Trump administration relaxes deadlines for coal ash cleanup
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has moved to weaken federal Obama-era rules on the disposal of coal ash, a waste byproduct from power plants spread out in slurry ponds and dry landfills across Pennsylvania.
In an announcement last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new deadline of Aug. 31, 2020, for companies to shut off shipments of coal ash to waste sites that do not comply with federal standards. The EPA is offering to grant extensions, up until Oct. 15, 2023, for facilities that show they need more time to comply.
The Obama administration rules, passed in 2015, had set a deadline of April 2019 for companies to stop dumping coal ash in unlined ponds and landfills, which have no barriers to prevent coal ash from leaching into the ground.
In a statement, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the previous rules “placed heavy burdens on electricity producers across the country.”
“These proposed revisions support the Trump administration’s commitment to responsible, reasonable regulations,” Mr. Wheeler said, “by taking a commonsense approach that will provide more certainty to U.S. industry while also protecting public health and the environment.”
The changes are only the latest in a yearslong debate over how to handle the byproduct of burning coal for electricity. Coal ash, which contains heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury, creates vast sources of potential contamination, as well as huge costs for utility companies that must either retrofit the site or find alternative storage facilities.
The original rules were partially in response to a 2008 dam breach in Kingston, Tenn., which spilled more than 1.1 billion gallons of coal slurry into nearby rivers and destroyed homes.
In Pennsylvania, there are 103 coal ash storage and disposal sites, including 20 unlined coal ash ponds and 13 unlined landfills, according to the Center for Coalfield Justice.
About 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, the largest site in the country, called Little Blue Run, sprawls nearly 1,000 acres in Beaver County and Hancock County, W.Va. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ordered the site’s operator, FirstEnergy Corp., to shut it down at the end of 2016 amid concerns over groundwater contamination.
But because the site is unlined, the Post-Gazette reported last year, more than 100 monitoring locations had been deemed contaminated by coal ash even after the site stopped accepting it. Multiple properties have been bought up by FirstEnergy after residents complained of odors and seeps around their homes.
Industry groups have argued the original rule was too burdensome.
Power companies are managing coal ash “in the safest way possible while protecting the environment and minimizing impacts to communities and power customers,” said Delia Patterson, senior vice president of advocacy and communications and general counsel for the American Public Power Association, in a statement on Tuesday.
But building new coal ash disposal units to replace sites that do not meet standards “will undoubtedly take some time,” Ms. Patterson said. “EPA acknowledges this reality through its proposed rule.”
“We are pleased that EPA is working to provide clarity to the industry on this issue,” she added.
Environmental advocates warned that any delay risks irreversible damage to water supplies. Lisa Evans, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, said utilities should have been penalized for missing the April deadline instead of rewarded by more flexibility.
“Contamination worsens as long as the pond is retrieving more waste,” Ms. Evans said. “Once the contaminants flow away from the pond and into the adjacent streams and lakes, the damage cannot be undone.”
Once the changes are published in the Federal Register, expected this month, the EPA will open a 60-day public comment period.
“Once the contaminants flow away from the pond and into the adjacent streams and lakes, the damage cannot be undone.”
Lisa Evans, Earthjustice