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Thom Cmar, Deputing Managing Attorney, Midwest Regional Office: “The health benefits of fewer incidences of cancer, cardiovascular disease, less exposure to children of harmful levels of lead — those benefits far exceed the costs to the industry.”

Thom Cmar, Deputing Managing Attorney, Midwest Regional Office: “It’ll cost all of us in the long run because it will encourage more expensive, dirty coal plants to continue operating for longer and it will mean more arsenic, mercury and lead in our waterways.”

EPA issues rule to allow ongoing release of toxic chemicals into sources of drinking water for more than 30 million Americans

Coal-fired power plants discharge toxic chemicals into sources of drinking water for more than 30 million Americans.

Thom Cmar, Attorney, Clean Energy Program: “The reality is that this technology is available and some power plants are using it and it’s been shown to be cost effective. The technology is out there to achieve greater reductions of pollution that are happening now. And EPA can’t avoid that regardless of which administration is in…

Earthjustice petition for review of wastewater treatment standards for coal-fired power plants (ELGs) filed May 30, 2024. Earthjustice is challenging the 2034 retirement loophole and weaker standards for what the Environmental Protection Agency is calling “unmanaged” leachate, leachate that has already leaked out of coal ash ponds and landfills and contaminated groundwater.

Thom Cmar, Attorney, Clean Energy Program: “The two rules are necessary and complementary to each other and point in the same direction, which is that they are contaminating groundwater, they’re contaminating the surface waters that run alongside them. Both standards work in complementary ways to set a high bar that points toward cleanup and environmental…

Thom Cmar, Attorney, Clean Energy Program: “Power plants for far too long have been able to get away with treating our waterways like an open sewer.”

A 15-year legal fight to curb toxic wastewater to protect drinking water.

Standards will tackle major sources of climate pollution and protect public health

A legal victory decades in the making, the EPA will require modern wastewater treatment at all remaining coal-fired plants

Thomas Cmar, Coal Program, Earthjustice: “This is really just the leading edge of what will become a much broader wave of power plants seeking to extract as much of an advantage as they can out of the handouts that the Trump EPA gave them.”

Pursuant to Section 509(b)(1) of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1369(b)(1), and Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 15(a), Clean Water Action, Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc., Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., Center for Biological Diversity, PennEnvironment, Inc., Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and Prairie Rivers Network hereby petition this Court for review of the final action of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Andrew Wheeler entitled Steam Electric Reconsideration Rule, which was published in the Federal Register at 85 Fed. Reg. 64,650 on October 13, 2020 (Attachment 1).

Earthjustice files a new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's giveaway to the coal power industry.

Proposed Rule Would Allow Utilities To Continue To Use Outdated, Ineffective Water Treatment

Trump Administration announces plan to requirements for treating toxic wastewater from coal-fired power plants

EPA must update guidelines for reducing pollution from steam-electric power plants

Steam-electric power plants generate most of the electricity used in our nation and, sadly, an unhealthy share of the pollution discharged into our nation’s waters. To control this pollution, the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq., empowers the Environmental Protection Agency to promulgate and enforce rules known as “effluent limitation guidelines” or “ELGs.”