Coal Waste Spill

Waste spills in Tennessee and Alabama

The catastrophic waste spill at the Kingston Tennessee Valley Authority plant in Tennessee and a second spill in Alabama underscored the urgent need for regulation of large quantities of solid and liquid waste generated by coal-fired power plants. For decades, the waste—known as coal combustion waste and containing several toxic materials—has spewed from coal-fired power plants and been stored without adequate regulation.

Waste Ponds and Landfills

Often mixed with water and disposed of in surface ponds or landfills, coal combustion waste contains a variety of toxic chemicals and metals including arsenic, lead, and cadmium. An EPA report found that unlined coal combustion waste ponds pose a cancer risk 900 times above what the government considers “acceptable.”

Lack of National Regulation

Despite clear evidence showing that coal combustion waste poses serious and extensive hazards to people’s health and the environment, the EPA has not regulated it as hazardous waste.  In fact, the EPA has failed to set nationally applicable regulations for the disposal of coal combustion waste, resulting in an insufficient and inconsistent patchwork of lax and ineffective state regulations. In the Southeast, for example, there are at least 46 unlined coal disposal units, inadequately regulated by state or federal law.

Calling for National Safeguards

The EPA should establish national safeguards for the disposal of coal combustion wastes through enforceable regulations.  Once established by the EPA, states must then follow with regulations at least as stringent, if not more stringent than the federal regulations.  In a brief report, SELC has outlined the minimum safeguards necessary to protect the environment and public health and safety from coal waste.