Dirty Coal: Time To Kick Ash!

After the avoidable coal ash spill buried Harriman, Tennessee, Grist reports that the new EPA Administrator will begin the task of regulating DIRTY COAL ASH.

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Take a look at the TVA Board.

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Included in Environmental Terrorism, are the MASSACHUSETTS DIRTY COAL PLANTS listed below. I guess we can't believe we're exempt from having a comparable COAL ASH accident with this much ash hanging around.

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BRAYTON POINT 190,000,000 POUNDS

SOMERSET 60,100,000 POUNDS

SALEM HARBOR 140,800,00 POUNDS

WEST SPRINGFIELD 40,000,000 POUNDS

MOUNT TOM 75,200,000 POUNDS


Ash and ye shall receive
Coal-ash impoundments like the Kingston pond are not currently subject to federal regulation, and oversight rules vary by state [with 23 states unable to have regulations that are more strict than federal regulations]. The agency's regulatory plan begins by gathering information on the structural integrity of coal-ash impoundments from electrical utilities, and conducting on-site assessments of the impoundments. These are intended to locate the impoundments that require cleanup and repairs, and the information requests are "legally enforceable and must be responded to fully," according to the EPA. Administrator Lisa Jackson issued a letter to containment facilities and the corporations responsible for them directing them to provide the agency with specific information about the structure and safety of impoundments.
"The agency will require appropriate remedial action at any facility that is found to pose a risk for potential failure," according to the agency's press release on the plan. After the initial assessments, the EPA said it intends to develop new regulations for future safety of the estimated 300 impoundments around the country.

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Watching your waste
Congress takes a step toward regulating coal waste, but what about the EPA?
A bill aimed at reining in mountaintop-removal coal mining has been reintroduced in the House. The Clean Water Protection Act, sponsored by Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), and John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), would outlaw the dumping of mining waste into streams, which would make it significantly more difficult for mining companies to blast off the tops of mountains.

The legislation, which was first introduced in 2007, now has 117 cosponsors. It would reverse regulatory changes by the Bush administration that made it legal for mining companies to dump waste in waterways. Since those changes were made in 2002, 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been buried by massive amounts of mine waste from mountaintop removal in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

"The dangerous precedent set by the Bush administration's rule change undermines the Clean Water Act," said Pallone in announcing the bill.