Here's a list of coal-ash dumps; is one near you?

The U.S. has 584 sites where coal ash is dumped, "almost twice as many as previously identified," reports Facing South, the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies. The South is a major focus of concern about coal ash because of the region's many coal-fired power plants and the brobdingnagian spill caused by failure of a Tennessee Valley Authority ash pond (Roane County News photo). The Environmental Protection Agency gathered the data in response to the spill, and released it in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from three environmental groups.

The list "reveals ownership, location, hazard potential, year commissioned, type and quantity of coal combustion waste disposed, dates of the last regulatory or company assessment and in some instances whether an unregulated discharge of ash has occurred," Sue Sturgis reports. "However, some critical data is missing because companies are claiming it's confidential business information. Duke Energy, Progress Energy and the Southern Co.'s Alabama Power and Georgia Power are among the corporations withholding information on 74 coal ash dump sites, including some of the country's largest ash dumps." Some ash is dumped wet, some dry. (Read more)

UPDATE, Sept. 1: Jim Bruggers of The Courier-Journal reports that Kentucky and Indiana lead the nation in coal-ash ponds.

Meanwhile, Shaila Dewan of The New York Times catches up on the controversy over a poor Alabama county's acceptance of ash from the Tennessee spill and the millions of dollars that is part of the deal.