Federal judge gives EPA 60 days to come up with a deadline for new rules on coal-ash disposal

The Environmental Protection Agency has been working for almost four years on new regulations for coal-ash disposal, since soon after after a dam ruptured at a Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash impoundment in Harriman, Tenn., in December 2008, spilling 1.1 billion gallons of coal slurry into the Emory River. One federal judge is tired of waiting, and has ordered EPA "to come up with a deadline for finalizing the rules within the next 60 days," Kate Sheppard reports for the Huffington Post. (Associated Press photo: 15 homes were flooded by coal ash sludge in 2008)

"The EPA proposed draft rules in October 2009. The rules went to the White House Office of Management and Budget and came back seven months later with some alternatives for the EPA to consider -- the original rules the agency drafted and a weaker version that would leave most of the regulation up to the states," Sheppard writes. "The EPA hasn't made any movement to finalize either of those options since." Last year environmental groups filed a lawsuit to force the EPA to move on the rules. (Read more)