EPA proposes national safeguards on coal ash

The announcement came in May 2010 after months of delay and misleading statements by the power and coal industries and nearly 18 months after a billion gallons of toxic coal ash burst through a dam near a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in Kingston, Tenn.
EPA proposed two options to regulate coal ash: a plan to classify coal ash as hazardous waste and another to regulate it as non-hazardous. The difference between the two is stark, and environmental groups are hopeful that the agency will make the right decision and finalize strong, federally enforceable coal ash safeguards that use the strongest limits of the law to protect the communities living near coal ash sites. Read the press release