As the Trump administration pushes coal energy, now is a good time to report on coal ash

View of the 2008 Kingston, Tennessee, spill that prompted coal ash 
regulations. (Photo by  Brian Stansberry, Wikimedia CC)

Almost every state in the union has coal ash stored in ponds, landfills and mines that is likely leaching toxic heavy metals into groundwater and wells. Especially now that the Trump administration is busy promoting coal energy production, it's an opportune time for local reporting on the possible presence and handling of coal ash in readers' neighborhoods.

The unfortunate truth is that coal ash can be found in a lot of places. "There are some 700 to 1,425 massive dumps of coal ash," reports Joseph A. Davis for the Society of Environmental Journalists. "States and utilities are doing little or nothing to remedy the threat that it presents." 

What is coal ash? "When coal is burned, it produces several waste byproducts," Davis writes. "The fancy name for all of it is 'coal combustion residuals.' The common name is coal ash."

Where is it found? Any plant that produces electricity from coal would leave behind coal ash as a byproduct. Coal operators put coal ash in surface impoundments, also known as ponds, in on-site landfills, or some recycle it into usable materials.

Why is it a problem? Coal ash contains many toxic substances, especially heavy metals such as arsenic, chromium, lead, and lithium. "It also contains radium, which is radioactive," Davis explains. Many coal operators have left piles of coal ash to fester and poison land and water sources.

What can be done about it? Cleaning up coal ash ponds can involve draining the surface water and capping the pond or entirely removing the ash from the pond to a lined landfill or for beneficial reuse (clean closure). Earthjustice provides a good resource document here.

Story ideas:

• How many coal ash disposal areas are there in your area? Are there coal ash sites not on an official list? Why not? Are utilities acknowledging clear responsibility for existing sites?
• Have any of the coal ash sites in your area been cleaned up to a nominal safety standard? Have they been moved to a landfill? Is it lined and capped? Safe from water? Is the new disposal site safer than the old one?
• What waters are near your area’s coal ash sites? Are the sites near a river, lake or estuary? Are they above an aquifer? Is that aquifer a drinking water source? Has anyone tested for water pollution and, if so, what were the findings?
• Historically, have there been pollution incidents in your area related to coal ash sites?
• What level of responsibility are states and utilities taking for stabilization, cleanup or maintenance of coal ash sites in your area?
• What do people in your state think about using coal ash in the concrete on local roads? Is it being done? Do people know about it?

Resources:

• Environmental Protection Agency: The EPA is the primary federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing coal ash dumps to make them safer and less polluting.
• State environmental agencies: In some cases, the EPA has already devolved coal-ash cleanup responsibilities to state environmental agencies. See a list here.
• Earthjustice: This environmental advocacy and litigation group has for years specialized in coal ash, among other issues. The best source is Lisa Evans.
• American Coal Ash Association: An industry lobby group aimed mainly at lightening the coal ash regulatory burden on utilities and promoting the reuse of coal ash — and the idea that doing so is safe.

Selling solar in coal country begins with local trust and an understanding of the history of those communities

Overcoming solar opposition begins with understanding
coal's history. (Photo by Gabriel Fibz, Unsplash)

Selling solar in coal country might sound like a tall order; however, solar advocates in southwestern Virginia have built a cooperative system of local support for solar. "In 2016, a coalition of businesses, nonprofits, colleges, local governments, and citizens launched the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia, which collaborates with Secure Solar Futures," reports Hannah Wilson-Black for Grist. "It includes experts in every aspect of the green transition, from community organizers who tell neighbors about the benefits of solar to legal experts who propose legislation."

The group's plan began with an understanding of the history and outlook of coal communities and why they might not welcome solar. Emma Kelly, who grew up in eastern Kentucky and now leads the Solar Workgroup's community outreach, told Wilson-Black: "I’m from the coalfields. And you have to understand. Coal mining is not just a job. The coal industry is not just an employer. It’s not like Walmart. [Coal companies] built towns, they built schools, they built churches, they made their own money. You cannot really overestimate the amount of domination they had over these social and economic systems.”

"Because residents of southwest Virginia may see solar as helping accelerate the loss of coal jobs, she and Matt McFadden from Secure Solar Futures consider their being locals an important component of building confidence in, and support for, the technology," Wilson-Black reports. "More important, though, is the fact that local solar advocates and companies like Secure Solar Futures make it clear that their mission goes beyond profit. 'I don’t get anything out of this except a sense of fulfillment,' said Kelly, who became involved in solar advocacy in 2022 after learning, to her surprise, of solar’s potential in the coalfields."

Considering the region’s history, and overall distrust of energy companies, Kelly and other solar advocates in southwestern Virginia "said being local, proving solar’s benefits, and building a coalition have been key to ensuring the technology’s success in the face of cultural and political opposition," Wilson-Black writes. The group has made progess, which is on display in the coalfield community of Whitesburg, Kentucky, where "a solar pavilion and rooftop at the arts education center Appalshop has attracted curious neighbors, said Kathleen Byrne, the center’s development director."

Local focus and trust building continue to help solar succeed in the region. "McFadden said demonstrating the technology’s feasibility through community-focused projects like the 12 school installations his company is handling has changed perceptions in the area," Wilson-Black writes. "Hiring locals to install and maintain the photovoltaic panels is key, too. In 2022, Secure Solar Futures started an annual apprenticeship program that trains local high schoolers to do everything from wiring arrays to the physical heavywork of carrying and arranging panels, and pays them $17 an hour. This tangible example of a solar operation employing community members has been part of 'the proof in the pudding,' McFadden said."

Where will all the coal ash go? Billions of dollars are at stake as Alabama waits for the EPA to make its decision

A coal ash lagoon at one of Alabama Power's electrical
plants. (Alabama Power courtesy photo via AL.com)

Alabama's dynamic waterways support an array of animal life, including a whopping 433 bird species. The state boasts 15 rivers and ranks fifth in the country – and first among states east of the Mississippi – for biodiversity. But alongside its teeming rivers is a giant problem -- approximately 100 million tons of coal ash abandoned by utility companies in "unlined ditches along the rivers across the state," reports Dennis Pillion of AL.com. "The concerns are huge: Will coal ash continue to seep into and contaminate the groundwater? Will the holding areas one day give way and plug the river with the discarded waste of powerplants as once happened in Tennessee?"

The state is in a "showdown" with the Environmental Protection Agency over how the coal ash will be contained, removed or restored. Pillion asks: "Can Alabama leave its coal ash where the utilities dumped it? Or do they have to dig it up and haul it away to be buried in lined landfills, as is happening in many other states? Or maybe dig it out, line the ponds, and dump it all back in?"

The state's cheapest option, "cover in place," is not cheap and does not include "digging out the ash out and putting a liner underneath it," Pillion reports. "Alabama Power estimated [that] would cost $3.3 billion. . . . The estimate also does not include ash ponds managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority and PowerSouth."

"Alabama state officials, utilities, and environmental groups can only wait now as the EPA decides Alabama's fate," Pillion explains. "Utilities were once allowed to choose between covering the ash in place or moving it to a lined landfill. But they could only leave it in place if the federal rules were met. . . .The rules may vary by presidential administration." The Biden administration has a stricter interpretation of the rules and rejected Alabama's cover-in-place plans.

"At a public hearing on EPA's decision on Sept. 20, Alabama Power Vice President of Environmental Affairs Susan Comensky argued that removal of coal ash presents challenges aside from cost." Comensky said that not only would the removal take decades to complete, but "there is not enough available landfill capacity to accept the approximately 100 million cubic yards of ash in our ponds."

"Not everyone buys that argument," Pillion writes. John Kinney, a staff scientist at Black Warrior Riverkeeper, "argued that the power companies could create landfills on-site to hold the ash waste without having to truck it across the state. . . . Utilities in other states have built lined landfills on site."

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.

Quick hits: Billionaires buy up farmland; USDA wants feedback on rural renewable-energy pilot program...

Here's a roundup of stories with rural resonance; if you do or see similar work that should be shared on The Rural Blog, email us at heather.chapman@uky.edu.

The new jobs-and-stimulus package dedicates $20 million for efforts to preserve tribal languages. Read more here.

A pilot project in rural Maine aims to use paramedics to improve health-care access. Read more here.

The Agriculture Department wants feedback on the creation of a rural renewable-energy pilot program. Read more here.

An Illinois billionaire has quietly bought about 24,000 acres of farmland in the state since 2015, saying it's a good investment. Farmland purchases by hedge funds and the wealthy have surged in recent years, and economists say it's a good investment because of its stability. But wealthy investors paying top dollar for farmland contributes to the shortage of land available for farmers to purchase. Read more here.

The Hospital (St, Martin's, $28.99), a new book by journalist Brian Alexander, examines the state of rural health care by focusing on a small hospital in northwest Ohio. Read more here.

University of Tennessee agricultural economists Harwood D. Schaffer and Daryll E. Ray have dedicated their "Policy Pennings" columns over the past month to a look back at crop export trends over the past 60 years, and what they can teach us now. Read more here.

A legal scholar who was raised in rural America discusses academia's blind spot towards rural areas. Read more here.

if you're looking for a story that delves deeply into coal ash and how it impacts people nearby, this is one of the best we've ever seen. Read it here.

An op-ed says the USDA shouldn't be funding rural jails. Read more here.

A study examines the impact of solar farms on rural property values, and notes that such projects increasingly compete with rural residential developers and concentrated animal feeding operation farmers for rural land. Read more here. 

Health-care providers and housing experts explore the intersection of rural housing quality and health. Read more here.

Quick hits: Photo book follows Mississippi R.: coal-ash ponds reprieved; USDA rural opportunity agency proposed

How the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally may have spread coronavirus. Read more here.

The Trump administration will let some leaking or otherwise dangerous coal-ash storage ponds stay in operation longer, and some unlined ponds stay open indefinitely, under a rule change. Read more here.

A new photo book follows the Mississippi River from headwaters to the Delta and Gulf. Read more here.

The director of a rural health research center, whose work has led to laws aimed at improving rural maternity care, has won a prestigious award. Read more here.

A left-leaning think-tank proposes a Rural Opportunity Administration within the USDA. Read more here.

A recent Cargill study found that most Americans acknowledge the difficulties farmers are facing during the pandemic, and an "overwhelming majority" said they're generally confident that farmers can meet demand and feed growing populations. Read more here.

The Farmer Veteran Coalition has announced that it will hold its annual stakeholders conference online on Nov. 18-19. Read more here.

EPA proposes further rollbacks to coal ash regulations

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced a new proposed rollback to an Obama-era regulation dealing with waste from coal-fired power plants known as coal ash," Rachel Frazin reports for The Hill. "The proposed changes are the Trump administration's second set of changes to protections on waste laden with arsenic."

The proposal would also expand the use of coal ash in closing landfills under some circumstances, and ease regulations for the liners that coat the bottom of coal-ash pits, which are meant to keep toxins from leeching into groundwater or nearby waterways, Frazin reports. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement that the changes will give coal-fired power plant operators much-needed flexibility to address site-specific conditions, but critics believe the changes will weaken environmental protections.

The proposal is the administration's second recent effort to roll back coal-ash disposal regulations. In January the EPA proposed a rule amendment that would effectively shield all but the most high-hazard coal-fired plants from the old regulations.

The EPA is seeking public comments on the proposal for 45 days, and will hold a public hearing within that time.

TVA must do more to generate clean energy, write energy analyst and former environmental reporter

As part of his "Green New Deal" plan, Democratic presidential primary candidate Bernie Sanders wants the Tennessee Valley Authority to shut down all its fossil fuel-burning plants and generate electricity solely from renewable sources. TVA currently operates six coal-fired power plants, 17 natural gas plants, and one diesel generator site. The rest of its power comes from nuclear, hydroelectric, solar, wind and biogas.

That may seem fanciful, but two writers say in The New York Times that it's not a bad idea for TVA focus on clean energy generation. Justin Gillis is a former Times environmental reporter; Jameson McBride is an energy analyst at the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental research center.

TVA, which sells power across parts of seven states, has a history of polluting waterways and property by improperly storing the toxic coal ash generated by its coal-fired power plants, they write: "In December 2008, an immense spill of coal ash at a TVA plant in Kingston, Tenn., polluted a nearby river and caused millions of dollars of property damage. The TVA had failed to carry out elementary safety measures, and the lead cleanup contractor was found negligent in court. Many workers on the cleanup have fallen ill and close to 40 have died; how much responsibility the contractor bears for the deaths is still being contested in court."

Though TVA is moving away from coal, and generates the lion's share of its electricity from nuclear power, Gillis and McBride write that the federal utility is moving too slowly to build more wind and solar generators. The modest solar buildout the agency's has adopted will result in higher electric bills for TVA customers than those who buy from other producers, they believe.

The biggest problem is that TVA has no central boss to drive change; just board members appointed by the president. "So the agency, long dominated by a conservative engineering mind-set, has gotten little pressure from Washington to move faster on the energy transition. But it is starting to get pressure from the other direction: cities that buy power wholesale and resell it to their citizens. Memphis, for instance, is considering pulling out of the TVA system and cutting its own deals for clean power," Gillis and McBride write.

TVA already has some of the lowest emissions in the country, but it could achieve much more in short order if it wanted to, they write: "The backwardness of the TVA on this issue is not just a national embarrassment; it is a betrayal of the agency’s own progressive legacy as one of the signature creations of the New Deal. The next president, whether Mr. Sanders or somebody else, needs to shake up the TVA board and demand that the agency become a leader, not a laggard, in battling the climate crisis."

Newly proposed EPA rule goes easier on coal-ash dumping

A newly proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule will weaken an Obama-era regulation meant to limit toxic metals from coal-fired power plants leeching into water supplies.

Essentially, the EPA has created a new subpart to the rule that shields all but the most high-hazard plants from the old regulations. It "establishes narrower definitions, and more flexible application, modification, and termination requirements and procedures. Significantly, it also establishes a 'tiered' approach to compliance deadlines," Sonal Patel reports for Power, a generating-industry magazine.

The EPA is encouraging states to come up with their own permit programs, and has approved programs from Oklahoma and Georgia so far. "States have been hesitant, owing in part to regulatory uncertainty and legal challenges related to key portions of the Obama administration’s broad April 2015 final coal ash rule," Patel reports. "Other states, such as Virginia, North Carolina, and Illinois, have meanwhile moved to address power plant coal ash disposal through state-level legislation." The newly proposed EPA rule would govern Native American reservations and states that choose not to adopt their own rules.

In related news, Duke Energy will dig up nearly 80 million tons of coal ash at six sites in North Carolina, as part of a settlement with the state Department of Environmental Quality signed Dec. 31. The DEQ ordered the utility to dig up the toxic ash, but Duke filed suit because the company wanted to keep the ash in place and seal off the sites with caps. "DEQ said the excavation would be the largest coal-ash clean up in U.S. history," Lynn Bonner reports for The Charlotte Observer.

Southern states differ in response to coal-ash rule rollbacks

"As the Trump administration scales back federal regulation of the waste from coal-fired power plants known as coal ash, a handful of Southern states have passed laws forcing utilities to clean up or contain the toxic mess," Max Blau reports for Stateline. "Other states, though, have done little or nothing."

Coal-fired plants produce 130 million tons of toxic coal ash, one of the largest sources of industrial waste in the nation, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The ash is commonly put in nearby ponds or pits that frequently leach toxic chemicals into drinking water and/or bodies of water. The South is home to nearly half of America's largest coal ash disposal sites, Blau reports.

The Obama administration created the nation's first comprehensive regulations for disposing of coal ash, but the Trump administration delayed the new rules from fully going into effect. Now, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, has proposed weakening rules on coal ash disposal and monitoring, Blau reports.

That means states will probably be largely responsible for coal-ash regulations, which the Trump administration has encouraged. "Lawmakers in Virginia and North Carolina have taken steps to require utilities to excavate coal ash from unlined ponds to prevent the heavy metals from seeping into groundwater," Blue reports. Also, "This past June, Tennessee officials settled with the Tennessee Valley Authority to excavate millions of tons of coal ash from ponds that the state said polluted the Cumberland River."

Some states, like Georgia and Alabama, have taken steps to adopt their own rules, but environmental advocates say the proposed rules won't do much to help. And some states, like Kentucky, are limited in their ability to regulate the industry because coal companies have persuaded legislators to pass laws restricting states from creating tougher regulations than the federal government. 

State officials in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Kentucky—as well as coal-industry groups—have praised the rollbacks, saying they felt the Obama-era laws were an overreach, and that it's wrong to impose a law on all states when some may have different needs, Blau reports.

EPA to roll back rules keeping coal-fired power plants from polluting water supplies with heavy metals

"The Trump administration is expected to roll back an Obama-era regulation meant to limit the leaching of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury into water supplies from the ash of coal-fired power plants, according to two people familiar with the plans," Lisa Friedman reports for The New York Times. "With a series of new rules expected in the coming days, the Environmental Protection Agency will move to weaken the 2015 regulation that would have strengthened inspection and monitoring at coal plants, lowered acceptable levels of toxic effluent and required plants to install new technology to protect water supplies from contaminated coal ash." A significant number of power plants would be exempted from following any of those requirements, according to the sources.

Coal-fired power plants have come under public scrutiny in recent years for their environmental impact. Several plants polluted local water supplies after stored coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal, leeched into nearby lakes or rivers, Friedman reports. The move would be the latest of many efforts by the Trump administration to help the coal industry, as coal-fired power plants have increasingly shut down because of competition from natural gas and renewable energy.

"Environmental groups warned that the regulatory rollback could lead to contaminated drinking water and birth defects, cancer and stunted brain development in young children," Friedman reports. "Energy analysts said the administration’s latest gambit to bolster the industry would not save the industry from its long decline."

N. Carolina tells Duke to dig up all coal-ash ponds in state

UPDATE, April 12: Duke says it will appeal administratively the order requiring the addition nine ponds to be excavated, Sean Reilly reports for Environment & Energy News.

The state of North Carolina has ordered Duke Energy to excavate millions of tons of coal ash from six power plants, Bruce Henderson reports for The Charlotte Observer.

"Ash has been mixed with water and stored in open, unlined ponds at Duke’s coal-fired power plants for decades," Henderson notes. "A 2014 ash spill into the Dan River, near the Virginia line, exposed the potential for heavy metals in ash to contaminate water, including the groundwater." That prompted "lawsuits and a new state law that ordered Duke to phase out its ash ponds, with the timing and method of closing the ponds dependent on their risks to nearby water supplies."

The electric utility, one of the nation's largest, "had already begun or finished ash excavations at 22 other N.C. ponds under state law requirements, legal settlements or the company’s own decisions," Henderson notes. Now the state has decided that all 31 of the company’s ponds in North Carolina will be drained, "with the ash dug up and removed as environmental advocates have long demanded. But Duke warned that the DEQ order will extend the job of cleaning up its ash by decades and add billions of dollars to the cost, with customers likely paying the bill."

Duke said in a statement that it will review the DEQ decision and “continue to support solutions that protect our customers and the environment.” It also said the work would take decades.

EPA says Missouri plan to regulate coal-ash ponds too weak

The Environmental Protection Agency has been criticized for lax regulation under the Trump administration, but it recently told the Missouri Department of Natural Resources that the state's plan for disposing of toxic waste from coal-ash ponds isn't strong enough to protect the environment or the health of residents. Coal ash includes hazardous substances that could leach into groundwater or streams if not contained and disposed of correctly. Missouri is home to two major coal companies, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal.

EPA noted that several parts of the plan are weaker than the 2015 federal coal-ash rule. Some allow the state "to waive requirements for utility companies to clean up groundwater contamination or even monitor groundwater for toxic chemicals if they can show that it doesn’t affect drinking-water supplies or harm the environment," Eli Chen reports for NPR. "The state agency also could suspend requirements to monitor groundwater if the utility can demonstrate that the disposal site doesn’t pose a risk to human health or the environment."

Trey Davis, president of the Missouri Energy Development Association, argued that the state's proposed rule protects health and the environment as well as the federal rule, and said state regulations didn't have to match their federal counterparts, Chen reports.

"Researchers from the Washington University Interdisciplinary Environmental Law Clinic recently found excessive levels of arsenic, boron and other harmful chemicals near all ponds that are receiving coal ash waste," Chen reports. "The MDNR is taking feedback on its plan until March 28 and expects that the state regulations will be effective by the end of September."

Palestine Herald-Press in Texas wins Scripps Howard Award for opinion with 'What Are They Hiding?' package

Multi-platform reporting and news outlet collaboration are big trends among winners of the 2018 Scripps Howard Awards, announced yesterday by the Scripps Howard Foundation. Here are the winners with rural resonance:

The Palestine Herald-Press in Texas brought home the prize in the Opinion category for "What Are They Hiding?", editorials that examined two issues with local impact: how an athletic commission treated a football player, and the state’s seeming rush to execute death-row prisoners. The judges commented: "In their clarity and detail, the editorials would be worthy of the best efforts of the largest metro newspapers in America. The fact that they were all published by a small Texas paper with less than a 10,000 circulation is an example of journalism that speaks truth to power when doing so could invite truly unpleasant consequences." Community Newspaper Holdings owns the paper.

The Knoxville News Sentinel , owned by Gannett Co., won the Community Journalism category for "The Devastation of TVA’s Coal Ash Spill", which covered the struggle of workers who were sickened or killed cleaning up the worst coal-ash spill in U.S. history. "Reporter Jamie Satterfield delivers excellent watchdog work that truly holds the powerful accountable," judges wrote. "Her investigation is deeply reported and swarms all the important angles. The series of stories were well sourced and contained videos with on-the-record accounts that hit viewers between the eyes. Satterfield's extraordinary efforts result in change-inducing and life-saving journalism."

The foundation, the philanthropic arm of E.W. Scripps Co., will present more than $170,000 in prize money to the winners on April 18 in Cincinnati. The awards show will be livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook and rebroadcast on April 21 on Newsy.

Coal ash contaminates groundwater around most of nation's coal-fired power plants, according to plant data analysis

More than 90 percent of the nation's coal-fired power plants that must monitor groundwater quality near their coal-ash retention ponds show unsafe levels of toxic metals such as mercury, cadmium, arsenic, and lithium. That's according to an analysis of the data by green advocacy groups the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, Valerie Volcovici reports for Reuters.

"The environmental groups reviewed data reported from 4,600 groundwater monitoring wells near coal ash dumps of two-thirds of the coal-fired power plants in the United States," Volcovici reports. "Data made public by power companies showed 241 of the 265 plants, or 91 percent, that were subject to the monitoring requirement showed unsafe levels of one or more coal ash components in nearby groundwater compared to EPA standards, according to the analysis by the groups."

Coal ash is a byproduct of coal burning and is commonly dumped into retention ponds. Because of spills that contaminated rivers in Tennessee and North Carolina, the Obama administration created minimum national standards for coal ash disposal in 2015, including a requirement that companies monitor groundwater and publish the data, Volcovici reports.

"Amid strong pressure from utility and coal companies, the EPA under President Donald Trump last July revised the 2015 rule to suspend groundwater monitoring requirements at coal ash sites if it is determined there is no potential for pollutants to move into certain aquifers," Volcovici reports. "The rule also extended the life of some coal ash ponds from early 2019 to late 2020."

TVA may charge customers to cover coal ash cleanup

"The Tennessee Valley Authority is admitting publicly for the first time that it made a deal that could put ratepayers on the financial hook for the misdeeds of a contractor accused of poisoning an entire workforce," Jamie Satterfield reports for the Knoxville News Sentinel. "TVA is publicly acknowledging — via a small section in a 2019 quarterly earnings report — ratepayers may have to foot the bill for Jacobs Engineering’s treatment of disaster cleanup workers at the nation’s largest coal ash spill at the public utility’s Kingston plant a decade ago.

After a 7.3 million ton coal ash spill at the TVA's Kingston Fossil Fuel Power Plant in December 2008, the TVA hired Jacobs Engineering for $60 million to clean it up and keep both the workers and the nearby town of Swan Pond safe from the toxic ash, Satterfield reports.

Jacobs supervisors admitted under oath later on that they lied to the approximately 900 cleanup workers about the site's safety and exposed them to toxins. More than 40 workers have since died and more than 400 are sick or dying because of their exposure to the waste. Dozens of cleanup workers or their families sued Jacobs, Satterfield reports.

TVA customers could be on the hook for a lot of money if the company passes on its expenses to ratepayers. A state investigation into the coal ash cleanup revealed that TVA promised to pay any legal bills Jacobs incurred from lawsuits stemming from the cleanup, and "in its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, TVA is for the first time admitting publicly it also has a deal to cover any damages the sickened workers might recoup — if they win what could be a yearslong legal battle against Jacobs," Satterwhite reports.

Hurricane Florence threatens rural towns still ravaged by 2016 storm; may also spread toxic coal ash from pits

Map shows coal ash sites and projected rainfall from Florence.
(InsideClimate News map; click on the image to enlarge it.)

As Hurricane Florence barrels toward the Carolinas and Virginia, rural residents worry that it could be just as damaging as Hurricane Matthew two years ago, which produced "catastrophic levels of flooding throughout low-lying eastern North Carolina and causing billions of dollars in damages," Patrick Rucker reports for Reuters. Rural, low-income towns were among the hardest hit and are most at risk from Florence.

The downtown district in Fair Bluff, for example, has been a "virtual ghost town" since Matthew. About 1,000 people had lived there, but the town's part-time administrator estimates more than a quarter have left and not returned. Reconstruction efforts are still underway, but  "Residents and business owners have often found it challenging to navigate state and federal bureaucracies in search of recovery and repair funds," Rucker reports.

North Carolina may be more vulnerable to high flooding because state lawmakers passed a law in 2012 making it illegal for policymakers and developers to make decisions based on a report that predicted rising sea levels. "A panel of scientists on the state Coastal Resources Commission issued a dire warning in March 2010, estimating that the sea levels along the state’s coast would rise 39 inches over the next century," Jenavieve Hatch reports for HuffPost. Conservative lawmakers and business interest groups feared the report would hurt lucrative real estate development on the state’s coast and sought to undermine it. A lobbying group committed to economic development on the coast accused the panel of 'pulling data out of their hip pocket'."

Two other major sources of concern: what will happen if Florence floods out hog-manure pits and toxic coal-ash pits. Both could spill hazardous contaminants into groundwater and waterways. "The Environmental Protection Agency is assessing the vulnerability of at least 40 toxic-waste sites that could be damaged," Stuart Leavenworth reports for McClatchy. "But that review does not include dozens of inland Superfund sites that potentially could be flooded by the storm’s fluctuating path."

The review includes 29 sites in Virginia, six in North Carolina and five in South Carolina. But there are 35 Superfund sites in North Carolina and 31 in South Carolina, many of which could flood, Leavenworth reports.

Unstable river bank could collapse, putting more than 600 million gallons of toxic coal ash into Wabash tributary

Structures built to stop erosion of the Middle Fork River in Illinois were damaged in a flood in early 2018.
(Photo by Eco-Justice Collaborative)

Despite efforts to shore it up, an unstable riverbank next to a shuttered coal-fired power plant could collapse, unleashing more than 600 million gallons of toxic coal ash into the Middle Fork of the Vermillion River in eastern Illinois, according to a 2017 engineering study. What's more, efforts to contain the coal ash ponds could conflict with laws protecting the river as a National Scenic River. The Vermillion flows into the Wabash River in Indiana a few miles downstream.

Chicago Tribune map

Dynegy Inc., which owned the site four miles northeast of Oakwood before Dynegy was acquired by Vistra Energy, paid for the study, a copy of which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act by non-profit environmental group Eco-Justice Collaborative. "The company has made a least two attempts to harden the riverbank against further erosion, but the banks remain unstable," Jack Brighton reports for the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting.

The Vermilion Power Station was built in the 1950s by Illinois Power and was later purchased by Dynegy. "Before Dynegy closed the plant in 2011, the two companies deposited more than 3.3 million cubic yards of coal ash into pits next to the river — enough to fill the Empire State Building nearly 2½ times," Michael Hawthorne reports for the Chicago Tribune. Dynegy tried to stabilize the riverbank next to one of the coal ash ponds in 2016, but the effort apparently increased pressure on other sections of the river, further destabilizing those areas. And the structures Dynergy built to stop the erosion have been destroyed by the force of the river, Brighton reports.

"The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is expecting Vistra/Dynegy to submit in October a proposal for closing its three ash ponds at the Vermilion Power Station. The proposal will likely include options for capping the ponds in place, and for excavating the coal ash and removing the ponds from the banks of the Middle Fork," Brighton reports. "A report by Stantec Engineering, paid for by Dynegy, revealed that given the rate of erosion near the ash ponds, additional riverbank stabilization is required no matter which closure option is approved by the Illinois EPA."

But Vistra/Dynegy's plans for stopping the erosion could clash with regulations protecting the Vermilion as a National Scenic River. The federal law prohibits "any water resources project that would have a direct and adverse effect on the values for which such river was established." And locals complain that the additional 1,900 feet of riverbank reinforcement will be an eyesore, Brighton reports.

New EPA chief rolls back coal ash waste regulations

"As one of his first major acts as acting director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler signed and finalized new standards overseeing coal ash, the leftover waste created by power plants that burn coal. The new rules are a revision of 2015 regulations that were put into place by the Obama administration after two significant industrial coal ash spills," Nadia Kounang reports for CNN.

Under the new rules, which coal industry groups lobbied heavily for, states and the coal industry have more authority to regulate how they deal with waste. States can tailor disposal requirements to specific sites, for example. The EPA said more changes to the 2015 coal ash rules will be addressed later, Kounang reports.

Though some coal ash is recycled into construction materials, about 50 million tons of the 110 million tons generated in the U.S. each year must be disposed of. Power plants traditionally mixed the ash with water and put it in unlined pits, but it can contaminate drinking water. "According to the EPA, there are over 1,000 coal ash disposal sites across the country, many of them constructed in the 1950s and 1960s, well before any sort of regulations," Kounang reports.

Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist and attorney for Murray Energy, was the EPA's deputy administrator and gained the top post after Scott Pruitt resigned last week.

Tennessee coal-ash spill workers file new lawsuit as EPA seeks to kill rules that could have prevented the spill

In the wake of a Knoxville News Sentinel series probing the treatment of cleanup workers at the nation's largest coal-ash spill, at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant, more stories of dead and dying workers have come to light. Some workers and their surviving families filed a federal lawsuit in 2014, but since the News Sentinel's series, more workers have come forward and filed a second lawsuit, this one in state court, against Jacobs Engineering, which TVA hired to clean up more than a billion gallons of coal ash and slurry that escaped from the plant in December 2008.

The Kingston disaster spurred the Obama administration to issue regulations that the Trump administration is seeking to roll back, Sue Sturgis notes for Facing South in reporting the lawsuit and recounting the Gannett Co. newspaper's reporting.

The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed changes would affect how ash from more than 400 coal-fired power plants is stored and allow states to alter how frequently they would test for groundwater contamination. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said the changes would save companies between $32 million and $100 million annually, Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin report for The Washington Post.