EPA moves to regulate inactive coal-ash landfills, most which are unlined and thus are more likely to leak or fail

Adapted screenshot of Earthjustice interactive map of coal-ash landfills, by status; for a larger version, click on it

The Environmental Protection Agency "is moving to close a loophole that had exempted hundreds of inactive coal-ash landfills from rules designed to prevent heavy metals like mercury and arsenic from seeping into groundwater," reports Lisa Friedman of The New York Times.

The ash from coal-burning power plants contains lead, lithium, mercury and other toxic metals that "can pollute waterways and drinking water supplies and have been linked to health effects, including cancer, birth defects and developmental delays in children," Friedman notes. EPA Administrator Michael Regan "said the rule would help to protect low-income communities of color, where the overwhelming number of old landfills are located." Many are in rural areas.

The proposal is part of a settlement between EPA and environmental groups. It "would require those responsible for the coal ash to monitor groundwater supplies and clean up any contamination from the landfills," Friendman writes. "About half of all the coal ash in the United States — more than a billion tons, according to one study — has gone unregulated. The new rule is expected to face opposition from utilities and fossil-fuel supporters in Congress."

The Tennessee coal-ash disaster (Photo by Wayde Payne, AP)

The first federal regulations were spurred by the 2008 failure of a coal-ash pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's coal-fired plant at Kingston, Tenn., "one of the largest industrial disasters in U.S. history," Friedman notes. "Landfills that stopped receiving ash before October 2015 were exempt from the rules." Those inactive landfills, most of which are not monitored, are more likely to be unlined and thus more of a threat, EPA said.