EPA Plans to Regulate Coal Ash
The U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency today is proposing the first-ever national rules
to ensure the safe disposal and management of coal ash from
coal-fired power plants.
Coal combustion residuals, commonly known as coal ash, are
byproducts of the combustion of coal at power plants and are
disposed of in liquid form at large surface impoundments and in
solid form at landfills. The residuals contain contaminants like
mercury, cadmium and arsenic, which are associated with cancer and
various other serious health effects.
EPA’s risk assessment and damage cases demonstrate that,
without proper protections, these contaminants can leach into
groundwater and can migrate to drinking water sources, posing
significant health public concerns.
Today’s action will ensure for the first time
that protective controls, such as liners and groundwater
monitoring, are in place at new landfills to protect groundwater
and human health. Existing surface impoundments will also require
liners, with strong incentives to close the impoundments and
transition to safer landfills, which store coal ash in dry
form.
The proposed regulations will ensure stronger oversight of
the structural integrity of impoundments in order to prevent
accidents like the one at Kingston, Tennessee. Today’s action also
will promote environmentally safe and desirable forms of recycling
coal ash, known as beneficial uses.
The dangers associated with structurally unsafe coal ash
impoundments came to national attention in 2008 when an impoundment
holding disposed waste ash generated by the Tennessee Valley
Authority broke open, creating a massive spill in Kingston that
covered millions of cubic yards of land and river.
The spill displaced residents, required hundreds of
millions of dollars in cleanup costs and caused widespread
environmental damage. Shortly afterwards, EPA began overseeing the
cleanup, as well as investigating the structural integrity of
impoundments where ash waste is stored.
“We’re proposing strong steps to address the
serious risk of groundwater contamination and threats to drinking
water and we’re also putting in place stronger safeguards against
structural failures of coal ash impoundments,” said EPA
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson.”The health and the environment of
all communities must be protected.”
“The time has come for common-sense national
protections to ensure the safe disposal of coal ash,” EPA
Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. The proposal opens a national
dialogue by calling for public comment on two approaches for
addressing the risks of coal ash management under the
nation’s primary law for regulating solid waste, the Resource
Recovery and Conservation Act (RCRA). One option is drawn
from authorities available under Subtitle C, which creates a
comprehensive program of federally enforceable requirements for
waste management and disposal.
The other option includes remedies under Subtitle D, which
gives EPA authority to set performance standards for waste
management facilities and would be enforced primarily through
citizen suits. A chart comparing and contrasting the two approaches
is available on EPA’s Web site.
Under both approaches proposed by EPA, the agency would leave in
place the Bevill exemption for beneficial uses of coal ash in which
coal combustion residuals are recycled as components of products
instead of placed in impoundments or landfills. Large quantities of
coal ash are used today in concrete, cement, wallboard and other
contained applications that should not involve any exposure by the
public to unsafe contaminants. These uses would not be impacted by
today’s proposal.
“EPA supports the
legitimate beneficial use of coal combustion residuals,” said Mathy
Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste
and Emergency Response, the agency office that will be responsible
for implementing the proposals. “Environmentally sound beneficial
uses of ash conserve resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
lessen the need for waste disposal units, and provide significant
domestic economic benefits. This proposal will clearly
differentiate these uses from coal ash disposal and assure that
safe beneficial uses are not restricted and in fact are
encouraged.”
EPA is seeking public comment on how to frame the continued
exemption of beneficial uses from regulation and is focusing in
particular on whether that exemption should exclude certain
non-contained applications where contaminants in coal ash could
pose risks to human health. The public comment period is 90
days from the date the rule is published in the Federal
Register.
Coal combustion residual impoundments can be found in almost
all states across America, most often on the properties of power
plants. There are almost 900 landfills and surface impoundments
nationwide. Since the spill at Kingston, EPA has been evaluating
hundreds of coal ash impoundments throughout the country to ensure
their structural integrity and to require improvements where
necessary. The results of the assessments are on EPA’s Web
site.
- More information about the proposed regulation:
title=”http://www.epa.gov/coalashrule”> - To view the chart comparing the two approaches:
title=”http://www.epa.gov/coalashrule/ccr-table.htm”>http://www.epa.gov/coalashrule/ccr-table.htm - To view results of the impoundment assessments:
target=”_blank”
title=”http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/surveys2/index.htm”>
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/surveys2/index.htm
