May 3, 2023
Toxic Coal Ash in Arizona: Addressing Coal Plants’ Hazardous Legacy
For decades, utilities disposed of coal ash — the hazardous substance left after burning coal for energy — by dumping it in unlined ponds and landfills. There are a dozen coal ash dumpsites in Arizona.
After years of litigation and grassroots activism, on Apr. 25, 2024, the EPA issued a new rule that will force power plants to finally clean up their toxic coal ash. The EPA extended federal monitoring and cleanup requirements to hundreds of previously excluded older coal ash landfills and ponds that have been leaking toxic pollution into groundwater.
Note: Coal ash dumpsites referenced as “unregulated” throughout this page now are likely subject to federal regulation under the final rulemaking.
Coal ash contains hazardous pollutants including arsenic, boron, cobalt, chromium, lead, lithium, mercury, molybdenum, radium, selenium, and other heavy metals, which have been linked to cancer, heart and thyroid disease, reproductive failure, and neurological harm. In 2023, the EPA acknowledged that coal ash is even more dangerous than previously thought, with levels of arsenic and radiation that pose cancer risks.
Industry’s own data indicate that across the country 91% of coal plants are currently polluting groundwater above federal health standards with toxic pollutants.
Despite EPA’s 2015 Coal Ash Rule, which created the first-ever safeguards for coal ash disposal, many coal ash dumps remain unregulated due to sweeping exemptions for legacy coal ash ponds and inactive landfills.
The exempted coal ash dumps are sited disproportionately in low-income communities and communities of color. After years of litigation and grassroots activism, the EPA will extend clean up requirements to hundreds of old coal ash dumps across the country when it issues new regulations in the spring of 2024.
Coal ash remains one of our nation’s largest toxic industrial waste streams. U.S. coal plants continue to produce approximately 75 million tons every year.
In 2023, the EPA acknowledged widespread noncompliance with existing coal ash regulations and ramped up enforcement after designating coal ash a national enforcement priority.
Action Needed
The magnitude of harm from recklessly dumped toxic coal ash requires decisive action from federal and state regulators.
- Utilities must be required to comply with the law and immediately clean up their pollution.
- EPA and states must act quickly to ensure that utilities leave communities with sites that benefit rather than harm their health, environment, and economic status.
- EPA must take action to prohibit the use of coal ash as construction fill and make polluters clean up areas where ash was used as fill.
10 Regulated Coal Ash Disposal Sites in Arizona
Arizona utilities operate 10 federally regulated landfills containing more than 90 million cubic yards of toxic waste at five power plants.
Coal ash has caused groundwater contamination at all of Arizona’s regulated dumpsites. One of these dumps is contaminating water at more than 20 times the levels permitted for certain pollutants.
Despite the serious and widespread water contamination, no Arizona company to date has initiated a plant-wide cleanup to restore groundwater, despite the legal requirement to do so.
| Apache | Cochise | Arizona Electric Power Cooperative | 1 lined pond | Unsafe levels of lithium* |
| Cholla | Joseph City | Arizona Public Service Electric Co. | 3 unlined ponds, 1 landfill | Arsenic (x2), Boron (x25), Cobalt (x13), Fluoride (x1), Lithium (x18), Molybdenum (x9), Radium 226+228 (x2), Selenium (x3), Sulfate (x23) |
| Coronado | St Johns | SRP | 2 unlined ponds, 1 landfill | Lithium (x14), Radium 226+228 (x1) |
| Navajo | Page | SRP | 1 landfill | Unsafe levels of cobalt* |
| Springerville | Springerville | Tucson Electric Power | 1 landfill | Lithium (x26), Sulfate (x3), Thallium (x1) |
* Based on industry monitoring data. See Ashtracker.org.
All data on groundwater contamination from coal ash derived from the utilities’ publicly accessible CCR Compliance Data and Information websites, and exceedances were calculated by Environmental Integrity Project.
For more information on regulated coal ash sites in Arizona, see Mapping the Coal Ash Contamination.
Two Coal Ash Legacy Ponds and Inactive Landfills in Arizona
March 2024 Update: The table below underestimates the legacy units that may be regulated by EPA’s upcoming CCR Legacy Pond Rule. Additional legacy units at specific plants may be found in the national map, above.
In addition, Arizona hosts at least two inactive coal ash landfills and legacy ponds that escaped federal regulation. The exact number remains unknown because utilities were not required to report these sites.
These dumps are almost certainly contaminating water and threatening health and the environment; however, monitoring data are not currently available for most unregulated sites.
As we anticipate EPA’s proposed rule on legacy ponds and unregulated landfills in May 2023, a concern remains that the agency will not address coal ash that was dumped off site or used as fill.
| Coronado | St Johns | SRP | 0 | 2 | Yes – Industry data |
All data on groundwater contamination from coal ash derived from the utilities’ publicly accessible CCR Compliance Data and Information websites, and exceedances were calculated by Environmental Integrity Project.
For More Information
Christine Santillana, Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice, csantillana@earthjustice.org
Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Earthjustice, levans@earthjustice.org.
More on Coal Ash in Arizona
- EPA Moves to Reject Six Coal Plants’ Applications to Keep Toxic Coal Ash Dumps Open (January 25, 2023)
- Poisonous Coverup: The Widespread Failure of the Power Industry to Clean Up Coal Ash Dumps (November 3, 2022)
- Cleaner Air Coming to the Skies Above Four Corners Power Plant (July 22, 2015)
- Tr-Ash Talk: Mapping Environmental Injustice (April 5, 2011)
Coal Ash in States, Territories, Regions
Puerto Rico (En Español)
Earthjustice fights in the courts for a long-term solution to the toxic menace of coal ash. And we act on behalf of dozens of clients and over 100 coalition partners to defeat legislative attempts to subvert federally enforceable safeguards of coal ash.
Earthjustice’s Clean Energy Program uses the power of the law and the strength of partnership to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy.