to come to Washington to testify before the EPA on a proposal to clean up toxic water …

A power plant located next to a waterway.
April 23, 2013

EPA's Mixed Bag of Options on Power Plant Water Pollution

By Jared Saylor  /  Northeast Office

One option protects waters from toxic pollution; other options fall far short

Pennsylvania residents Sabrina Mislevy and Barbara Reed stand near the Little Blue Run coal ash dump site.
March 1, 2013

Without Coal Ash Rule, Litigation Helps Communities

By Jared Saylor  /  Washington, D.C. Office

It’s been over four years since a billion gallons of toxic coal ash flooded a small town in Tennessee. We’ve been fighting ever since for the EPA to set federally enforceable safeguards to protect the thousands of communities across the country threatened by coal ash, but the agency has yet to act. But just because …