Window closing to weigh in on weakening of federal coal ash regs

Today marks the end of the opportunity to weigh in on federal efforts to rollback community protections from coal ash pollution. Comments are being accepted https://www.southernenvironment.org/ccr-comments through midnight.

SELC, along with a long list of partners, submitted comments on EPA’s proposal urging the agency to uphold its duty to protect clean water from coal ash pollution.

As officials at the Environmental Protection Agency seek input on their industry-driven proposal, Senior Attorney Frank Holleman attended the one public comment session held for public input on the proposal.

Here we are today,” Holleman testified, “instead of fighting pollution, having to fight the political leadership of what is supposed to be the our Environmental Protection Agency and their efforts to eliminate protections for clean water and communities in order to benefit objectives of the coal ash utilities’ lobbyists and trade associations.

The EPA proposal in question would weaken coal ash protection and take rights away from citizens and give them to state agencies, which have not protected clean water from coal ash pollution. In numerous cases, including the Dan River spill in North Carolina and the massive Kingston disaster in Tennessee, state agencies were shown to be ineffective watchdogs.

The entire reason we have a national coal ash rule is that the state agencies failed to protect us from disasters like TVA’s Kingston spill and Duke Energy’s Dan River disaster,” said Holleman.

EPA is welcoming comments on their proposal through Tuesday, May 1. For more information, and to submit your own, visit southernenvironment.org/ccr-comments.

Read PoliticoPro’s coverage of the issue here (subscription site).