I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed two possible approaches to regulating coal ash yesterday, with one being much more restrictive than the other. Only under one of the options would coal ash be treated as hazardous waste. The issue of coal ash disposal moved front and center for many when a large pond ruptured in 2008 at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant, flooding 300 acres with toxic sludge. Coal ash is filled with toxic chemicals, like arsenic, lead and mercury.
One of the EPA proposals would consider coal ash, which is the by-product of coal combustion, as hazardous waste and prohibit the disposal of it in water-filled ponds, called surface impoundments. Dry ash landfills would have to have liners.
The other proposal treats the substance as non-hazardous waste, allowing the wet ponds but requiring liners. The New York Times described this second proposal as similar to the regulation of household garbage. The regulations would not be enforced by the EPA, but citizens could file lawsuits to compel companies to comply with the regulations.
The EPA will make a decision on which proposal to implement after a 90-day comment period. Environmental groups in a joint statement said the move to regulate coal ash was a step forward, with one advocate comparing the Kingston disaster to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and cautioned against treating coal ash as non-hazardous waste.
“This is certainly a win of sorts, in that the EPA is finally making strides to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste,” said Trip Van Noppen, executive director for Earthjustice. “Their inclusion of an option to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste is an important first step. The next important step will be to maintain this position in the face of inevitably misguided claims by polluters that the sky will fall under this new regulatory environment.”
“The unregulated dumping of coal ash has already contaminated groundwater, creeks and wetlands at more than 100 sites across the U.S. with arsenic and other heavy metals,” said Eric Schaeffer, executive director for Environmental Integrity Project. “… EPA’s proposal finally acknowledges these risks, and we look forward to a final rule with federally enforceable standards to protect the public from the hazards of coal ash.”
“We learned in Kingston, as we recently learned in the Gulf, that catastrophic failures associated with dirty carbon happen with tragic results,” said Scott Slesinger, legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We are disappointed that the rule brings forward two dramatically different regulatory options. One option, which we believe is critical to protect public health and the environment, has federally enforceable standards for hazardous waste like those the rest of American industry follows in disposing of its hazardous waste. The other option treats this hazardous waste as if it were not loaded with high levels of arsenic and other toxic metals.”
“As the Tennessee Kingston coal ash spill made abundantly clear, the current handling of toxic coal ash is unsafe and unacceptable,” said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune.
“Lack of regulation in the Southeast has already caused known harm. From the enormous spill in Tennessee to contamination from coal waste ponds in North Carolina, the need for more comprehensive regulation is clear,” said Jeff Gleason, deputy director of Southern Environmental Law Center.
