Arizona could take oversight of coal ash from feds
Arizona may become the fourth state to oversee how power companies dispose of toxic coal ash under a bill Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law Monday.
The bill allows the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to develop a program to regulate the waste, taking control away from the Biden administration’s U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA would have to approve the state’s program overseeing the materials formally called coal combustion residuals before it could happen.
“Arizona’s coal combustion residuals program, we believe, will provide better protection for public health and the environment,” Ducey spokesman C.J. Karamargin said Monday.
DEQ officials argued the agency has the local knowledge and expertise to better oversee the program. They told lawmakers the state had already been regulating some aspects of coal waste disposal for decades.
The measure generated opposition from environmental advocates and several Democrats in the Arizona House of Representatives who warned DEQ was not capable to take on the program, citing two recent audits that aren’t yet fully remedied. One audit found DEQ hadn’t set a water pollution limit for arsenic, one of the pollutants that can leach from coal ash.
Opponents also decried that state takeover came at the request of Arizona’s powerful utility companies.
“It’s disappointing and troublesome that they’re moving in this direction because we know they’re doing it because the utilities wanted them to,” Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, said Monday.
She noted also that the federal EPA recently began enforcing provisions of the federal coal ash programs.
As with most bills, the provisions of the measure Ducey signed Monday become law 90 days after the Legislature adjourns its session, which is likely months away. Meanwhile the DEQ will begin creating the framework for the program.
“ADEQ will now develop the rules and program structure to demonstrate to EPA that Arizona’s (coal ash) program meets all federal requirements necessary for state implementation,” DEQ spokesperson Caroline Oppleman said.
Coal ash is left behind when power plants burn coal to generate electricity, and it contains toxins like arsenic, mercury, lead and other heavy metals. Called coal combustion residuals by the EPA, it can be disposed of in landfills, ponds or safely recycled into some building materials.
But if not done properly, those landfills and ponds can leach pollutants into drinking water supply, or have catastrophic failures.
Arizona has four operating coal plants: Cholla Power Plant in Navajo County, Springerville Generating Station and Coronado Generating Station both in Apache County, and the Apache Generating Station in Cochise County. While each is slated for closure in coming years, properly disposing of waste and making sure it does not pollute water sources will be a decadeslong job for state environmental regulators.
Only Texas, Georgia and Oklahoma have EPA approval to oversee their own coal waste programs.