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In the News: Indiana Public Radio March 13, 2024

Pines residents, activists worry coal ash cleanup standard for soil based on flawed data

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “It may result in very few properties being cleaned up if that [natural level of arsenic] standard is set artificially high.”

In the News: Energy News Network March 12, 2024

Parsing legal definitions, power industry pushes back on EPA coal ash enforcement

Gavin Kearney, Deputy Managing Attorney, Clean Energy Program: “The whole overarching point (of the federal rules) is that groundwater contamination is a big problem; it’s really unsafe, and we have to prevent it. You can’t let water in (to a coal ash impoundment); you can’t let water out; you can’t let water just sit inside…

In the News: Indianapolis Star February 20, 2024

EPA: Cancer risk from coal ash higher than previously revealed. Could it be in your yard?

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “Nothing prevents power plants from moving radioactive waste from their own backyards into the backyards and neighborhoods where American families live.”

In the News: Inside Climate News February 8, 2024

EPA Reports “Widespread Noncompliance” With the Nation’s First Regulations on Toxic Coal Ash

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “We see this as the first shot across the bow informing the utilities and states and stakeholders that EPA indeed does find significant noncompliance with the coal ash rule.”

In the News: Inside Climate News January 24, 2024

Environmentalists Rattled by Radioactive Risks of Toxic Coal Ash

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program: “The EPA has not come close to doing a risk assessment of the placement of coal ash in residential areas. They project that these utility sites may be redeveloped in the future and that this ash will pose a problem to human health at that point, which is…

Press Release January 9, 2024

Environmental Organizations Urge More Study and Stronger Regulations on Remining to Protect Communities and the Environment

A new report recommends guardrails before remining can be a safe and sustainable source for clean energy.

Changemakers call for the EPA to hold utilities accountable for their coal ash pollution, on the day of an in-person public hearing held by the agency in Chicago on Jun. 28, 2023. (Jamie Kelter Davis for Earthjustice)
feature December 22, 2023

‘Do Your Job, EPA’: Stories From the Frontlines of Coal Ash

By law, before government regulations are adopted or changed, agencies must ask the public — you — to weigh in.

Equipment owned by Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc., used to mine cryptocurrencies and powered by the Scrubgrass Generating Plant near Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, in Venango County.
Press Release December 21, 2023

PA Enviro Groups File Appeal for Urgent Removal of Hazardous Coal Ash ‘Mountain’ at Scrubgrass Crypto Facility

Massive unauthorized coal ash ‘mountain,’ growing for years; PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) granted cryptomining polluter Scrubgrass a 4-year leash: toxic coal ash waste allowed to persist

Vac truck excavation work near the town pavillion in Town of Pines, Indiana. (U.S. EPA)
Press Release December 11, 2023

EPA: Radiation from Coal Ash Poses Cancer Risk

More than 150 public interest groups urge the EPA to ban the widespread use of toxic coal ash as structural fill

Document December 11, 2023

Community letter to EPA on the Urgent Need to Prevent Harm to Human Health from Use of Coal Ash as Structural Fill

Letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administer Michael Regan re: new data support urgent need to prevent harm to human health from use of coal ash as structural fill. Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2020- 0107. Signed by 153 groups and 136 individuals.

From the Experts August 24, 2023

EPA announces that cleaning up coal ash will be a top priority for enforcement

EPA acknowledges widespread noncompliance from coal-fired power plant owners.

In the News: Grist June 20, 2023

Closing the coal ash loophole

Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Clean Energy Program, Earthjustice: “Unless you have a specific rule requiring investigation and cleanup, industry is just not going to do it.”

Coal ash pollution in the Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County, Alabama. (John Wathen)
Update June 16, 2023

Illinois Coal Ash Victory Models the Protections We Need Nationwide

A recent EPA proposal could finally ensure safeguards for the hundreds of unprotected, unregulated coal ash sites across the country.

Speakers at the listening session held by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan, in San Francisco on Feb. 28, 2018.
(Martin do Nascimento / Earthjustice)
feature June 13, 2023

Guide to Preparing for Public Hearings on the Legacy CCR Rule

What to expect at EPA’s virtual and in-person hearings on the Legacy CCR Surface Impoundment Rule

Document June 9, 2023

Settlement requiring Dynegy Midwest Generation to clean up coal ash at the former Vermilion Power Station

This settlement between the State of Illinois and Dynegy Midwest Generation requires Dynegy to clean up coal ash and resolve violations of the Illinois Environmental Protection Act at the former Vermilion Power Station.

Andrew Rehn looks at toxic coal ash waste seepage on the shore of the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River.
(Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune / TNS via Getty Images)
Press Release: Victory June 8, 2023

Court Approves Plan to Clean Up Coal Ash at the Retired Vermilion Plant in Illinois

Consent order requires Dynegy Midwest Generation to move coal ash to a new on-site landfill to protect the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River

The aftermath of the devastating coal ash spill at the TVA Kingston Fossil Plant near Kingston, Tenn., in 2008. More than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge burst from a dam, sweeping away homes and contaminating two rivers. (Dot Griffith/ Appalachian Voice via United Mountain Defense)
feature May 23, 2023

Coal Ash Contaminates Our Lives

Coal ash is what is left behind when power plants burn coal for energy, It is a toxic mix of carcinogens, neurotoxins, and other hazardous pollutants.

feature May 17, 2023

Coal Ash in the United States: Addressing Coal Plants’ Hazardous Legacy

Earthjustice analyzed industry data to explain, state by state, how and where coal ash is disposed and which dump sites are not yet monitored or regulated.