Advocates Testified Against Putting Indiana In Charge of Toxic Coal Ash Oversight

Serious concerns were raised in testimony at an EPA hearing in Indiana about the EPA proposal to put the state of Indiana in charge of oversight of toxic coal ash waste generated by the state’s more than 20 power plant sites.

See the plants in Indiana in this interactive map, including plants in or near Indianapolis, Michigan City, Gary, Evansville, and Martinsville.

Among those testifying in opposition were concerned Indiana residents, people who live near toxic coal ash waste, a health expert, a retired environmental engineer, community advocates, and people from environmental organizations.

Coal ash is generated from burning coal. EPA’s approval of Indiana’s permitting program would give primary authority for more than 100 coal ash dumps—the most of any state—to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), an agency with a dismal record when it comes to protecting communities from the harms of coal ash.

Some of the most egregious coal ash contamination in the country has happened under IDEM’s watch. For instance, decades of unchecked pollution from coal ash generated at NIPSCO’s Michigan City and Bailly coal plants contaminated the Town of Pines’ drinking water. IDEM has also allowed coal ash to contaminate the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Cane Ridge Wildlife Management Area, two of the state’s most treasured natural areas.

Indra Frank, MD, MPH, Coal Ash Advisor with the Hoosier Environmental Council, testified at the hearing that, “Coal ash is nasty stuff.  It has tiny particles that can blow in the wind and damage your lungs. It has toxic heavy metals like arsenic, lithium, molybdenum, hexavalent chromium, radium, and more that contaminate soil and water. Some of the coal ash contaminants cause cancer, some damage the nervous system, and some damage the developing fetus. Despite these hazards, Indiana’s elected leaders passed a bill in 2022 allowing coal ash to be spread all over the landscape without limits.”

Lauren Piette, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice testified that, “EPA has determined that coal ash contributes to increased rates of cancer in the skin, liver, bladder, and lungs among other diseases. Yet, coal ash pollution has gone largely unchecked in Indiana…Indiana’s coal ash permit program plainly fails to meet the legal test that Congress set for delegating authority to states. Indiana’s program is not as protective as federal requirements. EPA must deny Indiana’s application.”

Indiana’s coal ash program is severely flawed:

• IDEM has approved closure plans for at least 13 coal ash dumps that will leave toxic ash sitting in groundwater, threatening water supplies and violating federal law.
• Coal ash dump closures are automatically approved if IDEM fails to act fast enough (within 90 or 150 days )—even if the closure is unsafe and the dump continues to leach toxic chemicals.
• Indiana law prohibits IDEM from regulating the use of coal ash in place of clean soil in neighborhoods, parks, and public areas. Coal ash was used in these ways in Town of Pines where arsenic levels in soil at a public playground that was later excavated reached 450 parts per million and residential soil contained 888 ppm of arsenic, which is more than 1300 times the EPA’s safe level for residential soil.

So far, EPA has approved or proposed to approve inadequate programs in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Ashley Williams, Executive Director of Just Transition Northwest Indiana, testified that, “IDEM is a historically under-resourced agency that has allowed our waterways and communities to be contaminated under its watch. IDEM has continued to rubber-stamp terrible permits that damage the environment and harm public health and safety. Too many loopholes and too many questions remain for this program to be executed and enforced properly.”

The EPA is accepting written comments until November 16, 2026 here.

Over 100 coal ash landfills and ponds at more than 20 power plant sites in Indiana contain roughly 134 million cubic yards of toxic coal ash. That’s equivalent to a football field piled nearly 12 miles high with coal ash, twice as high as Mount Everest.