GoKawiilAt a virtual public comment hearing hosted by the US Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, a long line of environmental advocates voiced strong opposition to proposed new regulations weakening requirements that utilities must follow in cleaning up toxic coal ash residue at hundreds of sites across the country at which coal was burned to produce electricity.
“The Trump administration has jeopardized the nation’s drinking water supplies as a favor to polluters,” Lisa Evans, senior counsel at Earthjustice and a former EPA attorney, said in a statement. “It’s just not right.”
The Trump administration announced in April that it would repeal a rule put in place in 2024 by the Biden administration’s EPA that required utilities to monitor coal ash sites at inactive coal plants. The Trump EPA also said it would loosen requirements for protecting groundwater near those sites. Now the Trump administration wants to rely on states for coal ash monitoring and enforcement and enable them to bypass national standards in some cases.
In announcing the new proposed regulations in April, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin called them “commonsense changes” and said they “reflect EPA’s commitment to restoring American energy dominance, strengthening cooperative federalism, and accommodating unique circumstances at certain [coal ash] facilities.”
The proposed rule would exempt sites where coal ash is stored from regulation and permit coal-fired power plant owners to minimize, delay, or avoid dealing with the coal ash at their facilities.
Coal ash, or coal combustion residuals, is the mineral residue left after burning coal to generate electricity. It contains potentially toxic levels of substances like mercury, arsenic, and lead, all of which are associated with human health problems, including cancer.
More than half of the fine, gray, powdery residue is used each year to create concrete, drywall, or other industry applications. This is often called “beneficial use” by the coal industry.
A 2022 study by Earthjustice and other environmental groups found that more than 90 percent of coal power plants across America were contaminating groundwater via coal ash residues.