Obama Administration Stalls EPA Action on Toxic Coal Ash

Coal ash is the nastiest industrial waste you've never heard of. OK, maybe not, but it's pretty bad. On top of spewing greenhouse gases and pollutants into the air, burning coal yields an ashen residue laced with such toxic delicacies as arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. Some of this gunk is safely recycled into concrete and other useful stuff. Sixty percent of it, though, is pooled into sludge lagoons. Once there, the toxic metals can seep into surrounding groundwater and nearby streams, threatening the health of local communities.

American coal plants produce a staggering 130 million tons of the stuff every year. The sludge is pumped into roughly 600 ponds across 35 states, most of them unlined and unmonitored. The EPA has identified 67 sites where toxic metals have polluted water tables and rivers. Environmental groups have appended another 31. Nobody knows for sure how many there are. For decades, no one's really been looking.

The toxins can have devastating effects on human health - they are known to cause lung, liver, and kidney cancer. Studies have also linked them to brain damage in children and deformities in animals. Regulations on coal ash, which are defined state to state, range from weak to non-existent, the result of decades of backroom deals with the coal industry. There are no federal regulations. But that may be about to change.

In December 2008, a containment pond at a Tennessee Valley Authority plant burst, flooding the countryside, the nearby Emory river, and downstream communities with a billion gallons of toxic coal sludge. It was the largest industrial disaster in American history.

The cleanup of the area has been challenging and could drag on for years. In response, the EPA promised strong federal regulation to govern the storage, monitoring, and recycling of coal ash. The EPA's proposal has not been made public.

Instead, it was sent to the Office of Management and Budget in the fall, were it appears to be stuck. To date, OMB officials have met with coal industry reps . The coal industry, unsurprisingly, opposes new regulation, arguing (as usual) that it will cost billions, jack up electricity bills, and wreck the economy. Their price tag of $13 billion dollars is not supported by any independent assessments and thus amounts to little more than a scare tactic. This is only the latest episode in a long history of industry obstruction documented in this recent Rolling Stone piece.

The Obama administration has gotten flack for failing to deliver on their promises that transparency and science would guide these kinds of decisions. Though the fate of the rules remains unclear, concerns are growing that they will be watered down or buried. Coal ash is the first big test of the new administration's approach to environmental justice. Let's help the President keep his promises by participating in an NRDC phone and email campaign.

Photo credit: Tennessee Valley Authority