The Environmental Protection Agency dealt a blow to environmental groups Friday as a long-awaited rule governing coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal for electricity, was less stringent than they had hoped.
The EPA decided not to label coal ash a hazardous material, as environmentalists wanted. Industry groups warned that doing so would prevent recycled coal ash from being used in materials for roads, buildings and highways.
The rule also calls for less aggressive enforcement than environmentalists sought. The EPA said it would require regular inspections of coal ash storage sites and that it would set minimum standards for storage. States would craft their own standards with those baselines in mind, and challenges against utilities that operate coal ash storage sites could be brought through civil lawsuits.
Groups in the construction industry said labeling the coal ash as hazardous would have raised costs by forcing companies to turn to other, more expensive materials. Of the 130 million tons of coal ash produced each year, about 40 percent of it is recycled into other uses. The rest go to landfills or impoundments.
Coal ash regulation isn’t considered a top priority for the agency, which has had its agenda dominated by climate change. Environmental groups had to sue the agency to finish the rule and the court-ordered deadline was Friday. Environmental groups, who fear toxin-laden coal ash leaks and spills could harm waterways, said that it appeared the agency didn’t want to pick a fight with business groups.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy downplayed the potential that the rule, which covers coal ash storage at more than 500 facilities nationwide, would upset the agency’s allies.
“We’re going to have to see how the environmental community actually responds to this,” she said during a Friday media call. “We are actually getting at the issues that they have concerns about.”
Older storage sites that don’t meet the new minimum federal standards won’t be able to take in new coal ash. Sites that are already contaminating groundwater will be closed and forced to clean up. Future storage areas can’t be built near wetlands or earthquake fault zones. New units will need to install lining to prevent coal ash leakage, and older ones must be retrofitted over time. The rule also establishes new reporting requirements and calls for making information publicly available, which environmental groups had sought.
But the EPA said it didn’t believe it had the authority to issue requirements for landfills or impoundments — often referred to as “ash ponds,” which act as a reservoir — at power plants that are no longer operating.
Environmental groups were not happy.
“While EPA and the Obama administration have taken a modest first step by introducing some protections on the disposal of coal ash, they do not go far enough to protect families from this toxic pollution,” said Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “We welcome federal efforts on this issue, but Sierra Club has significant concerns about what has been omitted from these protections and how they will be enforced in states that have historically had poor track records on coal ash disposal.”
The EPA began crafting the coal ash rule in response to a spill in late 2008 at a Tennessee Valley Authority-operated site in Kingston, Tenn. Environmental groups are worried about lax monitoring and enforcement could lead to similar accidents, such as a February spill into North Carolina’s Dan River that was blamed partially on shoddy state oversight. They’re concerned that pursuing a state-based approach could lead to future accidents.
