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Residents should demand that the sludge-lords comply with federal law and clean up their mess

Massive quantities of coal ash are stored at eight power plant sites in North Dakota.

Earthjustice Senior Counsel Lisa Evans was the sole witness invited by the minority to testify before the Subcommittee on Environment hearing titled “A Decade Later: A Review of Congressional Action, Environmental Protection Agency Rules, and Beneficial Use Opportunities for Coal Ash” on June 26, 2025.

Decisions pending on other state requests

Massive quantities of coal ash are stored at ten power plant sites in Maryland. All but one of these sites include older ash dumps that industry is only now beginning to quantify and monitor.

Significant quantities of coal ash are stored at three power plant sites in Massachusetts. All of these sites include older coal ash dumps that industry is only now beginning to quantify and monitor.

Massive quantities of coal ash are stored at five power plant sites in Arizona.

Massive quantities of toxic coal ash are stored at 19 coal-burning power plant sites in Texas.

Use this map to understand where coal ash might be stored near you.

Abigail Dillen, President of Earthjustice: “What has been proven over and over again is that the industry can deploy the best science and the best technology, continue to have a very profitable business model, while affording us all of the collective benefits, including economic benefits, of a clean and healthy environment.”

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “I’m thrilled to see that Maryland is stepping up, because we’re going to need the states to hold the line and enforce the federal rule. In a couple of years, those federal regulations may not be on the books.”

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “Utilities have gamed the system at some plants by designing monitoring systems that intentionally miss detecting leakage from a coal ash dump.”

Charles McPhedran, Attorney, Clean Energy Program: “The idea was that the coal ash would be parked there for a little while while it cooled, and then it would be taken to a (permanent) disposal area. It overflowed fences. It overflowed into a ditch with water on it running off the site … it just became…

Unpermitted massive coal ash pile growing for years near the Allegheny River will now be removed by next year, preventing contamination

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “The letter is bluster with no punches, thunder with no lightning… Many of these demands have already been litigated in federal court, and industry lost. The public record reveals that nearly all coal plants have contaminated groundwater with dangerous toxic chemicals above federal standards. Any new regulation proposed…

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “These are powerful corporations asking for the administration to do their bidding even if those actions put health and the environment at risk, which they certainly will.”

Sin importar lo que nos depare, no dejaremos de luchar para eliminar gradualmente las emisiones que calientan el planeta, catalizar una transición energética limpia justa y equitativa, y proteger a las comunidades del desastre climático.

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “To date, state regulators have largely failed to fill the void where federal regulations do not apply…. At the very least, information concerning the past disposal of toxic waste at these sites must be made public and available in a state database.”