Federal judge says EPA will have to write first federal rules for disposal of coal ash

A federal judge this week said he would order the Environmental Protection Agency to developing what would be the first federal standards for disposal of coal ash, which environmental groups say has been dumped into unlined and unmonitored pits, harming water supplies. But U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton of Washington said he wouldn't meet all the demands of groups that sued EPA, and would issue a memorandum with his views in the next several weeks, Manual Quinones reports for Environment & Energy News. (Brian Stansberry/Creative Commons photo: Damage from the 2008 Tennessee ValleyAuthority coal ash spill in Kingston, Tenn.)

Until Walton provides more details, "the implications for the rulemaking remain unclear," Quinones writes. "Walton appears poised to agree but also disagree with different demands from the different interests. For example, Walton signaled that he wouldn't agree to a demand from environmentalists that EPA change the test for determining whether a material is hazardous." (Read more)

In April, 2012, a group of 11 environmental groups sued EPA, challenging the agency's failure to regulate coal ash, Sue Sturgis reports for The Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, N.C. "Spurred to action by the 2008 coal ash spill from the Kingston plant in eastern Tennessee that dumped over 1 billion gallons of coal ash onto a residential community and into two rivers, EPA proposed the first federal regulations for coal ash in May 2010 to replace the uneven patchwork of state laws. But EPA never completed its rulemaking, and the power-generating industry and some members of Congress launched a push for legislation to block EPA from imposing federal regulations." (Read more)